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Athens Georgia, Charles Baudelaire, color, Color Contrasts, color system, contrast of Hue, expressionism, expressionist, expressive, Faber Birren, johannes Itten, Painting, process, Quote, The Elements of color, the seven color contrasts, walk in the N.Georgia woods, watercolor
Color …02 here, there, everywhere
“Pure draughtsmen are philosophers and dialecticians. Colourists are epic poets.”
Color surrounds us.
Newton proved to us that color is light. Johannes Itten gaves us a structure and perspective.
Since I’m beginning to look at my own personal use of color and how it applies to I decided to review one of my most fundamental sources for using color.
The Elements of color
edited by Faber Birren, (1970). The Elements of Color, a treatise on the color system of Johannes Itten based on his book, THE ART OF COLOR, Edited and with a foreward and evaluation by Faber Birren. 1st ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.
This book was published only two years before I started College at the University of Georgia and I found it just as I was beginning my studies as a Drawing and Painting Major. Even though I eventually changed my major to Set Design and Scenic Art for the Theatre this book has been the greatest single influence on my understanding and use of color. You can find a free PDF of The Elements of Color Here
One of the aspects of Itten’s theories that I find the most helpful and use is the Seven Types of Color Contrasts
About the Seven Color Contrasts
“We speak of contrast when distinct differences can be perceived between two compare effects. When we survey the characteristics of color effects, we can detect seven different kinds of contrast…Each is unique and in character and artistic value, in visual, expressive and symbolic effect; and together they constitute the fundamental resource of color design.”
- Contrast of Hue
- Light-dark contrast
- Cold-warm contrast
- Complementary contrast
- Simultaneous contrast
- Contrast of saturation
- Contrast of extension
Entire books can and have been written about each of these contrasts, so I decided to take them one at a time and try to explain how I used it in a painting.
The I painting chose to start with is perhaps the best example I’ve done in a long time of contrast of hue; out my backdoor 05_Trumpet Vine.
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