Art 101 Exam Review

Review for Exam Two, Art 101

Basic Design, ULM - Mr. Fassett

in addition to exam one review

Color is not pigment! Color is not light!

Color does not occur in the eye, or on a surface.

Color occurs in the brain.

Color is . . .
a neurophysiological, psychological, response associated with light frequency stimulus.

Color names are labels we use to describe our response
when we experience different frequencies of light.
Our response to frequencies toward the
3800 Ångstrom region of the spectrum, we call blue.
Our response to frequencies toward the
7600 Ångstrom region of the spectrum, we call red.
Our response to no frequencies of light is called black.
Our response to all frequencies of light is called white.

Yes! Black and white are colors.
They are achromatic, however, without hue. Since they do not have a hue, they do not have a chroma. They exist as value only.

Color is very persuasive, but not essential.
Many great works exist in black, white, and gray.
Color is not absolute, it is a subjective perception influenced by experience and environment.

Color Terms: analogous, complementary, monochromatic (one hue), achromatic (no hue), polychromatic (many hues), primary, secondary, tertiary, neutrals,

Warm colors are associated with heat, sun, fire, etc., (appear to advance toward the front of the picture plane).
Cool colors are associated with coolness, sky, water, forests. (appear to recede toward the back of the the picture plane).

Hue, Value, Chroma (intensity)

Hue is the color name, the position on the color wheel.

Value is lightness or darkness of the color.

Chroma is the intensity or purity of the color's hue


	The Munsell Color Wheel

	Roll over hues to see their complements.

Munsell color system:
Five primaries, Five secondaries, but a base color wheel of 100 hues.

Munsell color notation
R 5/10 (Red, value 5 / chroma 10), A pure red.
BG 7/6 (Blue-Green, value 7 / chroma 6) A tint of blue-green.

(A munsell chroma number of 7 or more indicates strong chroma.)

Additive color: light primaries RGB (red, green, blue). (used in film, computer monitors, the world wide web)

Subtractive color: pigment primaries (cyan, magenta, yellow).
Full color printing (process printing) four inks CMYK, (cyan, magenta, yellow, black)

Linear approach to form: shapes are defined by outline or contour.

Painterly approach to form: imagery is developed as open masses of color or value rather than closed edge shapes.

Local color is the natural color of an object regardless of surrounding color influence. (Local value is the natural lightness or darkness of an object regardless of surrounding light or shadow.

Optical color is the visual appearance of an object which is influenced by quality of illumination, reflected light, shadow, and atmospheric conditions,

Arbitrary or subjective color is not dependent on visual description but on the expressive and aesthetic intention of the artist

Value scale (ten step standard 0 = black, 10 = white)

Value key is the overall tonality of a work (overall light is high key, overall dark is low key, intermediate key falls between. Major value contrast occurs when the lightest and darkest values used are more than three steps apart. A difference of three steps or less is considered minor value contrast.

Neutralizing a color means reducing its chroma.

Chroma is a measure of hue. The amount of "color" present. Lower chroma means less color, less pure, less amount of hue.

Mixing color

Colors are like men, they don't change unless they have to.

Adding a lower value (darker) color will lower the value of the original color.
Adding a higher value (lighter) color will raise the value of the original color.
Adding a color of the same value will not affect the value of the original color.
Adding a direct complement or achromatic color will reduce chroma without affecting hue.

Adding white to a color produces a tint.
Adding black to a color produces a shade.
Of course this will also lower chroma.

Simultaneous contrast is a color effect that affects the appearance of adjacent colors by emphasizing their differences.

A gray square on a black field will appear lighter in value than the same square on a white field because the white in the gray is different from the black field and this difference is exaggerated making the square appear lighter (whiter).