I really want to investigate an important area of my practice that has always interested me, but that I would like to improve upon and find out more about. Colour is ubiquitous, it is everywhere and features not only in the creative world, but in everyones life. It can affect us on a psychological level, impacting mood and emotion, whilst also having very scientific attributes of how and when to use colour, how it works and why. I think an investigation into colour, colour theory and our emotional attachments to colours could be a really interesting project for this module, I have therefore come up with following initial thoughts to get started.
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| Newton's Colour Wheel |
Key Themes
- Colour perception
- emotion
- colour theory
- colour associations
- colour associations
Potential Essay Questions
Q: To what extent does the use of colour
(/colour theory) - influence the audiences emotional response and connection to
illustration and artwork?
Q: How has colour influenced society and
culture?
Quick-fire notes / ideas
- Why when a tree looks blue in twilight – must the artist continue to paint the tree in green?
- Could do a series of pieces where the subject and compositions use and choice of colour are completely untraditional – but where they still look correct to the eye. Light and time of day must play a part in this – ie a lemon in shadow looks orange or dark red. A trees leaves in twilight look blue and grey. Etc etc
- Play with colour!
- True to life colours vs playing with colour. I.e. A pink lemon, a blue tree etc.
- Peoples emotional attachment to colours – favourite vs most disliked colour and why.
- Colour theory and rules
- Famous colour pallets by artists and why
- Colour associations – what does blue mean? What does red mean? Is this different for people in varying cultures and throughout history and why?
- Could pick one colour in particular to focus on such as the colour red
- Research ideas: survey LCA students for favourite colours, least favourite colours, most memorable colour, most emotive colour and why. Favourite colour of clothing etc etc. The real and in depth relationship between people and their colours. What colour do they find most serene. What colour do they find most aggressive / angry etc.
- - Ask students to describe their favourite and least favourite colours.
- - Based on these answers I could create a series of pieces using particular colour palettes derived from their specific answers to the “colour survey” and ask them to respond to them. Pieces with subtle hints of their most hated colour amongst a variety of their favourite ones – could use the colour wheel and complementarity colours to change their minds about their least favourite colour etc etc.
- The colour added to food products and why. Does it make the item of food more appetising? The more vibrant the more tasty?
- Colour in nature and its purpose.
- What does the choice in colour imply?
- What if the colours are changed completely – the characters colour implies if they are good or evil – red vs blue – swap it around and the implication changes.
- The colour of shadows and why
- Focus on one colour in particular and check out its use throughout history by varying artists in different cultures. Do the meanings have synergy or have the meanings, responses and uses for those colours changed?
- The way a background colour effects the rest of the composition / foreground mid ground back ground
- People who taste and hear in colour – research.
- A colour wheel changer with various layers of different colour so that the audience can set the layers to collate at varying points in different orders to create a different ‘type’ or ‘mood’ of image. Serene, dark, angry, sad etc.
- Colour and emotion
- Types and effects of colour blindness. Does this affect mood
- Colour as a subliminal
- The importance of colour choice within an image – the tactical
- Research interesting facts about colours and play with / challenge these theories.
- Email and contact artists who have distinctive colour palettes within their work and ask why they have chosen these etc.
- Why certain colours are used for certain things – is it to be more responsive to the audience? The colour red for stop for instance – why is it red?
- Does colour have a gender – as in do certain gender types prefer a certain array of colours and why – investigate
- The taste of colour. Interview someone who tastes colours and could do a reportage book based on how they see feel and taste colour. Drawings of them and the things they taste in that specific colour. Very personal and emotive.
- What other emotions / emotional attributes relate to colours?
- Investigate people who give other people coloured “auras”
- Mood rings?
- Artists colour choices vs audience and influence of colour – does the intention follow through to the audience?
- How varying artists in different fields with different focuses/audience use colour. Compare?
- Is colour subjective?
- Investigate palettes
- Colour as a subliminal message
- Colour and (the) senses
- Colour and 3D – effects
- Colour – from the personal, emotional and evocative to the manipulative, striking and common
- Is there any such as thing as dull? If so what?
- The way colours, shades, light interact with one another
- "Broken colour”
- What does the choice in colour palette say about the artist?
- What does the choice in colour palettes tell the audience?
- Could the audience create/ choose their own colour palette in an interactive piece of artwork done by me – and find out what this says about them?
- A world without colour? Ask people to imagine and describe the feelings etc…
- How humans perceive and define colour
- Gay pride – rainbow – how colour is used and has broader connotations and implications
- Colour boundaries – where one person sees green another sees blue and how this influences how the artwork is seen/understood
- How do different textures effect colour? (Hella J – her yellow sofa project)
- How does the use of different media affect the same colour? (Magenta for instance across paint, pencil and digital)
- People as their colours
- Quotes from people about colours and a visual illustrated representation of this in that colour palette – almost reportage
- Optics & optical illusion – with colour
- Chromotherapy
- If we are visual beings – what part does colour play in this?
- Does colour belong in the realm of science or subjective emotion?
- Colour obsessions
- Colour phobias
- Colour syndromes (synesthesia etc)
- - Often overlooked and undervalued - I want this project to be a celebration and appreciation of colour and its importance within our lives.
- Some creatives are driven by science and some are driven by emotion when it comes to colour. Discuss these opposing positions. Relate to a question?
Key research starting points
- Research about colour as a whole
- Power colours
- What is the psychology of colour
- Psychological properties of colours
- Interesting and uncommon facts about colour / colours
- The impact of colour on human behaviours and emotion (in relation to art)
- Colour and emotion
- The behaviours of colour – how colour and light behave
- The importance of colour
- The chemistry of colour and art
- Chemistry in art / colour
- Properties of colour (hue, tint, brightness etc)
- Colour perception
- The varying uses of colour (in and out of the creative world)
- The semantics of colour ( semantics: the study and meaning of words in language – but in this instance the study and classification of colour)
- Colour, colour theory and abstraction
- Triadic artwork (famous?)
- How humans perceive and define colour
- The application of colour
- Colour systems
- Chromotherapy
- Fauvist art movement
- Colour theory and mood