Color Relationships Class 2013

Course description

This intensive color course is based on and extends Josef Albers’ “Interaction of Color” graduate course at Yale. Highly-structured, hands-on color studies are assigned each week, and almost half of the class time is devoted to critique. Students can expect to spend at least equal time outside of class on each assignment. The eleven-week course met once a week for 3 hours in the fall of 2013. (See class announcement for more details).

This homework was assigned to be completed before the first class, so all students would have a common understanding of fundamental concepts and terminology.

Lesson topics, assignments, and summaries by week

  1. Introduction & Color Deception Assignment #1: Make one color = two.
    Sample critique for making one color = two
  2. Color Deception Assignment #2: Make 3 colors = 2 or reverse ground.
  3. Color Deception Assignment #3: Make 4 colors = 3.
  4. Visual Phenomena Lesson #4: Create the illusion of a false and true film.
  5. Visual Phenomena Lesson #5: Create the illusion of a veil.
  6. Visual Phenomena Lesson #6: Volume color.
  7. Visual Phenomena Lesson #7: Create the illusion of a white light.
  8. Visual Phenomena Lesson #8. Create the illusion of a colored light.
  9. Lesson #9: Color transposition.
  10. Lesson #10: Creative problem-solving framework and artistic “fence posts”.
  11. Exploitation: Final projects.

Key concepts

  1. Hue, value, and saturation are the essential characteristics of color
  2. Color terminology: tint, tone, shade, chroma, primary, secondary, complement
  3. Primary colors of pigment and light
  4. Recognizing the primary components of any color
  5. Arrays organize colors into relationships
  6. Halation is a visual phenomenon observable in arrays
  7. Color deception: fooling the eye and exploring the relativity of color
  8. Films darken everything below them (shadows)
  9. Veils lighten everything below them
  10. Components of linear perspective
  11. Behavior of atmospheric perspective / volume color
  12. Light and shadow unify because they affect everything in the scene
  13. Colored light and shadow unify because they affect everything in the scene
  14. The magic and appeal of Impressionist paintings comes from luminosity
  15. Luminosity can be created via halation (ex: volume color “mist” in the valleys)
  16. Luminosity can be created via vanishing boundaries: colors of equal value and similar in hue sitting next to each other
  17. Critique
  18. Checklists
  19. Artistic decisions / fence posts
  20. 6 phases of creative problem solving
  21. Why use any of these? Be an illusionist, create magic, be realistic, be believable, create harmony and unity in a work

2013 class pages

Tuesday
Saturday