Exploring Value and The Subtractive Color Theory

       

1. Discuss what you thought about creating the Value Scale and Color Wheel.

It was much harder than I thought because as a kid I did the same thing in art class and my assumption was that it wasn’t going to take long to finish the project. It took me all day to understand the concept of “real” versus “historic” primary colors. Once that got through to me, it became fairly easy. Finishing the value scale became harder and harder as I moved towards the color white. I wasn’t sure if my blacks were dark enough or if the grays were light enough.

2. Which media did you enjoy working with the best and why?

Working with the water paints was challenging because the paper I was using was absorbing the paints too much. But it was also the most fun because the frustration made it a more worthwhile project.

3. What was the most important discovery in the creation of these studies?

Using black and white to create values can create moods and emotions that are just as strong and expressive as any found in full color images. Although the use of black and gray colors is associated with darker feelings, it is possible to create other more hopeful and lighter moods using values that flow from dark to light. But overall, I found that by using black and white hues only, it is rather hard to create a sense of cheerfulness because those colors have a certain sense of starkness in them that deaden the spirit.

The color wheel was more fun because the range of experimentation that is possible is much wider. With color, I found that I could express or think of just about any emotion I wanted to, from profundity to sadness. The possibilities of color are endless.

The most important thing was realizing that my assumptions regarding color might need to be reevaluated. Also, the importance of values in the black and white scale is something I have overlooked for a long time and I certainly need to get in touch with that part of art.

4. What is the most important information you learned from watching the videos for this project? What is your opinion of the videos? I learnt from the color theory video that cyan, magenta and yellow are the “real” primary colors. This threw me off the loop because up until now I have always known that red, yellow and blue the primary colors and not “historic” primary colors.

The value steps video taught me how important it is use different pencils and attention to detail. I also found the use of grids to be an important part of any art project.