Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

I learned about this fresco in my history of fine arts class. It really caught my attention with its vivid, yet colorful, portrayal of such a gruesome and awesome scene. In the top right lies the angels whom watch over the damned. The use of gradual change in intensity of silver and blue with the addition of highlights in the front give the realistic perspective that’s so iconic with Renaissance art. To the left of this, you see demons fly in with some Damned people and there is established the color palates between demons and humans. The Damned are shown with an irregular reddish skin tone to matched the burning feelings of being in Hell and the demons act as complementary and slightly complementary colors (such as green or yellow) with their uncomfortably surreal skin.

A fresco from the San Brizio chapel, Orvieto Cathedral, Orvieto, Italy. Made by Luca Signorelli, the piece is called The Damned Cast into Hell.

The shading and body positions act tense and painful almost like fire, something really reminiscent of The Battle of Ten Nudes, which compliments the agonizing situation of the people that Luca Signorelli is trying to replicate. As the audience grasps the size of the unfortunate souls to undergo this ordeal, the eyes slowly and surely go back up top to the horizon where, whatever colors under that, are neutralized by the subtle white and gradual blue of the sky. This ties the bottom half to the top half and gives the overall piece a sense of completion.

I love the use of complementary colors used within this piece. Even with some modern pieces of graphic design, I love the use of red and green to create an effect of chaos and hell. But in addition to this, the use of perfect shading and subtle intensity adjustments to make the overall piece seem real but miserable.

Amazing-Sylvain Sarraih  Illustration commissioned by MrSuicideSheep for the music video “Need You”feat. Dia Frampton by Illenium Art work link :https://www.artstation.com/artwork/2bP8Y  video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96lCUfORlOo

This illustration artwork is done by the artist Sylvain Sarrailh. The artwork commissioned by “MrSucidedSheep” for a music video, the song is called “Need you” (feat. Día Frampton) by Illenium. The song and the artwork match well together. Color, just like music, can convey emotions, or mood. The song is sad but beautiful. The orange color of the sunset can give the audience/listener (in this case) an emotional happy feeling. The color orange reflects warmth, which can be light and playful. It’s not as intense or aggressive as red. But It can either help people feel relax and stabilizes emotion or it can excite them. Just like the color in this art piece, the song also has the beats that excite the listener, and the melody to for a deeper emotion.

In this illustration, orange is emphasized, to show the beauty of the sunset. On the upper right, the cloud color has the tint of hues orange, to create the light and mellow tone. However, on the upper left the cloud color has the shades of the hues orange, with a little bit of orange-red. That implies the more excited mood. It looks like the two are colliding, with the combination in the middle, which can give the reader a mixed feeling of both excited, and relaxed. The black of the mountains creates a contrast with the white cloud on the bottom, and the orange cloud on the top. Just like a real sunset, where the sun meets, the color seems brighter and more intense. The clouds on the bottom with the mountains are much darker, and with much more saturation.

Color has such a huge impact when it comes to looking at an image. Color can help in directing a viewer’s eye, color can help with making certain parts of the image stand out more than the rest, color can play mind tricks, and much more.

This is a photo taken by SteveCampbell, of an abandoned railway station in Australia. Link to the original image.

In the image that I chose, a majority of the scene is filled with different shades of green; the amount of foliage and plants are what fills the environment. The picture also displays analogous colors; there’s a spectrum of hues that range from dark green > light green > yellow green> yellow > brown. A little off set from the center is pitch black, the tunnel in which light is unable to reach. The black color gives the tunnel that sort of ominous and eerie feel to it, it’s a huge contrast to the environment that’s right next to it. The lighthearted vibes that come from the surrounding vegetation reflects that of peacefulness and calmness. Which is why I find this image so interesting. The harsh contrast between the intimidating dark tunnel and the saturated setting offsets one another.

Greece Travel Guide. National Geographic Travel. (30 December, 2009).

I pulled this picture from the National Geographic Travel website. Not only is it beautiful, but it captures the hillside of Santorini at sunset. Looking at the white/tan building there is a lot of color contrast between that and the rounded roof tops. While blue and white/tan aren’t analogous colors it still creates vibrant and noticeable difference. The tan versus the white on certain buildings are analogous just because they are of a lighter color and would be sitting closer together on the color wheel. The difference in those colors didn’t catch my eye as quick as the blue and red did. This is why I think they are closer in color (analogous).

Even the little red building at the top right corner contrasts the rest of the picture. It is used to intensify the rest of the bright and bold colors like the blues and the bit of yellow in the background (these three colors make up the primary color wheel). The sunset and island in the background have more of a saturated value to it. It’s a soft pink that fades up into a white. This is due to a variation of a hue produced by the addition of white according to “Graphic Design: The New Basics”.

This image was pulled from an informative website for color-blindness. This specific example was made to test people who suffer from protanopia blindness, deuteranopia blindness, and partial deficiency blindness. A normal person will see both colors, while a person with any of these color-seeing defects will only see one.

The example above shows a color-blind test used to determined what kind of “Color-blind” a person is based on how they see reds, greens, yellows, and blues. I chose this example specifically because it exemplifies contrasting colors and interaction of colors. The various hues of black in the circle intensify both the pink colors as well as the orange colors by contributing a clear contrast between them. As we can see, there are plenty of different hues between the three main colors shown here. The main three colors are black, pink, and orange.

Within these three colors, we have 2-3 analogous colors between them. In the pink area, we can see the main pink color as well as a darker, more magenta-like, pink version and a lighter version of pink that is scattered around as well. In the orange area, we see a similar pattern of color choices. We have a main orange color followed by a darker and lighter hue of orange to satisfy a small contrast between them all without being too far apart to confuse them for another color. In the dark area behind the “96”, we also have an identical variation of color values to match the last two examples. We have a darker gray color in the middle of the color spectrum used here, and we have a much darker gray, almost black rather, and a lighter gray color to coincide with pattern of colors used throughout this visual.

In each separate area, all colors are analogous to each other because they exist relatively close together on the color wheel. Because we have analogous colors working together in this example, by default we will not have any complementary colors. To have complementary colors, we would need to have near or complete opposite colors on the color wheel present.

This graphic was pulled from a list of notable designs inspired by space and space travel. The creator of the work, Tom Anders Watkins, was inspired by the low-orbit jump made by Felix Baumgartner.

In the color-filled design at right, there are many basic reasons responsible for the success of the scheme used. For starters, the colorful rounded oblongs our astronaut is falling through are comprised of complimentary colors. The darker shades of red, compliment the darker shades of blue/purple. At the same time, the lighter shades of red/salmon, compliment the lighter shades of blue. The variations of saturation and hue also provide a gradient-like effect where the background colors look as if they are moving past the astronaut. Furthermore, the overlapping of the colors allows for the complimentary effect to come out in full force. In essence, the colors are greatly intensified because of the proximity of the counterparts. It is a visual mind game, as the different wave lengths of light, ride together; juxtaposed in perfect contrast.

The aspect of this particular design that is most successful however, is the strategic variation in value, or tone. As mentioned, the existence of lighter and darker shades of the same colors, allows for a stunning gradient effect. The lighter oblongs have had their tint altered to increase their luminance, thus creating a much more striking contrast to the darker oblongs. These have had there shade altered, to produce a color more deprived of vibrance, with the gradual introduction of more black. In addition to this, the overall design involves contrasting temperatures within its color scheme. Moreover, there exists a pattern of sorts, in which the warmer temptress give way to cooler, which then give way to warmer, and so on and so fourth. The repetition suggests a linear progress in space, as the eye moves down the graphic. This gives the illusion that there may be hotter and colder elements in this celestial scene, and ultimately makes for a stronger message.

GIF Ad for Microsoft to share “the benefits of pairing Microsoft accessories with Microsoft premium devices.” (Click image to visit source)

This ad campaign that was created for Microsoft was designed by a company called DoubleKnot Creative that is owned by a friend of my family. The two images were originally designed to be a .gif, which indicates that this ad is made to be viewed on a screen. In addition to this ad, there are also two other variations, including a marshmallow paired with a campfire, and a treasure chest paired with an old map.

The highly saturated and bright hues in the first image contrast beautifully with the muted and classic colors seen in the second image. This seemingly basic design actually has lots of complex components of design within it. The eye is drawn to the bold, sans-serif text and the brilliant red next to it.

The bright white rabbit contrasts beautifully with the red square behind it, as does the dark hat against the light green square. Not only do the objects within the squares contrast with these colors, but the squares themselves are complementary to each other.

This color pairing only adds to the shade, tint, and saturation disparity between the two images. The shading within the hat and rabbit icons themselves add to the depth of these graphics too. On the rabbit’s stomach and in the ears and bottom side of the tail, you can see that there is a slightly darker and bluer shade than the overall color of the rabbit. This slight modification of intensity really changes the feeling of these icons.

On the top hat, the lighter tint in the vertical stripe gives the illusion of depth and roundness to the bottom part of the graphic. In addition, the darker shading that is underneath the brim of the hat, parallel to the highly saturated red stripe, creates a shadow, adding to this illusion of depth within the icon. These variations in value add deepness and subtle detail to these otherwise basic images.

Colorful Italian architecture that shows the relationship between analogous color.

I decided I wanted to show an image of a colorful Italian home, because I know that there is a lot of colorful architecture there, and I knew there would be one that fit what this chapter is talking about. I especially liked this particular house/block because the colors were analogous but still had a good variation. The striped building in the middle has colors that are on the same spectrum, with the orangy-red and dark yellow complimenting each other nicely. The yellow that is featured in the striped building is a much darker hue than the pale yellow of the building that is right next to it. You could even argue that the striped building makes the pale yellow building look even lighter than it might actually be in contrast to it’s darker neighbor. The burnt red building to the left cooler toned, even for a red, compared to the orangy-red stripes to the right. The front and side of the striped building even have varying value, darker on the side and lighter value on the front, depending on how the light is hitting it.

This is a design made by Ramotion that I found on Dribbble called Bled Lake Illustration Print. This photo shows how the use of color can add a lot to a design.

This is an example of color that I found on the website Dribbble. This example, although seemingly simple, has some very complex color element that gives the simple design a lot of dimension and detail making it immensely more appealing to the eye. When looking at the design the complementary colors that are used as the main focus of the design are brown and blue. These colors allow the castle to stand out from the background because the brown create an appealing contrast to the various blue hues in the background. There are multiple hues in the design for both of the main complementary colors that give the design more detail. The various shades of brown in the design create the direction of sunlight on the building by creating light areas and shadow areas giving dimension. The different shades and saturation of the brown hue are also used to create detail on the building as well as in the background. There are a lot more colors used in the background that are part of an analogous color scheme off the original blue used as a complement to the brown on the castle. These various colors are used to create a foreground and a background in the background itself. The water in front of the castle, although very similar in design, is easily distinguishable from the water behind the castle because lighter shades of the blue hue are used for the water in the front. Different levels of tint, saturation, and shade are what create the different hues of blue in the background and are what create the detail. The lighter hues are used next to the darker hues on the rolling hills behind the castle to create subtle strips on the hills. As you get farther and farther back, the difference in the hues of blue is smaller making it harder to distinguish the lines from the hills giving the effect of “fading into the distance”. Also, the colors that are used on the castle, island, and sailboat are generally more vibrant to create a focal point in the design by using contrast form the background. Overall the color scheme in this design is what makes it interesting and appealing to the eye. Without the strategic use of color this design would not have the same effect on the viewer due to its simplistic nature.