Exploring Value and The Subtractive Color Theory

Color Wheel

Value Scale

1. Discuss what you thought about creating the Value Scale and Color Wheel.

Well the one thing I was really thinking was, as someone who is not even slightly an artist or have any experience in art, the thought of creating anything, even something as small as this, comes with the worry that I'll inadvertently mess it up. But it actually wasn't awful. 

2. Which media did you enjoy working with the best and why?

I enjoyed the color wheel mainly just because the colors are prettier, and the paint was more fun with work with and mix than just coloring with a pencil. 

3. What was the most important discovery in the creation of these studies?

I don't know if it's a discovery, but I didn't know that cyan, yellow, and magenta were primary colors. I thought red, blue, and yellow were the primary colors. So that was interesting to learn! 

4. What is the most important information you learned from watching the videos for this project? What is your opinion of the videos?

I found the videos were pretty interesting. I liked the color video best, as the value video was kind of boring since it was all just the shading of one color. Plus as mentioned the color video taught me about the true primary colors which was something I was not aware of. Overall they were pretty informative and very apropos for the pieces we needed to create. 

Elements and Principles Slideshow Reflection

For this project we had to look through the different elements and principles of artwork, take photos, and create a slideshow. The elements and principles are as followed:

The Elements:

• Line is the most basic building block of formal analysis. Line can be used to create more complex shapes or to lead your eye from one area in the composition to another.
• Value is the degree of light and dark in a design. It is the contrast between black and white and all the tones in between. Value can be used with color as well as black and white. Contrast is the extreme changes between values.
• Shapes are created when lines are combined to form a square, triangle, or circle. Shapes can be organic (irregular shapes found in nature) or geometric (shapes with strong lines and angles such as circles, triangles, and squares).
• Forms are three-dimensional shapes with length, width, and depth. Balls, cylinders, boxes and pyramids are forms.
• Space is the area between and around objects. Increasing or decreasing the amount of space around an object affects the way we view that object.
• Color differentiates and defines lines, shapes, forms, and space. Even black and white images have a huge number of different shades of gray.
• Texture is the surface quality that can be seen and felt. Textures can be rough or smooth, soft or hard. Textures are often implied. For instance, a drawing of a rock might appear to have a rough and hard surface, but in reality is as smooth as the paper on which it is drawn.

The Principles 

• Balance is created in a work of art when textures, colors, forms, or shapes are combined harmoniously. In this image, notice how the photographer achieves a sense of balance by dividing the image into two sections: one half occupied by trees, and the other half by the water.
• Contrast is the use of several elements of design to hold the viewer's attention and to guide the viewer's eye through the artwork. In this image, the texture of the trees contrasts with the texture of the water.
• Movement is the way a viewer's eye is directed to move through a composition, often to areas of emphasis. Movement can be directed by lines, contrasting shapes, or colors within the artwork. In this work of art, our eye moves up through the pattern in the rippling surface of the water to the two paddlers. From there, our eye moves to the contrasting textures and colors of the foliage in the top half of the image.
• Emphasis is created in a work of art when the artist contrasts colors, textures, or shapes to direct your viewing towards a particular part of the image. In this image, the colors of the paddlers' jackets contrasts with the muted tones of the background. Our attention is immediately drawn to the paddlers, even though they are relatively small in scale.
• Pattern is the repetition of a shape, form, or texture across a work of art. The light reflecting off of the waves in the water creates a pattern in the bottom half of the image.
• Proportion is created when the sizes of elements in a work of art are combined harmoniously. In this image, all of the proportions appear exactly as one would expect; the human figures are much smaller in scale than the natural world that surrounds them.
• Unity is created when the principles of analysis are present in a composition and in harmony. Some images have a complete sense of unity, while some artists deliberately avoid formal unity to create feelings of tension and anxiety. In this image, the large areas of contrasting textures, patterns and colors create a sense of balance and unity within the composition.

Using this knowledge, we then had to take photos to represent each element and principle. I myself took about half the photos today and found the other half from my pool of photos from my travels over the past year (Maine, Disney World, all around Western New York, etc) for I felt some of the photos I had already encompassed the elements and principles more than a photo I could take today. It was really interesting studying different places and different photos and deciding what fit which element/principle - it was rather surprising and funny to see how these values are all over the place.

Color and Emotions

1. Describe Color and it's effects on emotions. Use the appropriate vocabulary of color in your posting.

Color at it's most basic is not a thing, but light. Different objects we see aren't what we're actually seeing, what we're seeing is light. White light is a combination of all colors, and when lights hits a surface some colors are absorbed and some are reflected into our eyes. Color isn't just that though, it also has a great effect on emotions. For example, blue has a calming effect on people, while red is a color associated with passion.

2. What is a theoretical aspect of color that most intrigues/fascinates you? Why?

One thing that really sticks out for me is what was discussed in the text book about how certain colors have different associations in different cultures. For example, red and green in western culture have a strong association with Christmas, but in the Van Gogh painting  'The Night Cafe' the colors red and green are used to convey a very tense and almost violent situation - the polar opposite of the cheery feelings of Christmas. There was also the comparison that blue in English world is associated with sadness and in Indian culture it's associated with stability.

3. In the Color video, what made the biggest impact on you in regards to color and it's effects on emotions?
The thing that stood out for me in this video was how hard artists really have to focus on their coloring to get their artwork just right. There's frustration and even anger. As someone who's not an artist, I never really thought much about how color could really end up being the most important aspect of a piece of art. You need to get the color just right - I never really thought about how color would effect the way the viewer feels and that artists use specific colors to elicit a specific reaction.

4. In the Feelings video, what made the biggest impact on you in regards to color and it's effects on emotions?

The thing that stood out most for me in this video was how much art and color has an effect on religion, seeing all those religious works of art was interesting. Art, particularly in the Renaissance, was a major part of religion. Art was a way to present their religious stories and morals. This art, even today, helps for people to identify and connect with the religion and it's messages. And in turn, color was and is a major part of all of this. It's interesting to think about how much art and color have had such an effect on such a gigantic part of culture.

Aesthetics

1. For each video and article list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

For the Philosophy of the Arts video, I really enjoyed how much I learned since I had never really thought that hard about the word ‘aesthetics’ and yet it brought out so much information and interesting history I had never been privy to. It’s odd to see so many different yet similar points of view from so many philosophers I’ve known – some I’d only known in name and not their experience, so it was very interesting to hear different specifics from them. One philosopher I did not discuss in any of my discussion posts was Baumgarten, who had the idea I found intriguing that art and beauty belong in a middle group between sensitivity and reason, that art leads us from the darkness of merely sensible to rational understanding. Another thing about him I enjoyed was that he was the one who actually coined the term aesthetics. For the CNN Article, I found Ramachandran’s “peak shift principle” incredibly interesting. The idea that animals attracted to a particular shape will be even more attracted to an exaggerated version of that form was both interesting and amusing. It really works when you relate it to the study of art from different point of views. He stated, “I think you’re seeing the same thing with all kinds of abstract art. It looks distorted to the eye, but pleasing to the emotional center to the brain.” For the CARTA video, was far more scientific and probably my least favorite of these information sources. The two speakers discussed the development of the brain and it’s relation to the perception of art/aesthetics. It was interesting to hear them discuss different reason why some people find the things they do aesthetically pleasing.

2. Which philosopher's theory on aesthetics do you feel is most important? Be sure to mention the philosophers name, era (time in history), and contribution to the aesthetic theory in your response.

Immanuel Kant of the 18^th century put forth what I think is the most important view on aesthetics – that all judgments of beauty are not bound by certain rules but is completely subjective. There was no exact science on what is beautiful, but rather it’s based on feeling. He also stated that artists are not skilled craftsman but sensitive and superior individuals – I do not think I would phrase it particularly like that, but I do agree with the notice that through genius nature shows her true face, “through the genius, nature set rules to art.” Also, one of the most important points I felt was that there is almost nothing you can’t treat/see as beautiful, even if it is traditionally something ‘ugly’. All things have beauty, it’s just a matter of who views it as beautiful.

3. What do you think about Changeux and Ramachandran scientific view of aesthetics and art? What was the most interesting fact you discovered from each speakers lecture?

As far as Changeux’s lecture, it was hard to gleam much from it as his accent made him very hard to understand. But from what I understood, I found him to be very scientific about everything he had to say, his lecture focused mostly on brain functions and perception. I honestly found it hard to focus on his lecture, he was a horrific public speaker, and as mentioned his accent did not help. Ramachandran was a much better public speaker and was much more interesting to watch, perhaps because I could understand him much more clearly. I enjoyed his eight laws of art the most, number two of which was what I mentioned before the “peak shift principal”.

4. How do the videos and article relate to the readings in the text?

Both the text and the various media presented besides that all discussed the same basic ideas about art and the perception of beauty and such. Different points of view are discussed in the text as well as the videos, and the idea of aesthetics was really very thoroughly discussed in all media types.

5. What is your opinion of the films and article? How do they add depth to understanding of the topics in your reading in the text?

I think the videos and article were an excellent addition to build off of the readings done in the text book. It helped add different viewpoints and different ideas that hadn’t been thoroughly discussed or looked into in one of the sources or another.  

Introductory Post!

1. How was the process of creating the GMail account and setting up the Blog?: Both of those first steps were incredibly easy for me as I'm just using the gmail account I set up last semester for a different online class - and for that same class we used blogger so it took me all of 2 minutes to set up this blog. 

2. What do you expect to learn in this course?: I'm coming into this course with virtually no expectations! I'm hoping to learn more about visual art, specific artists' styles, and different historical information on the subject. 

3. How do you feel about taking an online course?: Perfectly fine! I've taken several and usually the issue is with the professor having trouble with the site but for this course the professor seems very adept so I have a feeling this will go just fine.