For Project 4, I was able to deepen my understanding of relativity and how colors have the power to change each other. I have always been fascinated with the relativity experiments and changing the hue, and especially value, of colors when each are surrounded by a different hue. I was able to understand how to re-create these artistic experiments in project four because I had to create them multiple times and show my knowledge of color and what can impact it.
For the first part, I created a digital copy of three different hues in the center and then changed their hue, value, and saturation by surrounding them with different colors. This activity was challenging at first because I could only see a value change when I was attempting to manipulate the outside squares. Yet, I learned that in order to change the value, I had to keep the value of the outside squares about the same and then, since the color I chose is a blue/purple, I emphasized the blue qualities in one and the purple qualities in the other through the outside squares. Therefore, the one that is surrounded by the blue looks more purple because it is being compared to a blue, and the one that is surrounded by purple looks bluer because it is being compared to purple. The outside colors emphasize the hue that the small squares do not have much of. For the value change, this was the simplest because I was able to change the value of the outside squares, which emphasized the opposite quality for the inside square. So, with the darker outside color, the inside square looks lighter. For the saturation change, this was the most challenging because it was difficult to see if the saturation was changing when I changed the outside hue. I figured out that I needed to keep the value of the outside squares the same and just change the hue. I was able to emphasize the saturation of the left hue by making the outside square a more neutral color.
In order to reinforce the concepts that we learned from the digital relativity activity, we created it on paper with new hues and had to make new backgrounds. I was able to learn from the digital version and apply the techniques to the paper copies. It was a little bit more difficult making the same changes to hue, value, and saturation because there was not as wide of a selection with the paper, yet it was easier to know what hue and value I needed in order to manipulate the color of the inner square. For the hue and saturation, I was able to find colors that were very similar in value, which allowed me to manipulate the hue and saturation much more easily. I believe that it was better to assemble the paper version of the relativity project second because it was more difficult, and so we could understand how various colors and hues manipulate each other with the digital version, and then apply this knowledge with the paper version.
For the illusion of 3D space and transparency, I was able to utilize the knowledge that I learned from mixing various hues for the saturation inventory and the color wheel because I learned what primary hues and what proportions were necessary to achieve a certain hue. By knowing how colors such as a blue/green are mixed, I am able to know the hues in each and what would happen if I added a color, such as purple. I understand that the blue would be brought out in the transparency due to both of the colors containing a primary blue. Also, from learning about transparency in the textbook, I was able to utilize median transparency in order to have the colors that I chose be more effective when becoming the in between value from the two parent colors. This was challenging with some of the hues and finding the correct value to go between them because of the selection of paper and I was also not sure what would go in between the two. I had an easier time with certain ones, such as the tint of the blue/green hue between the green and light blue. I also believe that the dark, mainly blue-green between the green and purple is successful in representing transparency. For the rectangle shape, it was fairly simple to identify a light source and then create a 3D shape using darker shades of the same hue to create depth.
With the Bezold Effect, I was able to show how the background color of a design can drastically change the appearance of the design that goes over top of it. This was a very enjoyable activity because I learned how to draw various designs, change their color, and then transform them by changing the background color. It is fascinating that the orange of the flower-like design comes forward and pops much more with the dark blue background rather than the soft tinted green. The soft red pops more in the design with the green background, yet it also looks like the shapes on the edges of the flowers are rounded in the dark blue background and are straighter in the tinted green background, which is interesting. Possibly because the the red has a darker value and so it blends more with the blue rather than the green. It is interesting to admire the sharpness in the design with the dark blue background that is not as present in the tinted green background. I believe this occurs because the yellow-orange and the tinted green are fairly similar in hue.
The progressive pattern was an enjoyable project as well because I enjoyed creating various patterns on the KaleidoPaint app and then transforming them in order to have the pattern progress. I utilized value to have the pattern that I made progress and so I manipulated the value of each shell shape to have them progress from completely black to white with the black design in the middle. Changing the value of the shell shape also creates depth because the all black shapes look as if they are hollow and as they get lighter, they are brought forward even more.
All of the elements of project 4 helped me deepen my understanding of relativity and how I can utilize color and value to manipulate the various qualities of colors.
mattyspicer.wordpress.com 