Week Three

Review and Moving FromAchromatic to Monochromatic

Some Pioneers of Color Theory: Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Michel Eugene Chevereul (1786-1889)French Chemist, Colorist,

supervisor of dye production carpet plant.Book: The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors 1839

Chevreul was also influential in the world of art. After being named director of the dye works at the Gobelins Manufactory in Paris, he received many complaints about the dyes being used there. In particular, the blacks appeared different when used next to blues. He determined that the yarn's perceived color was influenced by other surrounding yarns. This led to a concept known as simultaneous contrast.Chevreul's work addressed painting with the aim of reproducing nature as closely as possible, by separating effects of light and chiaroscuro, which the artist must repeat, from those of color contrast, which would apply to the paint's own color and so be exaggerated. Yet the color principle subsequently had a great influence on advanced art in Europe, particularly Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism and Orphism

The Development of the Idea of Simultaneous Contrast

• Simultaneous Contrast: the way in which two different colors affect each other, how one color can change how we perceive the tone and hue of another when placed side by side. The colors themselves don't change, but we see them as altered.

On the left, an example of Orphism: Kathedrala by Frantisek Kupka (1912-3). On the right,Post-Impressionism: Paul Serusier, The Talisman, 1888

Paul Gauguin

Chevreul is also linked to what is sometimes called Chevreul's illusion, the bright edges that seem to exist between adjacent strips of identical colors having different intensities. See Chevreul's The Laws of Contrast of Colour for more information.[2]

Simultaneous Contrast Principle 1: LIGHT/DARK VALUE CONTRAST

You should have Simultaneous Contrast Principle 1 saved in your file (simultneous value contrast).

Save this on a thumbdrive and print on a decent printer. It will go in your portfolio. Today we will make two more simultaneous contrasts, usingthe Color-Aid Papers.

But back to our review,more pioneers of color: Johannes Itten.Instituted color theory classes at the Bauhaus and formulated first student exercises.

http://www.worqx.com/color/itten.htm

Joseph Albers( w/ Annie Albers )

1888-1976

Josef Albers timeline

• 1920’s – 1930 Lead Bauhaus school, Weimar, Germany• 1933 Headed Black Mt. College, North Carolina• 1950 Chairman of Yale University• 1963 Published “Interaction of Color”• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpTr_BDVjFI

Vocabulary

• Hue Name of a particular color zone, defined by different wavelengths of light. Examples of hue: blue, green, yellow and red. Hue can encompass a range of colors within the wavelength area.

• Tip: think of hue as a color zone rather than a color. Hue is bigger than individual color

• In painting, hue is often used in conjunction with terms such as: tint, shade and tone.

• A tint is created when a color is mixed with white.• A shade is created when a color is mixed with black.• A tone is created when a color is mixed with gray.

Hue, Tint, Shade

New VocabularyThree easily confused properties:

Chroma ValueSaturation

CHROMA – The property of a color that tells us how pure a hue is. A HIGH CHROMA HUE will have little or no black, white or grey in the hue. High chroma Hues are bright and vivid.

Pure Hue = High Chroma

Find the Pure Hues With High Chroma, least amounts of white or black.

Low Chroma colors appear muddy or pastel.

ValueValue is what we know as the degree of Light or Dark. Value is present in black and white but also in color.

Buttercup yellow has a lower (whiter) value than navy blue.

This value scale may help you with your achromatic and monochromatic reproductions.

SaturationSaturation is not really a matter of light and dark, but rather how pale or strong a color appears. The saturation of a color is not constant, but it varies depending on the surroundings and what light the color is seen in.

Great painting exercises. Wait for a sunny day and paint a brightly colored ball in the early morning, noontime and evening. Or paint the color of a wall lit by candlelight, lit with a normal light fixture and then with the light fixture and full sun (open the curtains). Observe different degrees of saturation.

Anish Kapoor

More Kapoor

Christina West

Yves Klein

Yves Klein

Now for our second Simultaneous Contrast Exercise…

Principle 2:SUBTRACTION:

A strong or dominant color will subtract itself from a smaller or less dominant color

For Example: in the next slide, the small Blue square sitting on the large Dark Blue ground appears lighter, because the Blue hue subtracts itself, in other words, becomes absorbed by the dominant Dark Blue ground. This makes the small Blue square appear lighter.

Simultaneous Contrast, Principle 2Subtraction

• Choose one hue from your Color-aid papers• Cut the pure hue into two 1 inch squares, using a ruler.• Mount (glue these squares) on two larger squares, 3” x3”, one the

darkest shade and one the lightest tint.• Then paste the joined squares paper inserts in your portfolio. Be

neat.• Type labels for this and our and Simultaneous Contrast, Principle

1 (Value). Labels should read: Simultaneous Contrast, Principle 1 (Value Shift) and Simultaneous Contrasts, Principle 2 (Subtraction). Following the title, you should write a brief explanation of the phenomena observed. Print these labels (with title and explanation)from your thumbdrive and place in your portfolio next to the appropriate exercise.

Now we will move on to…Principle 3:

Assimilation:The Bezold Effect

A Design in Which the Total Effect of the Perceived Hues are Altered by the Change of ONE Dominant Hue.

The subordinate hues take on (assimilates) the characteristics of the dominant hue.

Named after Wilhem von Bezold, a meterologist who discovered that colors could appear to change based on their relation to a dominant color.

Simple Bezold Effect

Third Portfolio AssignmentBezold EffectUsing Color-Aid Papers or Photoshop.Let’s do it now! Plan your design and draw it out on a 3”x6” piece of Bristol. Then paste in appropriate colors.Proper labeling:Title: Simultaneous Contrast Principle 3: Assimilation (Bezold Effect). Explanation: In your own words explain the phenomena.

Monochromatic Compositions

Guy Goodwin’s Tracers—Side Order 1999Resin, polyurthane, ink on polycarbonate, 51 x 54 x 4”

Materials: dimensions variable, 100 fluorescent lights, filters, clothespins. This work re-creates the effect of a passing cloud in Emily Dickinson’s back yard in Amherst,

Massachusetts, based on an August afternoon. The bank of three types of fluorescents generates a simulation of the daylight, and the hanging filters of the “cloud” shift the color and

intensity of the sunlight to replicate the shadow cast by a cloud.

Monochromatic Scale

Adding Tints and Shades to an individual HUE

mono = onechroma = color

Study For A Groovy Unnamable Color, (Yellowish-Orange), 1997 22”x30” Spencer Finch

Preparing for Your Monochromatic Collage. (Talk to me if you REALLY want to do this as a painting).

• 1. You have your masterwork chosen.• 2. Now, choose a hue from your Color-Aid papers. Choose

one which will create an evocative mood when it is used to reproduce your masterwork as a monochromatic collage. Separate the chosen hue and all its tints and shades from the other papers.

• Decide on the scale of your reproduction and print it in black and white (Photoshop) at appropriate scale. Choose a scale that will keep you from running out of paper. If you run out of a tint, shade, hue, see me or trade with a fellow student. Decide what shapes will make up the collage. All squares? Circles? (hole punch), triangles? Different shapes?

Homework!!!

• First, finish achromatic painting• Second, make monochromatic collage.• Third, one more “free choice” assignment in

sketchbook. I recommend either a painted monochromatic value scale or exploring color saturation by painting objects in different light, different times of the day, but if there’s something else that you would like to do… go ahead!