Author: Garnet Garcia (Page 2 of 3)

Today we studied Josef Albers and his experiments in color relationships are used throughout the world in the study of design and color. One of the cool things about this study was how you through switching through different hues and values and saturations you were able to see which combinations created more intense interactions. At first we studied with simple things like the rectangles and squares that had the same color on the inside square/rectangle but varying colors on the outside ones, but the ones that I really enjoyed were the more complex ones where you were able to create color combinations that created illusions. There would be one main color in the middle that overlapped two colors on the top and bottom. Then, a final color would go on top of the main color to show a split across the whole image. Through changing the difference in value and hue, you could make it look like the main color was actually two different colors against the top and bottom ones. Such color interactions are extremely interesting when you look at them in the context of design because a simple change in one color could make another look completely different when it goes through the human eye. We also used this app called Huedoku which was actually more complicated than I thought. It was cool to see two colored that you didn’t think were related suddenly be a combination of two colors and you have this moment like “wow I didn’t know that’s how you could get that color”.

Time spent: about 30 mins

I was very excited to do this project for multiple reasons. The main reason though was because of the clear mental image I had of how I wanted to portray the color wheel. As someone who works with character designs and storyboarding, I think a lot about the emotions I want to set for different characters, scenes, and interactions in the story and a lot of that has to do with color. Even changing the color of a characters hair can cause a shift in how the viewer sees them, and that’s true even in real life when people dye their hair different colors to create a “mood” or “image” that’s more them. I chose to take each color and study it for the emotion that it is known to portray and even though the same color can represent multiple emotions especially if you change the saturation or value, I chose to stick to basic ones that were very familiar so I could create a simple and concise message with every character and have the most diversity of emotions possible. Of course inspiration for the hair came from myself and even though I could have chosen to color the shirt or the individual backgrounds instead, I felt that it showed a more unique way of showing a character “surrounded” by the associated color/emotion while still keeping the color to a small, neat area.

Time spent: 1 hour 30 mins

I took a picture of a Mac computer mouse with the light coming through the window. The already white and glossy surface of the mouse was made even more bright against the darker surface of the desk. The image itself is high-key with a pretty broad range. The contrast of the pure white against the darker more decorated desk (because of all of the marks and chips of the surface) creates a pretty good contrast but not one that is too intense. Part  of the mouse fades into the shadow and almost flows into the darker values of the desk, allowing a sort of flow between the contrasting values through the mid tones.  All in all, I think the lighting was able to make this a much more interesting and dynamic picture.

This plant was by the window of the gallery room on the 11th floor. Originally, it wasn’t that interesting of a picture because the greenness of the plant didn’t allow for such an intense contrast or really emphasize the value of the picture. However, in changing it to black and white with a filter I was able to get this really dark black as the main value of the composition. This is a low-key image with a broad range with high contrast with a not a lot of mid tones when compared to the image of the mouse above. One thing I really likes about this picture was how it captured all these little dots on the plant even in the really dark areas of the leaf in the front. It added a nice detail that I didn’t think I was going to be able to include and even though the spots aren’t big enough to create any real change to the value or composition or balance of this picture, I did like how the dots contrasted against one of the darkest areas of the image.

Time spent: 30 mins