Colour Theory

A colour theory is made up of three parts, the colour wheel, colour harmony and the context of how colours are used.

The Colour Wheel
The colour wheel is exactly what is says, a wheel of colour. A proper definition for this is, 'A circle with different coloured sectors used to show the relationship between colours. Below you can see how people have represented colour wheels in the past, in comparison to the colour wheels that we use today.

Image sourced from http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory

There is also a more in depth representation of colour wheels. As there can be a 3 part, 6 part and a 12 part colour wheel. The 3 part colour wheel shows the 'Primary Colours', red, yellow and blue. Te 6 part colour wheel shows the 'Secondary Colours', red, yellow, blue, green, orange and purple. Green, orange and purple are the results of mixing together the primary colours in different ways. The 12 part colour wheel shows the 'Tertiary Colours', red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, yellow/orange, red/orange, red/purple, blue/purple, blue/green and yellow/green. Some of these colours are created by mixing together the primary and secondary colours, which is why you get a hue with a 2 part name, such as the blue/green.

Image sourced from http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory

We used the colour theory in our next task. Which was another life drawing class. However the focus was now on the use of colour, as we now had the knowledge of the colour wheel and how it worked. A red light was used to light up the model, so when I created my work I used the colours red, orange and yellow to draw the model himself. And different shades of green to create the shadows of the model on the wall.

Above is my final outcome. I chose to focus on his upper body, in which I used only coloured fineliners. I decided to create the whole image by drawing diagonal lines to create a textured look. I also drew lines closer together if I wanted to make parts of the drawing look darker and done the opposite if I wanted parts of the drawing to look lighter. I am quite pleased with the outcome of my work considering that it is my first attempt at creating a coloured life drawing.

Collage

A collage is a collection or combination of things/objects that are placed together to create a visual image/object. Collages can be both 2D and 3D. One of the most famous examples of a collage is by a man called 'Richard Hamilton'. It was a political piece about America called, "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?".

Image Sourced From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14901992

This artwork is very well thought through. It is made to look like an ordinary home but it has some strange objects about, such as the oversized tin of ham and the lamp shade on top of the woman's head. I went on to create a couple of my own collages. The first collage I created was an abstract one, which I used mainly images out of the 'Men's Health' magazine. It shows how women are portrayed by men in todays world in a more abstract style, but with a slight political influence.

The second collage I created was more politically based, rather than the focus being on making the piece look abstract. The Politics in this piece are about men and fitness in todays world. It is an ever-growing area. Men want to be powerful, so one way of doing this is to go to the gym and look after their bodies. In my collage I have shown foods that men now eat in order to keep themselves looking 'good'.

Rule Of Thirds

The rule of thirds is basically a grid which is 3x3 over an image/piece of artwork, which helps you to position things to look more interesting. For example below is an image of a bottle in the foreground and sea water/mountains in the background. The bottle is positioned 2/3 of the way along the image horizontally as it looks more engaging when positioned like this. If it was positioned centrally it would not have as much of an impact.

Composition

Composition is the positioning or arrangement of visual elements within artwork. This can be any form of artwork, such as Fine Art, Graphic Design, Photography, etc. 'Henri Matisse' said that, "Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter's command to express his feelings". Composition is very important, especially in ways that you want the viewers eye to be lead around your artwork/photograph.To display understanding of composition my class had a life drawing session. We had to use only charcoal to display only one colour, and focus more on the composition of the image. At first I struggled on where to begin with the life drawing as it was the first life drawing class I had been involved in, but I soon found my stride. Below is my outcomes...

The Golden Section

The Golden Section(Phi) is the ratio 1:1.618. This ratio is understood to be the most favoured ratio by the human, especially in paintings and photographs. The ratio looks like this:

'Leonardo Da Vinci' was known to use this ratio in all of his paintings. We can see how he has used it extensively in 'The Last Supper'.

The Golden section seems to be what makes images interesting to the eye, It can be seen in near enough everything, in the length and ratio of our arms, in our faces, and in our bodies.

Mark-Making

Mark-Making is what it says on the tin, it is making a mark. It sounds very simple but to make a meaningful mark can be slightly challenging. Mark-Making is basically the lines textures, patterns, colours we create on any surface. Putting a pencil to paper creates a mark. Writing creates a mark. Most people create a mark everyday. Mark-Making can be free where you don't completely control the marks you make, but look for a good outcome. Or they can be controlled where you have in your mind the type of mark you wish to make. I completed some mark making which involved me using only black colured media, so I used pencil, ink and charcoal. Our task was to fold the paper into 12 rectangles and fill the 8 central rectangles with different marks. First I used Charcoal....

Next I used pencil to make marks...

Then I used ink to make marks...

And Finally I made a sheet which had marks which I favoured the most from my previous sheets, which I copied exactly, tweaked slightly or incorporated more than one design within one rectangle.