writing
coco666
Lecture5.pdf
A male diving beetle, digital image created by laser scanning confocal microscope by Igor Siwanowicz
A refresher on details of lecture/section
***You are expected to read your emails and keep up with Gauchospace.***
Lecture: Mondays at 5-6:50pm
Sections: Marisa : W F 11:00-12:50
Alex : T R 11:00-12:50 Dani : T R 1:00- 2:50
How We See Color Color Theory Basics
(next week: how color is used)
The most technically accurate definition of color is: "Color is the visual effect that is caused by the spectral
composition of the light emitted, transmitted, or reflected by objects.”
BUT
There is no such thing as perfect color or pure color. Color perception, theories and use of color are all somewhat subjective.
Electromagnetic Spectrum
reflected light
refracted light
1. All the" invisible" colors of sunlight shine on the apple.
2. The surface of a red apple absorbs all the colored light rays, except for those corresponding to red, and reflects this color to the human eye.
3. The eye receives the reflected red light and sends a message to the
brain.
Reflected Light
Refracted Light Slowing or speeding up of light as it travels from one medium to the next is the
primary cause of refraction; for example, when you look at the surface of water, the light you see is actually bent (refracted) from a point where it physically isn't
George Seurat, Parade de cirque, 1887/8, oil 100x150 cm, and detail
The 3 Visual Properties of Color
1. Hue 2. Saturation 3. Value
Hue spectral color name
orange =
hue shift
Saturation (also called intensity)
brightness or dullness, a color’s relative freedom from gray
saturation shift
Tint - achieved through adding white Shade - achieved through adding black Tone - achieved through adding grey
Value lightness or darkness;
a color’s relative lightness and darkness
Wide value range
Lucian Freud, Reflection, 1985
Narrow value range
Claude Monet, Impression Sunrise, 1872
there are 2 main color models:
Additive Color (consists of light) &
Subtractive Color (consists of pigment)
primary colors cannot be mixed from or formed by combining any other colors
Color models each have their own Primary Colors
Additive Color Primaries: RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
Subtractive Color Primaries: for paint=
RYB (Red, Yellow, Blue) for print=
CMYK (Cyan Magenta, Yellow, Black)
Additive Color Light
Additive Color - color as the direct product of light
Additive Color Primaries: RGB (Red, Green, Blue)
Color and Light
James Turrell, 1980-86, NY PS1 Installation, Meeting (view with daylight & twilight)
Color in the Digital Environment
is sometimes additive, sometimes subtractive; screens & capture devices are additive,
output/printing devices usually subtractive
Color in Photography Is sometimes additive, sometimes subtractive, sometimes both. Emulsion based film responds to light, but is processed using chemicals and paper with subtractive filters that alter the light.
Capture devices (digital cameras, etc.) respond to light, output/printing devices may display on screen (additive), or be printed (subtractive).
Subtractive Color Pigment
Subtractive color is perceived as a result of pigment. This is the color model for paint pigments and there is also a sub-set of printing ink pigment
within the Subtractive Color Model
Subtractive Color has two sub-sets
Subtractive Color
1. Paint (primaries-ryb) 2. Print (primaries-cmyk)
printing inks are often translucent...
Subtractive Color - Print primaries- CMYK
(Cyan Magenta, Yellow, Black)
...and when traditionally printed as 4-color halftones, such as in magazines and books, the ‘dots’ of color overlap, appearing
as full color
Subtractive Color - Paint primaries- RYB
(Red, Yellow, Blue)
1. Piet Mondrian, Composition, 1921, painting
Roy Lichtenstein, In the Car, 1963, oil on canvas
Subtractive Color Pigment
(paint) Secondaries
Secondary Colors: are the result of mixing 2 primaries together
Paul Cezanne, Montagnes, l’Estaque, 1878-80, oil 53x72cm
Stenberg Bros., The Man From the Forest, 1928, offset film poster 42x28”
Kevin Appel, Untitled Interior #5, 1995, oil 64x58”
Tertiaries: everything else
Complementary Colors
opposites react
Complementary Color: Directly opposite on the color wheel, and are of
extreme contrast. Red absorbs mostly green, etc. Causes visual vibration.
Mark Rothko, oil on canvas, c. 1950
Masami Teraoka, Aids Series: Geisha and Fox, 1988, watercolor, 15x25
Laylah Ali, Comfort with Rage, 2018, 11 x 17 in, Screen Print
Vincent Van Gogh, The Night Cafe, 1888, 39x92cm
Simultaneous Contrast: When 2 colors come into direct contact, the contrast intensifies the difference between
them.
Color Temperature
Warm & Cool
warmer
warmer cooler
cooler
Monochrome = one hue
Yan Pei-Ming, Mao au Balcon de Tienanmen, 2000, oil on canvas, 98.5”x98.5”
Connie Samaras, Angelic Sequences - Event Sequences, 1998-2003 Sahara, Las Vegas, 2003
archival inkjet print from film 40 x 50" image size w/4-inch border, edition of 5
Noah Davis, Pueblo del Rio: Conductor (2014), oil on canvas, 69 x 76 in
Anna Atkins, from Ocean Flowers, 1843, cyanotype from seaweed
Analogous Colors
colors with a connection
closely related hues - by position on the spectrum (& color wheel)
Lisa Yuskavage, Little Farm, 2012, oil on linen
Triad A triadic color scheme uses colors that are
evenly spaced around the color wheel.
Gold
Buoninsegna, 1315, egg tempera on poplar
Andy Warhol, Lady on a Rooster, 1957, gold foil, water color, ink 25x19”
Andy Warhol, Oxidation Painting, 1978, mixed media (urine) on copper paint on canvas 72x204”
Jim Hodges, and still this, 2008, real gold leaf with Beva on gessoed linen, 10 parts, 200”x185’x89” ea
Florescent and Day-Glo
Komar and Melamid, America’s Most Wanted Painting, 1994
Komar and Melamid, America’s Most Unwanted Painting, 1994
Why do you think the colors orange and black are used for Halloween?
Color & Culture
Baker-Miller Pink
Anish Kapoor, Stuart Semple, and the question of who owns color
Project 5: Current Event / Political Protest Painting/Poster (30 points)
Create a painting/poster that reflects on current events or a political issue of any time period. First, decide on your subject. Then, decide on a color scheme for your painting, thinking about how the scheme might set the
mood/tone of the image.
Remember - POLITICS doesn’t have to mean Democrats/Republicans, the election etc. This is about what YOU believe in, your point of view, your
culture, your voice.
It can be digital, painted (gouache or acrylic), printed (printing blocks and ink), in any scale/size you choose, as long as it has a define color scheme.
@dudewithsign
Suffragette movement for white womens’ right to vote, 1913
A demonstrator at the January 1977 protest at the International Hotel in SF
1965
On Aug. 11, 1965, Marquette Frye — a young black man on parole for robbery — was
pulled over in LA for reckless driving. The incident escalated, attracting the attention of the neighborhood, and eventually resulting in
what would be known as the Watts riots.
David Weidman created this poster as a tongue-in-cheek response to the issues at
play.
1967
Tomi Ungerer created numerous posters protesting the war in Vietnam. Here, the white arm of America is shown shoving the Statue of Liberty down the throat of a Vietnamese citizen.
1968
Reads: Borders = Repression
Regarding the events of May 1968 in France (civil unrest, strike, student
occupation protests against capitalism, consumerism, American imperialism and
traditional institutions)
This poster was created by students at the École des Beaux Arts
1968
Another image from the protests of May 1968 in France by an
anonymous protester
“Let’s continue the fight - dark capitalism”
1968
students gathered at the Rhode Island School of Design to create posters in protest of the Vietnam
War, largely inspired by the May ’68 posters done in Paris
1968
Seymour Chwast
In protest of the Vietnam War. Shown is Uncle Sam — the
traditional symbol of American patriotism — with his mouth open to
reveal planes bombing a small village.
circa 1970
Black Panther Party
1971
Reads: Continental Day of Support to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, October 15–21, by the Continental Organization of Latin American
Students.
Called for solidarity between young Cubans and an array of peoples from other countries, created in support of human rights and the fight against
globalization, imperialism, and colonialism.
Nixon is shown with the dead bodies of faceless Southeast Asians on his mind.
1981
In the 1970s and ’80s, Japanese artist Masuteru Aoba created a series of
protest posters focusing on nonviolence and environmentalism, in which his goal was to create a more empathetic society.
He was asked to create the official poster for the 1998 Winter Olympic
Games in Nagano.
1987
Created by a group of six gay men in New York City to draw attention to AIDS crisis
(references pink triangle’s use in Nazi concentration camps to identify homosexual prisoners — a symbol
that was reclaimed by the LGBT community beginning in the 1970s as a symbol of pride)
The poster was adopted by the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, after its formation, when several of the original creators joined the group, and
remains an iconic emblem of the movement.
2016–
Pro-democracy protesters sleep next to a sign reading "we'll be back" on a blocked road in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong on December 11, 2014 (CNN)
Guerilla Girls
A demonstrator outside the Australian embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photo: Reuters
