1205 Design Studio COLOR

Put a Bird on It

2012-01-18T11:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, so as you work on your 2D designs, I thought you might like a design joke! Portlandia is a TV series that makes fun of Portland culture (and here in Seattle we have a lot in common), including the recent design trend of bird imagery. They advise a shopkeeper to simply "Put a Bird on It", on everything. Enjoy!
(Image from ukcraftblog.com)

Color Mixing Demo

2012-01-18T11:28:00.001-08:00

This is a very helpful short videofrom Gamblin oil colors on color mixing in paint. It shows a model of "color space" formed using the concepts we've discussed of the three dimensions of color: Hue, Value, and Saturation.

Beautiful Music Album Covers

2012-01-12T19:40:00.000-08:00

Some more inspiration for your square designs! Like this one by Sanna Annukka. Check outSmashMagazine.com

Color & Culture

2011-11-09T18:02:00.000-08:00

Film clip from the movie, Outsourced
Holi, festival of Colors

Mike King and Crash Design

2011-10-26T11:08:00.000-07:00

Check out the poster and cd cover art by Mike King at crashamerica.com these posters are in roughly dyadic pallets.

Quilt prints

2011-10-12T10:19:00.000-07:00

Greg Kucera gallery here in Seattle has a really unique series of prints by Gee's Bend quilters!

TASS Soviet War Posters

2011-10-05T10:30:00.001-07:00

At the Art Institute of Chicago this fall there is an exhibit of hand-made posters (painted or printed using stencils) by artists during WWII in the Soviet Union. Click hereto view some images on Tumblr.

Helpful Instruction Videos on Color and Light

2011-09-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

Additive vs Subtractive Color
What are CMYK and RGB Color Modes?
Conceptual Physics of Color

Pigments Through the Ages

2011-09-06T07:45:00.000-07:00

http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/
Pigments through the Ages is one of several exhibits in the WebExhibits online museum. WebExhibits is a public service of the Institute for Dynamic Educational Advancement IDEA.

Friends of Art

2011-09-01T07:01:00.000-07:00

Friends of Art is a good resource investigating color inventory.

http://www.friendsofart.net/en/

Visit the site and select a painting. Look to the right for its pallet.

Movie Color Schemes

2011-05-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

"Girl with a Pearl Earring"

"Alladin"

"West Side Story"

Check out this series of digital images called Movie Barcodes. Films are condensed and distilled into a single image that reveals the overall color pallet of the movie. And these are beautiful images themselves! Thanks to student Lauren for sending me the link.

Nick Cave: Exuberant Color!

2011-05-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

The Seattle Art Museum is showing the work of Nick Cave, not the singer but the creator of colorful wacky "Sound Suits" to parade and dance in! The show is up for a few more days, and is worth seeing more than once. He emphasizes contrast of hue, but I believe all of Johannes Itten's Seven Color Contrasts are represented.

Mix colors through color space! (with sound effects)

2011-05-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

Watch this video on color mixing through "Color Space"on the Gamblin Colors website

Pollyanna explains refracted light

2011-04-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

Did you ever watch the movie Pollyanna?
Here is a clip in which prisms and refracted light are the subject: "The sun comes through here and paints a rainbow, see?"

Contrast of HUE

2011-04-02T08:21:00.000-07:00

Have a look at Holton Rower in the process of creating his paintings.

Student Paintings, in Monochromatic, Dyadic and Triadic Color Schemes

2011-03-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

Here are focused shots of student Sabrina Chacon-Barajas's three gouache paintings for this class. Aren't they beautiful?

Examples of Project Five: 3-D works

2011-03-01T10:43:00.000-08:00

Product Design & Color

2011-02-20T08:54:00.000-08:00

Note Design Studio

Have a look at how this Swedish design team went from notes in the margins of their sketch books to this delightful interior.

YOLO Environmentally Responsible Paint

2011-02-19T09:40:00.000-08:00

YOLO Colorhouse® stands for premium, environmentally responsible paint products with a user-friendly color palette. Check out the the COLOR tab on their web site and look at, "select a tool".

Design Boom: Yuri Suzuki

2011-02-18T06:21:00.000-08:00

Yuri Suzuki, soundscape workshop was featured in design boom daily news February 18,2011. Just click on his name to see more about Suzuki and his delightfully inventive work. There's also a little film there where you can see how his design in action.

To receive design boom daily go to designboom.com

Benjamin Moore Personal Color Viewer

2011-02-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

Benjamin Moore paints offers a tool to help visualize how colors will look in a room...I thought it might be fun to try it! Here's the link

Layla Ali's painting process

2011-01-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

On the Art 21 website page about artist Layla Ali there is a slideshow of her at work which I thought you might find inspiring as you start to paint with gouache.

WATCH film clip of the artist on Art 21

Gouach-y Laylah Ali

2011-01-29T12:35:00.000-08:00

Here's at least one example of an artist who works in the medium and approach the class has been using for color experiments: Laylah Ali. She uses flat panels of thick gouache to form her quirky graphic characters. See more about her at Art:21. Check out her use of a dyadic, complementary palette in the top image, and a cool, analogous palette in the bottom image (even the reds are cool). Ali's a big fan of this blue background. What effect does it have--emotionally, psychologically--on the subject matter?

Light Absorption and Reflection

2011-01-11T10:39:00.000-08:00

Watch video that explains light absorption & reflection with lasers and gummy bears!

Triadic Pallets

2011-01-03T20:39:00.000-08:00

Inventory of Color Proportion

2011-01-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

Dyadic Pallet and the Contrast of Compliments

2011-01-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

Co-Primaries

2011-01-03T20:14:00.000-08:00

Spectrum of Colors

2011-01-03T20:01:00.000-08:00

CONTRAST of HUE and their achromatic VALUE equivalents.

Jessica Wohl and broad range monochrome

2010-10-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

Artist Jessica Wohl has a series of beautiful portraits with these nice wallpaper backdrops, and a couple of them are good examples of a broad range monochromatic pallet.

Christopher Martin Hoff

2010-05-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

you've probably seen him around Seattle, and even if you haven't, you should see his paintings of Seattle now on view at Linda Hodges Gallery in Pioneer Square.

Andrea Zittel and red and green

2010-04-29T10:43:00.001-07:00

Andrea Zittelworks in many ways, making all sorts of things, but I've noticed her appreciation of the compliments red and green...

Do Ho Suh

2010-04-22T10:26:00.001-07:00

Some beautiful monochromatic works by Do Ho Suh for inspiration.

Guillermo Kuitca and Monochrome

2010-04-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

This Argentinian artist often paints monochromatic compositions. Guillermo Kuitca

Complimentary chord: Red and Green

2010-02-11T18:28:00.000-08:00

The movie Amelie is a lovely study in color design. It is based on the complimentary pair red and green (there is a wide range of reds and greens, though the reds tend to be light and warm and the greens desaturated, both warm and cool) with a bright mid value cool blue as accent! It is striking.

Royal Paintings of Jodhpur

2010-02-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

Thought you all would enjoy looking at some of the images from an amazing collection of spectacular Indian paintings that visited the Seattle Asian Art Museum last Spring. Here's a link to a wordpress site called "looky: pictures" that features a few of the paintings. They are painted in gouache and watercolor, BTW.

Helpful Links & Blogs

2010-01-14T07:09:00.000-08:00

Lines & Colors

SPAC Illustration Companion

SPAC 1202 2D Design

Fantasia

2010-01-04T18:48:00.000-08:00

Animated color pallets from 1940

Web Colors

2009-11-22T20:55:00.000-08:00

Here's Wikipedia info on web colors, and another site about hexadecimals.

Nicholas Sistler

2009-11-12T10:42:00.000-08:00

This artist in Chicago creates these amazing tiny paintings in gouache.

Al Held

2009-11-10T18:23:00.000-08:00

Al Held's work features a lot of wonderful color contrasts! including simultaneous contrast. Visit the Paul Kasmin Gallery site to see more.

Color and the Computer & Color Schemer

2009-10-14T17:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a terrific link to practice color on the computer.

http://www.aviary.com/launch/toucan

And on this very interesting site, you can share your favorite color schemes with others. Take a look at some (there are pages and pages of them) and describe them using the color wheel. Are they harmonious? beautiful? discordant? ugly?

Eric Carle demos!

2009-10-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

Eric Carle is the illustrator of A Very Hungry Caterpillar, and on his website he has photos and videos of his process, which involves hand making his own colored tissue papers. Very colorful!

Palace Papers

2009-09-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

For some beautiful examples of contemporary hand-printed wallpapers, visit this website. The designs are excellent examples of repetition of unit forms, and of positive and negative space.

Instructor's blog

2009-09-28T10:39:00.000-07:00

On my blog I post images and short discussions of my art process. This might be interesting and/or helpful to you since I am working this season exclusively in gouache, on a small scale, similar to what you will be doing for half of your projects this quarter.

Color theory online

2009-09-08T17:56:00.000-07:00

The site Handprint by Bruce MacEvoy about watercolor painting has an amazing section on color theory here. There are pages about the history of color theory, optics, and contemporary developments in theory and conversations on color.

Christopher Burkett photography

2009-03-07T16:53:00.000-08:00

Check out the work of this amazing photographer, and read about his process by clicking on Information on his site

Labs and Hunters

2009-02-26T12:57:00.001-08:00

Check out this addictive site for finding photos in a particular color range (could also be very helpful to those of you looking for resource photos for your proportion/extension project):

Idee Color Lab
Click up to 10 colors from their palette and see a grid of flickr photos (from a chosen pool of 10 million) that are built of those dominant colors. Remove colors by clicking on their trash can. Try monochromatic schemes, neutral schemes, dyadic, triadic, etcetera.

It's somewhat the opposite approach from Color Hunter, in which you upload an image that is broken down into five major colors.

(Thanks, Jackie!)

James Turrell addendum

2009-02-24T11:53:00.000-08:00

Here is the Art:21 James Turrell page, which includes interview clips, slide shows and more information about this artist who has dedicated his whole career to our perception of light.

James Turrell

2009-02-15T07:07:00.000-08:00

Color and Light

2009-02-15T06:36:00.000-08:00

Saint Ignatius Chapel

I borrowed these pics from fellow blogger ARCADY. She also has posts on 'History of Garden Design' and 'Playgrounds'. Delightful and informative resource for Interior Design students. Thank you ARCADY!

'Auralia's Colors' (full color pallet)

2009-02-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

Jeffrey Overstreet's novel renders colors in words.

Taddio Crevelli (triadic pallet of primary colors)

2009-02-08T08:26:00.000-08:00

Taddio Crevelli RYB triadic pallet. For more beautiful Medieval illuminations click on "Tadio".

George Tooker (triadic pallet)

2009-02-08T08:10:00.000-08:00

George Tooker paints in egg temperate. The modern version of this media is gouache. Here we see a stunning example of what can be achieved w/ a split complimentary pallet.

Loretta Lux

2009-02-08T07:58:00.000-08:00

Loretta Lux

Like painters Mark Ryden and Martin Johnson Heade, this photographer favors a dyadic pallet. Explore her work to see a stunning use of digitally enhanced photographic images.

Martin Johnson Heade (dyadic pallett R-G)

2009-02-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

Meredith Frampton 1894-1984

2009-02-08T07:48:00.000-08:00

In the above painting Frampton uses a dyadic pallet of RG.

Many years ago, I saw the life size portrait below at the Tate and was awe struck at the luminosity of the skin tones and facility of brush strokes. Frampton only made a few paintings in his life time. Word is he stopped at age 40 when his eye sight began to fail.

Julia Ricketts writes letters with colors

2009-01-29T11:38:00.000-08:00

The paintings in this series, “Meditations”, are about longing for communication and harmony. I began with a simple image: a blank sheet of ruled writing paper. I imagined colors (instead of words) writing a letter or poem on this blank page. As the images evolved, an analogy to the tones and chords of music also developed. In this way the project links three abstract forms of communication: language, music, and art. The structure of repeated horizontal bands is common to notational languages in the west, and encourages the viewer to “read” the painting.

My process is one of revision: the bars of color and the spaces in between them are adjusted and refined, erased and amplified, until balance is achieved. Just as word choices can shade the meaning of a sentence, colors can set a tone, carrying many associations and moods. Variation within each color and from band to band create complexity and rhythm.visit her website here, and click on "2007-2008"

Chris Duncan

2009-01-27T11:48:00.000-08:00

Moment Monument
2005
mixed media

Balance

2008

spray paint, acrylic, gouache, watercolor, ink, marker,
colored pencil, graphite, thread and wood putty on paper

25.5" x 30.5"

Oakland, California-based painter and sculptor Chris Duncan creates vivid abstractions based largely upon a keen color sense. Most of his recent palette tends toward high saturation colors that fall inside a geometry both awkward and graceful; these figures are set against a more neutral and modulated back drop.

See more of his work:
Gregory Lind Gallery (San Francisco)
Jeff Bailey Gallery (NYC)

Read an Interview:
XLR8R

Anish Kapoor: Pigment Primaries

2009-01-22T08:25:00.000-08:00

Marsyas
2002

ANISH KAPOOR
1000 Names 1981
Collection: The artist
Image: Lisson Gallery, London

Text from Kapoor's inclusion in the 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art:

Exploration of the sublime is central to Kapoor’s work. With simple strong forms he explores ways in which viewers can more directly experience sensations such as emptiness and intimacy. Kapoor’s sculptures often exploit the mystical and emotional qualities of colour. His early works consisted of strong organic and geometrical forms covered in sumptuous, intensely coloured powdered pigment. Under their shroud of pure pigment, Kapoor’s sculptures appear almost disembodied and illusory, their weight and mass suspended. In London in 1998, Kapoor suspended a huge eight-metre dome in the ceiling of the Hayward Gallery. Titled At the edge of the world II, covered in a rich, seductive red pigment, this work plays with sensations of attraction and resistance, gravity and vertigo. Influenced by architecture, landscape and art, Kapoor’s practice melds his interest in formal and elemental shapes to make magnificent sculpture.

2009-01-16T06:53:00.000-08:00

Monchrome in Graphic Design.

Savio Alphonso is the winner of the recent designboom competition love your earth.

Laura Lasworth

2009-01-15T08:52:00.000-08:00

Wild Doe, by Laura Lasworth

oil on wood panel 2001

This oil painting was created with a variety of Red Hues, Titanium (warm) & Zinc (silvery cool) White, warm & cool grays, and Blue-black.

1205 Student Projects

2009-01-15T08:28:00.000-08:00

Monochrome, Dyadic, & Triadic Pallets, and Contrast of Proportion.

One is the Loveliest Color

2009-01-12T14:39:00.000-08:00

New York Magazine highlights and interviews several people who have decided to go monochromatic.

And NO - This is not Laura - at least not yet.

The Human Eye and the Magic of Color Vision

2009-01-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

An actual photograph of the rods (which sense value) and cones (which sense color) that are situated in the retina. These photoreceptors feed visual information to the brain through the optic nerve.

Sit in on a lecture about the eye by Berkeley biology professor Marian Diamond here.

Mark Ryden

2008-12-31T08:03:00.000-08:00

Mark Ryden is truly a modern 'Master'. Explore his work to see the range and beauty of a simple dyadic pallet. You will notice in numerous paintings, the particular use of a red/green pallet with its wide range of tints, tones, shades, and temperatures.

Just in case you're overwhelmed at first...

2008-12-30T20:56:00.000-08:00

...you have famed color theorist J.W. von Goethe on your side. From the Virtual Colour Museum (link in "Color Link" list to the right):

Goethe's first Contributions to Optics were produced in 1791 after experiencing the difficulties encountered by contemporary artists with colouration and colour harmony at first hand on his journey through Italy. "Indeed, I heard tell of cold and warm colours, and colours which enhance one another, and suchlike," but everything "turned in an odd circle ... of confusion."

Museum of Modern Art's "Color Chart"

2008-12-30T17:04:00.000-08:00

COLOR CHART Reinventing Color: 1950 to today An exhibition mounted by MoMA in 2008, and sponsored in part by (who else?) Benjamin Moore Paints. From the introduction written by Ann Temkin:

‘This exhibition takes as its point of departure the commercial color chart, an item that openly declares the status of color as mass-produced and standardized. Midway through the 20th century, long-held convictions regarding the spiritual or emotional power of particular colors gave way to the embrace of color as an ordinary commodity. At the same time, many artists rejected traditional artistic pedagogy about correct relationships between colors and instead adopted aesthetic approaches that relied on chance, ready-made sources, or arbitrary systems. The Romantic quest for personal expression, so often achieved through color, instead became Andy Warhol’s “I want to be a machine.” The artistry of mixing pigments was eclipsed by Frank Stella’s “Straight out of the can; it can’t get better than that.”'

*Warning* the flash site is beautifully designed, but don't be tempted to use your browser's "back" button or you'll exit the site over and over. Just keep clicking and you'll be routed to the proper spots.

One review here. New York Times coverage here.

{image above: Mike Kelley}

Gerhard Richter's Color Charts

2008-12-30T17:03:00.000-08:00

Idiosyncratic German artist, Gerhard Richter, includes in his oeuvre these color charts. They are a different version of his attraction to ready-mades, like the paintings of snapshots that form some of his other large bodies of work.

Simultaneous Contrast & After Image

2008-12-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

30 Seconds to a Blue Buddha

Images of Simultaneous Contrast - 1

Images of Simultaneous Contrast - 2

Simultaneous Contrast in Type

Simultaneous Contrast & Luminosity

2008-12-09T11:36:00.000-08:00

Positive/Negative Space

2008-11-29T13:36:00.000-08:00

What is the foreground and what is the background in this image?

click here for more examples

Seven Color Contrasts

2008-11-19T14:27:00.000-08:00

Seven Color Contrasts and much more.

Monochrome Co-Primaries

2008-11-19T14:17:00.000-08:00

Claudio Bravo