Color Relationships 2, 2015 week 2

The second session of the Color Relationships class for Winter 2015 was held on Friday, January 16. We critiqued the solutions to the film illusion assignment (Create the illusion of a colored film over two or more colors), and had an introduction to veils. The new homework assignment is to create the illusion of one or more veils over a set of two or more colors, incorporating an actual veil (a piece of tracing paper or the like) into the study. Films and veils are two visual phenomena that help to unify and create emotion in a piece, intriguing the viewer and inviting their participation.

Color Relationships 2, 2015 week 1

The first session of the Winter 2015 Color Relationships class was held on Friday, January 9. This series of lessons will address the visual phenomena of films, veils, volume color, white light, and colored light. We will explore how we perceive these phenomena, and what strategies we must develop in order to recreate them in our media. We reviewed concepts of arrays and halation that were fundamental to Color Relationships 1, held in the fall of 2014. Then the class was challenged to create an illusion of a black film, using only swatches of opaque gray. The solution was given and discussed, and a new challenge assigned for homework: Create the illusion of a colored film over two or more colors.

Color Relationships 1, 2014 week 5

The fifth session of the Color Relationships class for Fall 2014 was held on Friday, November 7. We tried to find Color-Aid swatches of equal value; discussed real-world observations of luminosity through equal value in an autumn forest scene with Kit Gentry; critiqued the warm-cool color transposition exercises and free color studies; and had a demonstration of creating luminosity in watercolors. This was the final session of the course so there was no new homework assignment. A six-week follow-on class will be offered beginning in January, covering the visual phenomena of films, veils, volume color, white light, and colored light.

Color Relationships 1, 2014 week 4

The fourth session of the Color Relationships class for Fall 2014 was held on Friday, October 31. We critiqued the third color deception assignment, making four colors appear as three. Gabe Mott visited and gave a preview of his Huedoku app, a game based on color matrices as developed by Dick. We practiced recognizing when two hues are of equal value, and saw examples of a special case, vanishing boundaries, which the Impressionists exploited to give their paintings striking luminosity. The new assignment is to transpose a set of four warm colors to a set of cool colors of equal value, in a specific format developed by Josef Albers.

Color Relationships 1, 2014 week 3

The third session of the Color Relationships class for Fall 2014 was held on Friday, October 24. We critiqued the second color deception assignment, “make three colors appear as two, or reversed grounds” and free color studies, as well as revisions of the first color deception exercise, “make one color appear as two”. The third color deception exercise was assigned: make four colors appear as three, showing how two colors can appear to be the same, yet are very different, in a unique format. An exercise with Color-Aid paper gave practice in recognizing arrays and the phenomenon of halation.

Color Relationships 1, 2014 week 2

The second session of the Color Relationships class for Fall 2014 was held on Friday, October 17. We critiqued the homework studies for making one color appear as two. We experimented with matching an arbitrary color by combining transparent primaries in the Trihue demo on this site. The new color deception assignment for this week is to make three colors appear as two, or reversed grounds, and a free color study was also assigned. Links to Illustrator tutorials and references are provided.

Color Relationships 1, 2014 week 1

The first session of the Color Relationships class for Fall 2014 was held on Friday, October 10. Through hands-on exercises, discussion, video, presentation, and worksheets, eleven students experienced the relativity of color and received their first assignment: make one color appear as two. Read the full post for details and class materials.