|
Students
should be aware of how various artists or designers have used
color in the past. Another consideration that is rarely touched
upon, but it is pertinent today as design becomes increasingly
international, and that is the relationship between color
and culture. The symbolic associations with color change from
culture to culture.
The
principles employed in the color course are borrowed from
Josef Albers color classes at Yale University during the 1950s.
The basis for the color theories used by Albers reportedly
came from the writings of Goethe on color. I believe that
Knopf published an obscure small book on the color theories
of Goethe sometime during the 1960s.
Materials
1
Full color pack
2
Spray mount or rubber cement
3
Scissors and exacto knife
4
Two ply or heavier bristol board
Instructions
All color exercises and free-studies are done with
cut or torn paper. All color work is done either with a mat
or put onto a mat for presentation. The proportions of mat
include the top, bottom, sides, and the size of the work to
the mat, are part of the evaluation. Craft is critical.
The
purpose for using cut and torn paper is that it allows students
to work quickly, and to explore the effect of different colors,
amounts and compositions with a minimum of effort and time.
Students can focus on color without having to mix paints,
wait for them to dry or learn how to use a brush. It is the
process of trying different colors, varying the amounts, etc.
that is of most value to students and to learning.
Students
need to put work on the floor or wall, and to stand over or
back from it and evaluate what they have done and determine
changes. Without the process, there is small benefit for students
in doing the exercises.
Exercise
1: Hue as Value
Each hue has an equivalent black to gray value.
To illustrate, select six hues at random. Cut into swatches
3/4 x 3 inches and adhere them to bristol board. Run them
through a color copier set for black and white. This should
provide reasonable equivalents in black or gray values for
each hue.
Arrange
the black and gray values vertically into a progression with
the darkest value at the top. The swatches should butt against
one another. To the left of the gray scale, arrange the hues
adjacent to their respective black or gray equivalent. The
swatches of hues should butt against each other and also to
the gray scale.
The
result should be a vertical rectangle divided in half vertically
and divided horizontally into six segments with hues on the
left and their equivalent grays on the right. Craft in doing
this exercise is very important.
|
