- Moonlight isn't really blue. It's actually slightly red but our visual perception tricks us into thinking that it's blue when things are dim.
- observe carefully when drawing in moonlight so not to be deceived.
EDGES AND DEPTH
- painterly control of blurriness, especially along the boundary of the form.
- Edges give a sense of depth
- Depth of field-- keep the background out of focus
- Intersecting contours-- different focus shows different planes
- edges in moonlight-- less sharp edges at night
COLOR OPPOSITIONS
- complements mimic natural opposites like fire and ice. Use complements to show contrast and direct the eye. one complement brings out the other
COLOR CONSTANCY
- We interpret local colors as stable and unchanging regardless of the effects of colored illuminations etc.
ADAPTATION AND CONTRAST
- Colors are affected by other colors
- Cool Light and Warm Shadow
- having both warm and cool keeps things looking natural
- Simultaneous contrast: The Hue, saturation or brightness of a background color can produce the opposite qualities in the object sitting in front of it
- Successive contrast: looking at one color changes the next color we see
- Chromatic adaptation: our visual system becomes accustomed to a give color of illumination. When the illumination changes, our eyes adjust accordingly.
- Color constancy: local colors appear consistent, regardless of lighting circumstances
- Size of the objet: the smaller a colored object becomes, the less distinct the color looks.
APPETIZING AND HEALING COLORS
- Certain colors promote healing, the appetite etc.
- Healing colors: avoid red and yellow
- appetite: warm, bright colors. IE McDonalds
ELEMENTS OF COLOR
CHROMA AND VALUE
- when painting from direct observations, tones are translated and wont be exact. That's okay
- Peak chroma value is where a given hue reaches its greatest chroma. blue is most intense when dark, red is most intense at it's middle brightest.
LOCAL COLOR
- Local color is the color of the surface of an object as it appears close up in white light
- usually when mixing for a painting, the colors you mix will vary from the precise local color which is supposed to happen
GRAYS AND NEUTRALS
- Grays and neutrals are opposites of intense colors
- more paintings fail from using too much intense color than too much gray
- gray provides a setting for bright accents.
THE GREEN PROBLEM
- the human eye is most sensitive to yellow green wavelengths
- use blues to balance it out it will still look green
- make green by mixing yellow and blue not straight green pigment
- vary your mixtures
- Have a pink or reddish background and paint on top green. this is called Smuggling reds
GRADATION
- gradual shift of color. Looks pretty in the sky
TINTS
- Adding white to a color raises the tint making it pastel. These convey a feeling of light
