Drawing - Color

               The entire world is painted in color, from the blue sky to the green grass. Imagine a world without color.  It would be gloomy and depressing. Color is one of the most important aspects of a place. Every day we look at hundreds of different shades. I decided the topic of my last post should be color.

             

             A surprising fact is that color doesn’t really exist. It’s just a reflection of light. During the seventeenth century Isaac Newton did an experiment using a prism and a white light. He discovered that objects actually have no real color, they merely absorbed light rays, and the color that wasn’t absorbed is reflected to our eyes. (Lauer 226).

               

              There are hundreds of different color properties, but I decided to focus on using cool and warm colors. David Lauer, author of the book Design Basics, explains the concept of warm colors saying, “Touching an area of red will assuredly not burn your hand, but looking at red will induce a feeling of warmth” (Lauer 239). Warm colors are reds, yellows, and anything similar to these. You think of warm things when you see them like the sun, or a fire. Cool colors are blues, greens, and purples. In contrast to being reminded of heat, cool colors remind you of ice or snow.

              

           I wasn't sure what I wanted to draw, so I turned to Google for inspiration. Eventually, I decided to draw scenery with hills and a beautiful sunset in the background. First, I lightly drew an outline of where I wanted everything to be with a pencil. Then I drew out three trees with a black sharpie. Next, I colored in the hills with colors like green blue and purple. Finally, I drew a sun and colored the sky with yellow, orange, pink, and red. The warm sky, contrasts the cool hills. I really enjoyed not only learning more about using color in art, but also a scientific background on what color was.

Do you prefer to use color, or leave your drawings black and white?

Where do you see color in the world?

Lauer, David A. Design Basics. third ed., Thomson Learning, 1990.