Tag Archives: color theory

The World’s First Tetrachromat Artist

This is one of my favorite artists!

Outside The Lines

The unique nature of an artist can be considered art itself. What sets great artists apart may not be their talents but their circumstances. While we know much of our destinies are determined by the decisions we make, remnants of happenstance hover over many of the artists we know and love.

No one understands this better thanConcetta Antico, who, in 2012, received news that would change her life and send her already successful art career into high gear.

The Making of an Artist

To Concetta, art and life have always been one in the same. Her love of art began at the age of seven, when she found herself fascinated by color. This was around the time she started painting. Even at a young age her peers recognized the Australian native’s creative talent.
America's Finest City Lights, San Diego 10x10Now in San Diego, the place she considers home, Concetta’s days begin at the sight…

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Hues, Tints, Tones and Shades – What’s the Difference?

Who Creates Color TrendsLet’s face the facts: we can easily take color for granted. Even when we are enjoying the brilliant hues of nature and the masterful shades in paintings, it is hard to be fully aware of the colorful intricacies we are taking in.

Case in point: do you know the difference between hues, tints, tones and shades?

To some, it comes as a shock to learn that these colorful qualities make up multiple tiers of the color wheel.

Basic and Intricate Elements of the Color Wheel

At first glance, the color wheel is a tool that guides us in using primary, secondary and complementary colors. But it also does much more than this. It describes analogous colors (any three colors that sit side by side), split complementary colors (which considers the two colors adjacent to a complimentary hue), and tetradic colors (a group of four colors, made up of two complimentary colors).

Beyond defining aesthetic color combinations, the color wheel also offers a good starting point from which tints, tones and shades can be properly identified.

The color wheel at its most basic form is made up of 12 hues. Hues are pure colors. When white is added to hues, they lighten and become known as tints. When gray is added to hues, they dim and become known as tones. When black is added to hues, they darken and become shades.

This excellent image, compliments of lifehacker.com, shows the many levels of the color wheel:

Learn the Basics of Color Theory to Know What Looks Good

Using Hues, Tints, Tones and Shades

Different tiers of the color wheel come in handy when decorating, designing graphics, deciding on outfits or preparing works of art. For instance, matching a hue with its complementary shade can make for a dynamic combination. Sometimes, people find hues to be strong and bold. They may prefer light, more whimsical tints or are drawn to the calmer depths of shades.

More so, it can be nice to use one hue and its tints, shades and tones. This creates a monotone chromatic color scheme. In the same vein, a monotone achromatic color scheme uses all variations of neutral colors and can be brought to life with a brilliant hue.

Did you know the color wheel was so intricate? To learn more about the differences between hues, tints, tones and shades, as well as learn how to pick the best looking combinations for your wardrobe, home décors and art projects, check out this blog post: http://lifehacker.com/learn-the-basics-of-color-theory-to-know-what-looks-goo-1608972072.

There is so much to learn about the color wheel, but the most important thing to know is it won’t steer you wrong.

Read more Segmation blog posts about color theory:

Basic Color Theory – Color Matters

Color Theory Basics: The Color Wheel

How Well Do You Know The Color Wheel?

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Basic Color Theory – Color Matters

Color Wheel

The world is filled with infinite shades of color, from a candy-apple-red sports car to a smoldering orange sunset to the crisp green of springtime grass. The popular color wheel simplifies the shades into 12 distinct colors to help illustrate the variations.

Arranged in a circle with 12 sections, the wheel presents a visual representation of the primary colors in the following order: blue, blue/green, green, yellow/green, yellow, yellow/orange, orange, red/orange, red, red/purple, purple, blue/purple. The colors are arranged in a chromatic sequence, with complementary shades opposite one another. These are all of the standalone colors that cannot be created by mixing other hues. Secondary and tertiary hues can then be created by mixing three primary colors (traditionally red, yellow, and blue).

The color wheel is further segmented into active and passive hues. Active colors (reds, oranges, yellows) will appear as more dominant when placed against passive shades, while the passive colors (purples, blues, greens) appear to recede when viewed near the active ones.

Read more Segmation blog posts about Primary colors:

A Closer Look at Complementary Colors

Gender/Color Divide

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Can Color Exist in the Dark?

Can Color Exist in the Dark (c) tlr3automatonColors add beauty and variety to the world around us. They are pleasant from every perspective – expect the dark. After all, color cannot be seen without light. Or can it?

Color is created when light reflects an object. Light waves cause this to occur and the frequencies at which they travel, fast or slow, determines color. For instance, red has a low frequency while purple has a high frequency. If there is no light, there can be no light waves and color cannot be seen.

This is true most of the time. There is only one exception: items that glow in the dark.

Glow in the Dark

Glow in the dark products contain phosphors. These chemical substances are known for their luminescent qualities. All phosphors have three characteristics. These traits include:

  • They need to be charged. Different glow in the dark objects require different types of energy to become charged. (This is why some items need to be held up to a light before glowing in the dark.)
  • Phosphors contain the “color of visible light that they produce.”
  • The persistence of the phosphor (or the length of time the product will glow).

After becoming charged, a phosphor will illuminate. This item can be seen in the dark where other colors cannot be seen.

We Use Phosphors Every Day

Toys “R” Us seems like the keeper of all-things glow in the dark. In everyday life these items seem far and few between. But adults use phosphors every day.

Television screens, computer monitors, and fluorescent lights all have phosphors. TV screens actually have thousands of phosphors that emit red, green, and blue. Fluorescent lights have many color combinations that make light look white.

Charging Items to Glow in the Dark

The charge that generates TV and lights comes from electricity. But other phosphors use different types of energy to charge. Much of the time, natural energy is used.

For instance, glow in the dark toys are often energized by normal light. To capture this charge and maintain it for some time, two phosphors are common: Zinc Sulfide and Stontium Aluminate. These chemical substances can be mixed in with plastic to create a toy that glows.

Some glow in the dark items do not need any charge. Take watches for example; a watch may use a combination of a phosphor and radioactive element. The radioactive part can continually charge the phosphor.

With phosphors, light can thrive in the dark. Better yet, items can glow.

Image made available by  tlr3automaton on Flickr through Creative Commons Licenses.

Read more Segmation blog posts about “Out of the Box” Art:

Art Illuminates Science

The Op-Art of Josef Albers

Art and Science – A Genius Combination

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The Expressive Vincent van Gogh

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Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) was a Dutch painter whose Post-Impressionist paintings laid the groundwork for Expressionism, influenced the Fauves and greatly affected 20th century art.
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He created more than 2,000 works, including 900 paintings, three of which make up the world’s ten most expensive pieces of art.

Van Gogh was born in 1853 in Groot-Zundert, a village in the southern Netherlands. His father was a minister and three of his uncles were art dealers, two vocations that were to pull Vincent in different directions at various times in his life.

In letters, Vincent has described his youth as “gloomy, cold and barren,” and he left school at 15. With the help of his uncle, he was offered a job with the art dealer Goupil & Cie, and in 1873 was sent to London and from there to Paris. After complaining repeatedly about the commoditisation of art, his job with the art dealership was terminated and Van Gogh returned to England to work as a teacher and minister’s assistant.

In 1879, after failing a course at a Protestant missionary school near Brussels, Van Gogh began a mission in the poor mining district of Borinage in Belgium. Choosing to live in the same poverty-stricken conditions as the local population, he was dismissed for “undermining the dignity of the priesthood” and returned home. His behaviour over the following months led his father to enquire about having Van Gogh committed to an asylum.
Aged 27, Van Gogh eventually took up the suggestion of his brother Theo, now a successful art dealer, to focus on painting. In 1880, he moved to Brussels and studied at the Royal Academy of Art.

Van Gogh’s first major work, The Potato Eaters, was painted in 1885 shortly after his father’s death. Like many of his early works, the painting used sombre colors, especially dark brown, a preference which would make his paintings difficult to sell; buyers’ tastes were now influenced by the bright tones used by the Impressionists.

His palette however, began to change after he moved to Antwerp in 1885. He studied color theory and began using carmine, cobalt and emerald green. But it was while living in Paris from 1886 to 1888, where he met Emile Bernard and Toulouse-Lautrec and came into close contact with Impressionist art, that Van Gogh’s art really began to develop.

He experimented with Pointillism and painted in the sunflower-rich region of Arles with the artist Gauguin. By late 1888 his behavior was becoming difficult however, and fearing that Gauguin was going to abandon him, he stalked the painter with a razor before cutting off his earlobe and giving it to a local prostitute, telling her to “keep this object carefully.” The following year, after suffering from hallucinations and believing that he was being poisoned, Van Gogh was placed in the mental hospital of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole near Arles.

By now, Van Gogh’s work was beginning to be recognized. The critic Albert Aurier called him a “genius,” and Monet declared that his work was the best in a major avant-garde Brussels art show.www.segmation.com

The beginnings of success did nothing to help Van Gogh’s depression though, nor did the intervention of the physician Dr. Paul Gachet. On July 27, 1890, he walked into a field, shot himself in the chest with a revolver and died two days later.

Although there has been much speculation about the nature of Van Gogh’s mental illness, he is now recognized as one of the world’s greatest artists and a bridge between 19th century Impressionism and 20th century art.

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Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh

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Have fun and relax with beautiful online painting art. So fun and easy to use with no mess but just a mouse!

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Using Complimentary Colors

For some artists, the use of complimentary colors may seem like the basic of the basics. Without much thought they may discount their effect and use them as if they are second nature. But let’s not forget, sometimes simplicity can be the most elegant and (ironically) sophisticated approach to an artists color scheme. Using complimentary colors is an easy and certain approach to deliver works of art.

Reference the Color Wheel for Complimentary Colors

Lets address the color wheel. A lot has changed here. For centuries artists were limited in terms of what specific shades of color they had access to. Because of this, much of history’s most famous artists were compelled to use the simple pairings of complimentary colors, found on the basic color wheel. These pairings are…

  • Red and Green
  • Blue and Orange
  • Yellow and Violet

You’ll notice that the complimentary colors are simply opposites on the color wheel. With the ever- expanding body of knowledge we’ve dubbed “Color Theory”, the color wheel itself has changed immensely.

The HSV Color Wheel

What you are more likely to see as a representation of your color choices today – looks something like the HSV color wheel to the left. The same principles apply, that opposites are complimentary, but as you can see it offers a vast multitude of shades not found on the standard color wheel. Now instead of trying to achieve the feel of a romantic Italian town with solid reds and greens, an artist can take inspiration from the HSV wheel and instantly hand pick shades of Sage green and Venetian red. This work previously (depending on your skills and way of expression) could take hours of mixing to define the desired colors intent. Now with the digital age, we can find a representation of the colors in our minds before we start to mix and blend. This is a huge advantage of artists today that is largely overlooked.

Finding new color schemes and developing more complex characteristics for a piece is still interesting. However, if you find yourself stuck, or not conveying the images and thoughts you would like, then take a look at the HSV color wheel and find your complexity in all of the wheels simplicity.

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Car colors: An Artistic Expression?

Do you notice art everywhere you look? Perhaps an interesting spiral staircase catches your attention. Or the simple beauty of a skyline. How about a piece of intricate architecture?

For those of us who are artistically minded, art always seems to find a way of manifesting itself into our daily lives.

But have you ever thought the color of your car could have just as much expression and thought put into it?

If you haven’t… think again! DuPont recently held their 2011 Annual Trend Show, this year dubbed “A Sense of Color.” The show aims itself at describing some of the emotions and dynamics behind color choices and how they represent individuals and groups in thought provoking new ways.

Color science and color theory are complex areas of study, revealing much about how we humans respond to color and its infinite implications. Clearly, research suggests entire books can be (and have been) written on the subject, making it a bit too lengthy for us to dive into at this moment! However, what we’re interested in today is DuPont’s use of categories to segment their ideas to best target their individual audiences.

Their first category was entitled “Déjà vu” – these colors were designed with DuPont members in mind. Colors were crafted around attaining a sense of heritage, strength, comfort, and thoughtfulness. They employed rich greens and reds named “Flashback” and “Green Velvet”, while another category “Sound of Silence” utilized a quiet and muted color spectrum, featuring colors that radiate a sense of calmness like soft hues named “Minor Gamut” and “Speechless” for their earthy tones.

The next category, “Touch of Blue” developed emotional aspects of color relating to our environment. Utilizing rich blues as well as dramatic light chrome and metallic hues, colors like “Tactile Teal” and “Tickled Blue” reveal a sense of environmental awareness. This group of colors is expected to increase in popularity as focus on maintaining our planet becomes more globally known.

The final category “Matter of Taste” created a color palette to spotlight international inspirations. Caramel, tangerine, greens, purples, and pinks made up some of the more pronounced colors found in this segment. These colors, considered a bit more radical, are aimed at the individual tastes of more eclectic (or eccentric!) buyers.

It’s clear that a lot of thought goes into the development of what colors your car is available in. So with a little shopping, it is easy to see you may very well be on your way to finding the color that best represents a small (and beautiful) piece of you and your artistic mind!

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Introduction to Color Expert Johannes Itten

“Color is life; for a world without color appears to us as dead.” – Johannes Itten

When you take an art course on color theory, you can thank Johannes Itten for laying much of the foundation for what you’re being taught. Johannes Itten was a Swiss artist and teacher who taught at the Bauhaus in Germany. He published several books on art theory, the most popular being The Art of Color.

Sir Isaac Newton is credited with creating the first color wheel, which included 6 colors: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan and blue. Around 250 years later, Johannes Itten expanded Newton’s color wheel to include 12 colors instead of 6. These 12 colors included red, yellow and blue as the primary colors; orange, green and purple as the secondary colors, and 6 intermediary colors created by mixing a primary color with a secondary color. This is the same color wheel often used in school’s today to teach students about color theory.

Itten also examined color saturation, contrast and hue, devising theories for creating different color combinations that are still useful to artists and designers today. He looked at the expressiveness of color, and also the way colors affect one another. He also explored the emotional properties of colors which he considered to be fairly subjective, proposing that we each have different individual reactions to colors.

For more information about Johannes Itten and his color theories, look for his books online or in your local library.

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