[The mind-bending world of colouring your pictures...]
• Colour is important!
• Colour is important!
• Value relates to the chroma, saturation, purity or intensity of any given colour.
• Notan is a Japanese concept of how light and dark within an image can create harmony, dynamism or beauty. Notan formalises similar principles of value in the composition of artwork.
• Learn through play - making is learning
• Colour palettes are based on the principles of colour theory
• Within a palette, colours may contrast, accent, compliment, harmonise, or vary. Simple palettes are often the most dynamic, as I found first-hand through my visual skills and visual narratives work. Overcomplicating colours and elements do not make an image any more successful; intact, they can be harder to read and understand.
• What role does value play in planning composition?
The overall value, or key, will give the picture a certain mood. This can be used deliberately to portray a light, happy mood or darker, somber mood. Contrasting values can be effective for a violent scene. Important elements can contrast greatly (dark against light or vice versa) to become the focal point and less important items can be played down by grouping them together by their similar value.
• How can we use values to focus attention on certain information?
The greatest contrast of values can lead our eye to a certain focal point. Objects become more conspicuous when placed to a value that contrasts with it - dark against light, light against dark. Having many similar items together in together near each other will make them less conspicuous and therefor less attention-grabbing.
• According to the handout, what are the most commonly used basic value plans? How many values does it recommend you use in a picture?
The most commonly used basic value plans include light against dark, dark against light, dark and halftone against light, and light and dark against half tone. Few simple values are recommended so as not to overcomplicate the image and confuse the viewer.
• As always, although this information is interesting, can it be challenged?
Of course! What is wrong with having many values to create great discord and commotion, unsettling the viewer? Why does a light key have to be assigned to a picnic? It could be in a low key to contrast to the scenery. What is wrong with inconsistent values in a picture? This may be a deliberate device by the illustrator.
Jeffrey Alan Love
This illustration was my favourite from the presentation for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the viewer very quickly understands how gigantic and powerful the dark character is just because of how much he fills the frame; cleverly cropped at this torso and midriff to show his loaded guns and strong, angular fingers enveloping them. Symmetry! I love a good bit of symmetry for balance and harmony. The eye is immediately drawn to the white figure / 'hero' because there is the most contrast between values - white set against black will alert the eye the most. The mob donned with pitchforks and weapons are more subtle as seen as in the distance because of how far back they are, scaled smaller and how the half-tone sits against the white of the page - not being as striking as white against black. The halftone glasses and badge of the sheriff sitting against the black are also secondary, subtle information. Details that aren't noticed at first, but tell the narrative the more the viewer explores the image. How they curve around the villain in a circular motion allows the eye to explore the whole illustration instead of getting lost out of the frame, drawing them back towards the dark shadowed baddie in the centre.
• What role does value play in planning composition?
The overall value, or key, will give the picture a certain mood. This can be used deliberately to portray a light, happy mood or darker, somber mood. Contrasting values can be effective for a violent scene. Important elements can contrast greatly (dark against light or vice versa) to become the focal point and less important items can be played down by grouping them together by their similar value.
• How can we use values to focus attention on certain information?
The greatest contrast of values can lead our eye to a certain focal point. Objects become more conspicuous when placed to a value that contrasts with it - dark against light, light against dark. Having many similar items together in together near each other will make them less conspicuous and therefor less attention-grabbing.
• According to the handout, what are the most commonly used basic value plans? How many values does it recommend you use in a picture?
The most commonly used basic value plans include light against dark, dark against light, dark and halftone against light, and light and dark against half tone. Few simple values are recommended so as not to overcomplicate the image and confuse the viewer.
• As always, although this information is interesting, can it be challenged?
Of course! What is wrong with having many values to create great discord and commotion, unsettling the viewer? Why does a light key have to be assigned to a picnic? It could be in a low key to contrast to the scenery. What is wrong with inconsistent values in a picture? This may be a deliberate device by the illustrator.
Jeffrey Alan Love
This illustration was my favourite from the presentation for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the viewer very quickly understands how gigantic and powerful the dark character is just because of how much he fills the frame; cleverly cropped at this torso and midriff to show his loaded guns and strong, angular fingers enveloping them. Symmetry! I love a good bit of symmetry for balance and harmony. The eye is immediately drawn to the white figure / 'hero' because there is the most contrast between values - white set against black will alert the eye the most. The mob donned with pitchforks and weapons are more subtle as seen as in the distance because of how far back they are, scaled smaller and how the half-tone sits against the white of the page - not being as striking as white against black. The halftone glasses and badge of the sheriff sitting against the black are also secondary, subtle information. Details that aren't noticed at first, but tell the narrative the more the viewer explores the image. How they curve around the villain in a circular motion allows the eye to explore the whole illustration instead of getting lost out of the frame, drawing them back towards the dark shadowed baddie in the centre.
Practical Task: Fan Art Poster
My absolute favourite person in the world, in a non-ironic way, is Rick Astley. As soon as a fan poster was mentioned I knew it had to be based on him. Or peanut butter. Or both!? Here is the step-by-step process of creating my chosen composition from a range of initial ideas and roughs. I gave consideration to the frame, depth, viewpoint, line of sight, rule of thirds and potential hotspots on intersecting lines to draw the viewer in.
• Aesthetic: From the previous Visual Language sessions, which informed the process of my Pearly Kings & Queens picture book, I now really love simplified shapes and forms married with basic blocks of colour and a speckled dust texture on top to give a sense of nostalgia and charm. I gave my characters a cut paper aesthetic, without them actually being cut from paper, and think they turned out really well digitally.
• Colours: My peer and I chose one colour each, which coincidentally became complimentary colours of blue and orange; contrasting each other and opposite on the colour wheel.
• Frame: The frame crops the closest figures' bodies to bring the viewer closer to the action at the stage, as well as cropping the audience and background on both sides to show that they both keep expanding outwards. The picture is cropped directly at the edge of the spotlight on the right, again to bring us closer to the main attraction. I split the frame into 3 parts; a third for the audience, a third for Rick Astley's level, and the final smaller third for the ceiling. The ceiling is angled to the right to lead the eye back down towards the right side where Rick is performing. I placed information in intersecting hotspots including a fan's hand, the stage meeting the spotlight and the arch of one of the back doors.
• Depth: Figures directly in front of the audience are bigger, with audience members further out to the front of the stage becoming smaller. The audience proportions get slightly smaller as they shift out of the frame on the right-hand side, contrasting against the background getting smaller on the left-hand side on a perspective angle.
• Line of Sight: The viewpoint is that of an audience member, directly behind the crowd, who become smaller as they reach the front of the stage. The focal point, to the centre-right, is Mr. Rick Astley himself - helped by the contrasting values of light against dark and half-tone in the spotlight. The spotlight broadens downward to reach the circular stage which is overlapped by crowd members. The hands reach up to the doors in the background, which lead out of the frame to give a sense of distance and perspective. The eye doesn't stay too far out of the frame and is instantly drawn back to the figure of Rick Astley again. I chose a lined, retro, almost 'video-gamey' font to allude to the past and finish the composition to give something for the spotlight to reach up towards. The early 80s was all about a 'new world' with music, films and life becoming more technological and mechanic, with the home computer boom, businesses and enterprises expanding and people getting left behind in the musk of the '70s if they didn't go along with the glittering and shiny new aesthetic. The font's central alignment gives the viewer a sense of order and harmony. I didn't want to overlap too many elements and make the image too visually complicated.
• Value: I gave consideration for the figures in the front being darker representing a closeness and the background being a halftone, showing it is further away, with the main character enveloped by contrasting light against dark and halftone. However, using a screen print process made this redundant as my halftones became full blocks of colour which then took away from the depth I was attempting to create through varying value. My positives had to be edited so that the grey areas had to become black so that they would properly expose on the screen through the emulsion. I thought that grey tones would only allow a small amount of light through, thus giving a light blue and light orange background - but, unfortunately, screen print doesn't work that way!
• Aesthetic: From the previous Visual Language sessions, which informed the process of my Pearly Kings & Queens picture book, I now really love simplified shapes and forms married with basic blocks of colour and a speckled dust texture on top to give a sense of nostalgia and charm. I gave my characters a cut paper aesthetic, without them actually being cut from paper, and think they turned out really well digitally.
• Colours: My peer and I chose one colour each, which coincidentally became complimentary colours of blue and orange; contrasting each other and opposite on the colour wheel.
• Frame: The frame crops the closest figures' bodies to bring the viewer closer to the action at the stage, as well as cropping the audience and background on both sides to show that they both keep expanding outwards. The picture is cropped directly at the edge of the spotlight on the right, again to bring us closer to the main attraction. I split the frame into 3 parts; a third for the audience, a third for Rick Astley's level, and the final smaller third for the ceiling. The ceiling is angled to the right to lead the eye back down towards the right side where Rick is performing. I placed information in intersecting hotspots including a fan's hand, the stage meeting the spotlight and the arch of one of the back doors.
• Depth: Figures directly in front of the audience are bigger, with audience members further out to the front of the stage becoming smaller. The audience proportions get slightly smaller as they shift out of the frame on the right-hand side, contrasting against the background getting smaller on the left-hand side on a perspective angle.
• Line of Sight: The viewpoint is that of an audience member, directly behind the crowd, who become smaller as they reach the front of the stage. The focal point, to the centre-right, is Mr. Rick Astley himself - helped by the contrasting values of light against dark and half-tone in the spotlight. The spotlight broadens downward to reach the circular stage which is overlapped by crowd members. The hands reach up to the doors in the background, which lead out of the frame to give a sense of distance and perspective. The eye doesn't stay too far out of the frame and is instantly drawn back to the figure of Rick Astley again. I chose a lined, retro, almost 'video-gamey' font to allude to the past and finish the composition to give something for the spotlight to reach up towards. The early 80s was all about a 'new world' with music, films and life becoming more technological and mechanic, with the home computer boom, businesses and enterprises expanding and people getting left behind in the musk of the '70s if they didn't go along with the glittering and shiny new aesthetic. The font's central alignment gives the viewer a sense of order and harmony. I didn't want to overlap too many elements and make the image too visually complicated.
• Value: I gave consideration for the figures in the front being darker representing a closeness and the background being a halftone, showing it is further away, with the main character enveloped by contrasting light against dark and halftone. However, using a screen print process made this redundant as my halftones became full blocks of colour which then took away from the depth I was attempting to create through varying value. My positives had to be edited so that the grey areas had to become black so that they would properly expose on the screen through the emulsion. I thought that grey tones would only allow a small amount of light through, thus giving a light blue and light orange background - but, unfortunately, screen print doesn't work that way!
Reflection
I'm not entirely happy with how my final screen prints have turned out - largely because of the final colours. They didn't represent the shades that I wanted when digitally painting my rough on screen, in my draft version, and were too bright and transparent. The orange overpowers the blue as it is more saturated and opaque, and the blue is far too light and transparent. To attempt to fix this, I went over one of my screen prints with a blue marker which only helped slightly. I do like the mark-making that was caused by the pen and think it gives my poster a bit of variety where the blocks of colour may have been monotonous. If I was to do this again (which I would love to at some stage) I would select different shades of the colours I chose - adding yellow to the orange to take out some of the burning saturation and toning it down, and adding black to the blue to give it a more opaque and darker finish - in attempt to tackle the colour issues. Also, the white outline around the font only seemed to work on the blue layer so I would need to address this in my positives and tweak the error.
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