Color and Space

 

        This week we learned about what color is and about the perception of space. In Chapter 1 of Color Studies, we learned about the physiology of color and how our eyes perceive it, how light gives objects color, and how different light sources cause the color of an object to change. We also learned the difference between local, optical, and arbitrary color. Local color reproduces the effect of colors as seen in white daylight, exactly as we expect them to be; optical color reproduces hues as seen in lighting conditions other than white daylight; and arbitrary color allows the artist to impose his or her feelings and interpretation of color onto the image. 

        Chapter 2 of Color Studies talked about color systems and different types of color. For color systems, there are subtractive, additive, and partitive colors. Subtractive color is the process of mixing pigments together; additive color is the process of mixing colored light, such as in theatrical lighting or television; and partitive color is based on the viewer's reaction to colors when they are placed next to one another. There are three main groups of colors: primary, secondary, and tertiary. The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue, and when two of them are mixed together, they create a secondary color. Likewise, when you mix a primary color with a secondary color, you create a tertiary color. 

        Chapter 3 of Color Studies covered different color theorists, including Leonardo Da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, Moses Harris, and Josef Albers, who once said, "The aim of our studies is to prove that color is the most relative means of artistic expression, that we never really perceive what color is physically." 

        In Chapter 3 of Sketching Interiors, we learned about the perception of space, specifically positive and negative space. Positive space is the space occupied by a form or forms, and negative space includes all the empty areas surrounding the form or forms. For our sketching assignment, we were required to draw a chair in positive and negative space. The process of sketching the chair was to draw only the edges that touch empty space with no lines within the form, then to fill in the negative spaces in and around the chair. 

        This week, we also began the process for our Visual Wallpaper project. To start, I went and found a print from Albrecht Durer. I looked for one that had a lot of different patterns and textures and decided on the one below:

        I then looked for an area within the image that contained a few of the different patterns and textures to zoom in on. I chose the image below, which comes from the upper middle left side of the original picture: