Elements of Art: Color | KQED Arts

Summary

In this insightful video by KQED Art School, we delve into the fascinating world of color as an essential element of art. The narration begins by contrasting representational art, which aims to depict reality, with color field paintings that celebrate the flat, two-dimensional nature of the canvas. The video explores the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, detailing how their combinations and variations create different hues, tints, shades, and tones. It further examines the unique character of monographic color schemes and the emotional associations linked to warm and cool colors. A deeper understanding of color helps in interpreting art and conveying messages through one's own creations.

Highlights

• The video connects realism in art to the use of color in flat, expressive compositions. 🎨
• Primary colors are the building blocks of all other colors, emphasizing their importance in art. 🎨
• Secondary colors are formed by mixing two primary colors, expanding the artist's palette. 🎨
• The concept of tint, shade, and tone allows artists to alter colors, enriching their work. 🎨
• Warm and cool colors carry emotions and memories, offering a personal touch to artworks. 🎨

Key Takeaways

• Color is more than just a visual element in art; it can convey emotions and define space. 🎨
• Color field painters of the 1950s and '60s emphasized the flat nature of canvas, using large swathes of color to create impactful artworks. 🎨
• Primary colors (red, yellow, blue) serve as the foundation for creating a wide spectrum of hues. 🎨
• The mixing of primary and secondary colors to create tertiary colors adds depth to the color wheel. 🎨
• Understanding the emotional impact of warm and cool colors can enhance both the appreciation and creation of artworks. 🎨

Overview

Color is not just an aesthetic choice in art; it's an essential element that artists have explored for centuries. This video from KQED Art School takes us on a vibrant journey through the world of color, from the representational art that seeks to replicate reality to the bold embrace of flatness characteristic of color field painting. It challenges us to reconsider the canvas not just as a space for objects but as a playground of pure color that invites contemplation.

The video dives into the basics of color theory, explaining primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. As we learn how artists mix and match these hues to create every conceivable color, tint, shade, and tone, we gain insight into the technical aspects that are foundational to painting and art-making. It brings to light the monochromatic schemes where a single color in various permutations remains prominent, showcasing the versatility and creativity involved in color manipulation.

Beyond technicalities, this exploration of color reveals its emotional depth and the power it holds within the artist's toolkit. By associating different colors with emotions and memories, the video encourages us to look deeper into how color affects our interpretation of artworks. It empowers us to not just view art but to feel it, and provides insights into how artists use color to control the narrative and emotions their work conveys.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Representational Art The chapter 'Introduction to Representational Art' discusses how representational art aims to portray the world realistically. It focuses on mimicking three-dimensional space and faithfully rendering objects as they appear to the human eye.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Color Field Painters The chapter 'Color Field Painters' discusses artists from the 1950s and '60s who focused on the inherent flatness of the painted canvas. These artists, known as Color Field painters, created large-scale works using minimal colors to emphasize the two-dimensional nature of the canvas. Unlike other forms of art that represent the external world or transport viewers elsewhere, their art was about acknowledging and experiencing the painting as it is.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Color as an Element of Art This chapter discusses 'Color as an Element of Art,' emphasizing its significance and independence as a subject of artistic expression. It highlights the perspective of certain artists who use bold, bright colors not to represent anything else, but as an independent element worthy of focus, just like other elements of art such as line, shape, and form. The chapter also explains the basic scientific principle behind color perception: how light interacting with an object's material determines the colors we see, with some light being absorbed and some reflected.
• 01:30 - 02:00: Primary and Secondary Colors The chapter titled 'Primary and Secondary Colors' explores the concept of color perception, focusing on how colors are seen due to the light reflected off objects. It explains that red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors because they cannot be created by mixing other colors. Instead, these primary colors can be combined to produce nearly every other color hue. Additionally, the chapter discusses secondary colors, which include green, orange, and violet, formed by mixing two primary colors.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Tertiary Colors and Monochromatic Schemes This chapter discusses the concept of tertiary colors and how they are created by mixing a primary color with a secondary color, resulting in hues like red-orange and blue-green. The chapter also explores the alteration of individual colors through techniques such as tinting, shading, and toning. Tinting involves adding white to a color, transforming red into pink and blue into light blue.
• 03:00 - 03:30: Differences in Color Use by Artists The chapter titled 'Differences in Color Use by Artists' discusses how artists utilize different color methods to personalize their art. It explains that a tint is made by adding white to a color, a shade by adding black, and a tone by adding both black and white. The text also introduces the concept of monochromatic color schemes, where an artwork is composed of tints, shades, and tones of a single color. Artists often create unique colors, tints, shades, and tones to personalize their work.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Color Temperature and Associations This chapter discusses the concept of color temperature and how it relates to our perception of colors. It begins by examining the differences in the use of violet colors in artworks by Anish Kapoor and Morris Louis, prompting the reader to consider the variations in tinting and shading between the two. The chapter suggests that one way to categorize colors, such as reds, oranges, and yellows, is by their temperature, noting that these colors are typically associated with warmth.

Elements of Art: Color | KQED Arts Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [ MID-TEMPO DRUM BEAT PLAYS ] [ MID-TEMPO MUSIC PLAYS ] Narrator: A LOT OF REPRESENTATIONAL ART ATTEMPTS TO PORTRAY THE WORLD REALISTICALLY BY MIMICKING THREE-DIMENSIONAL SPACE AND ATTEMPTING TO FAITHFULLY RENDER OBJECTS AS WE SEE THEM.
• 00:30 - 01:00 HOWEVER, MANY ARTISTS EMBRACE A DIFFERENT REALITY. SO-CALLED COLOR FIELD PAINTERS OF THE 1950s AND '60s WANTED TO REINFORCE THE IDEA THAT THE PAINTED CANVAS IS A FLAT, TWO-DIMENSIONAL SPACE. THEY MADE ENORMOUS, LARGE-SCALE PAINTINGS THAT WERE OFTEN COMPRISED OF JUST ONE OR TWO COLORS. THEIR ART DIDN'T REPRESENT THE OUTSIDE WORLD OR TRY TO TAKE YOU TO ANOTHER PLACE. IT REINFORCED THE FACT THAT YOU'RE LOOKING AT A PAINTING.
• 01:00 - 01:30 THE BOLD, BRIGHT COLORS THEY USED WEREN'T MEANT TO REPRESENT ANYTHING ELSE. FOR THEM AND THE MANY ARTISTS THEY INSPIRED, COLOR IS A BEAUTIFUL AND WORTHY SUBJECT ALL ITS OWN. COLOR IS ONE OF THE SEVEN ELEMENTS OF ART, ALONG WITH LINE, SHAPE, FORM, TEXTURE, VALUE, AND SPACE. WHEN LIGHT HITS AN OBJECT, SOME OF IT IS ABSORBED AND SOME OF IT IS REFLECTED, DEPENDING ON THE MATERIALS THE OBJECT IS MADE OF.
• 01:30 - 02:00 THE LIGHT THAT IS REFLECTED OFF OF THE OBJECT IS WHAT WE SEE AS AN OBJECT'S COLOR. RED, YELLOW, AND BLUE ARE CALLED PRIMARY COLORS BECAUSE THEY CANNOT BE MADE FROM THE MIXING OF OTHER COLORS. HOWEVER, THE THREE PRIMARY COLORS CAN BE MIXED TOGETHER TO PRODUCE NEARLY EVERY OTHER HUE IMAGINABLE. GREEN, ORANGE, AND VIOLET ARE THE THREE SECONDARY COLORS. THEY ARE CREATED BY MIXING TWO OF THE PRIMARY COLORS TOGETHER
• 02:00 - 02:30 IN EQUAL AMOUNTS. WHEN YOU MIX A PRIMARY COLOR WITH A SECONDARY COLOR, YOU GET A TERTIARY COLOR, SUCH AS RED-ORANGE, BLUE-GREEN. EVERY INDIVIDUAL COLOR CAN BE ALTERED BY CHANGING ITS VALUE THROUGH TINTING, SHADING, AND TONING. TINT IS SIMPLY ANY COLOR WITH WHITE ADDED TO IT, SO RED BECOMES PINK, BLUE BECOMES LIGHT BLUE,
• 02:30 - 03:00 GREEN BECOMES LIGHT GREEN, AND SO ON. A SHADE THEN IS CREATED BY ADDING BLACK TO ANY COLOR. ADDING BLACK AND WHITE TO A COLOR PRODUCES A TONE. SOMETIMES A WORK OF ART WILL BE MADE UP OF THE TINTS, SHADES, AND TONES OF ONLY ONE COLOR. THIS IS WHAT WE CALL A MONOCHROMATIC COLOR SCHEME. ONE WAY ARTISTS PERSONALIZE THEIR WORK IS BY CREATING THEIR OWN VERY UNIQUE COLORS, TINTS, SHADES, AND TONES.
• 03:00 - 03:30 NOTICE HOW THE VIOLET COLORS IN THIS PRINT BY ANISH KAPOOR DIFFER FROM THE ONES USED BY PAINTER MORRIS LOUIS. IS THERE ONE THAT HAS MORE TINTING OR SHADING THAN ANOTHER? WHAT DO YOU THINK IS CREATING THE DIFFERENCE? ONE COMMON WAY PEOPLE CATEGORIZE COLORS IS BY TEMPERATURE. REDS, ORANGES, AND YELLOWS ARE REFERRED TO AS WARM BECAUSE THEY CAN BE EASILY ASSOCIATED
• 03:30 - 04:00 WITH A WARM, SUNNY DAY. BLUES, VIOLETS, AND GREENS, ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE CALLED COOL BECAUSE THEY OFTEN COME TO MIND WHEN THINKING ABOUT OVERCAST OR RAINY DAYS. WHEN COOL AND WARM COLORS ARE MIXED TOGETHER IN A PAINTING, WHAT IS THE OVERALL MOOD OR FEELING THEN? BESIDES THE WEATHER, THERE ARE MANY OTHER ASSOCIATIONS AND FEELINGS THAT COLORS CAN SUMMON. IS THERE A COLOR OR COMBINATION OF COLORS
• 04:00 - 04:30 THAT TRIGGERS A SPECIFIC MEMORY OR THOUGHT IN YOU? UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTS COLORS HAVE ON YOU WILL HELP YOU READ AN ARTWORK AND DEVELOP YOUR OWN INTERPRETATION OF IT. AND WHEN MAKING YOUR OWN ARTWORK, KNOWING THE EFFECT COLORS HAVE WILL HELP YOU CONTROL THE MESSAGES YOU HOPE TO CONVEY.