Color: Expressive Arts
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Color: Expressive Arts 4-H MEMBER MANUAL • EM4771E C O L Suppose the whole world was like a black and white photograph—no colors, just shades of gray. How would your life be different? Do you think gray tomatoes and gray chocolate would taste the same? ❦ This manual may be used as Would a driver get a traffic ticket for going through a resource for the Expressive Arts a gray light? projects. It can help you: There’s no color without light. And just a little light ... think of new ways to do isn’t enough to show colors. When you wake up in things, a dark room at night, even if there’s enough light ... understand basic art for you to see the window, the door, the furniture, and so on, you can’t see what color anything is. principles, When you turn the light on, all the colors seem to ... understand cultural values, turn on, too. This is because color is reflected light. ... develop a career in art and Different pigments reflect different parts of the light, which human eyes see as different colors. crafts, ... develop a lifetime hobby, There are hundreds of names for hundreds of ... enjoy beauty in your colors—like carmine, salmon, mauve, ecru, cobalt, taupe, viridian, ocher, cyan, etc. Sometimes it’s hard surroundings, to tell exactly what they mean. To make “color lan- ... develop your own ideas guage” easier to understand, people have without the help of anyone else, worked out ways of describing colors in terms of just three qualities: hue, value, and intensity. and ... recognize quality in art and We can group color into “families,” such as the reds, crafts. the purples, or the greens. The name of a color family is its hue. For example, navy blue, sky blue, and powder blue all belong to the blue family. Sometimes colors in the same hue family have very different names; maroon and pink are both red in hue. O R ❧ The value of a color doesn’t mean how high its price is. In color terms, value means lightness or darkness. Mixing Colors A dark red, such as maroon, has a low value. Pink is red with a higher value. How do colors work together? Look at the scene in front of you. Don’t move your eyes. How many Intensity means the brightness or dullness of a different colors do you see? We almost never see color—how “strong” the color is. Brightness is just one color at a time. Even if you’re looking at a not the same as lightness, even though they blank wall, there are probably different shades and sometimes go together. A pale yellow with a very tints of color on it. The way a color looks depends high value (lightness) may not have as much partly on the other colors around it. The best way intensity (brightness) as a darker yellow. to find out how colors can change each other is to High-intensity colors are good for posters and experiment with different combinations. signs where you want to catch people’s attention. Where would you rather see low-intensity colors? What you need: • tempera, watercolors, or other paints in many colors • white and colored paper YELLOW yellow- yellow- • small containers for mixing paints (muffin tins, jar orange green lids, etc.) • brushes ORANGE GREEN • water What you do: 1. Look at the outline drawing of a color wheel. It red-orange blue-green shows some of the ways colors are related to each other. In the wheel, the hues that are most alike are next to each other. These closely related hues RED are called analogous colors. For example, blue, BLUE blue-green, and green are one set of analogous red- blue- colors; red, red-orange, and orange are another violet violet set. “Analogous” comes from a Greek word that VIOLET means “alike.” Use your paints to color in the hues on this color wheel, or make your own color wheel on a blank sheet of paper. 6 2. What do you think will happen if you mix yel- this with some other pairs of complements. low and blue paint in different proportions? Try Colors that have been “toned down” by adding it. Start with a small amount of yellow paint and a little of a complementary color are called tones. begin adding blue, a little at a time. How does 6. Black, white, and gray are called neutrals. In a the color change? Compare the colors you get way, they’re not even colors—they have no hue with what you see on the color wheel. Now start of their own, which is why they don’t appear on with blue paint and add yellow. Do you get the the color wheel. But they’re very important for same results? color mixing. You can’t change a color’s hue by ❧ 3. Artists have found that if they start with three mixing it with a neutral, but you can change its colors at equal distances on the color wheel, they value (lightness or darkness). Take some red can make all the other colors on the wheel. The paint and try adding white, little by little. The easiest way is to start with red, blue, and yellow, colors you get by adding white to any hue are which are called the primary colors. (“Primary” called tints. What happens when you add black means “first.”) If you mix equal amounts of two to your red? Colors darkened by adding black are primary colors, you get a secondary color—the called shades. color that lies between them on the color wheel. 7. Gray itself is a mixture. Pure grays are mixtures When you mix red and blue, what secondary of white and black. Do you think a gray made color do you get? What happens when you mix with equal parts of black and white will be twice red and yellow? What do you get when you mix as dark as a gray made with half as much black? two secondary colors? Try it! There’s another way of making gray, too. 4. Colors can have an effect on each other even Since complementary colors are exactly opposite without mixing. Experiment with painting stripes in hue, they tend to cancel each other out and of colors side by side. Does red between two yel- leave gray. Try mixing different pairs of low stripes look the same as red between two blue complementary colors. Are the grays you get all stripes? Try different combinations. Do you like the same? Are they the same as the grays you got some better than others? What colors would you by mixing black and white? A color whose use to paint a picture of a burning house?... intensity has been reduced by adding gray or its a storm at sea?... a carnival?... a harvest scene?... complementary color is called a tone. a forest in spring?... a city in winter? If you could 8. Try painting a picture in different tints, shades, use any colors you wanted, what colors would and tones of the same hue. It can be a picture of you use to redecorate your room? something, or an abstract design that doesn’t try 5. The colors opposite each other on the color to look like any objects. For example, you might wheel, such as blue and orange, are called use all greens to paint a scene of fields and complementary colors. (That’s not the same as woods... or all reds for an abstract painting. This “complimentary” with an “I,” which means “flat- kind of color combination, with the colors tering” or “giving compliments.”) all belonging to the same hue family, is Complementary colors are the hues that are as monochromatic. (“Monochromatic” comes different from each other as possible. What color from the Greek words meaning “single color.”) is complementary to yellow?... to red?... to blue-green? You can use complementary colors There are other ways of talking about colors. Do to change the intensity of a hue. If you pick a you think colors have temperatures? Colors like red, color, such as orange, and mix in a little of its yellow, and orange are often called warm colors. complementary color (blue), the orange will still Can you think of any reasons why people might be orange, but not as bright; adding the call them that? Blue and green are often called complementary color reduces its intensity. Try cool colors. 7 pieces of string tightly together. Soak your braided Making Candles string in a solution of 1 cup water, 2 tablespoons borax, and 1 tablespoon salt for at least six hours. You can make your own wax candles in beautiful Let the string dry thoroughly, and it will be ready colors, interesting color combinations, and almost to use as a wick. any three-dimensional form you can think of. If you have any old candles around the house that What you need: have burned down to a little stub, don’t throw • 32-ounce tall fruit juice can them away! You can melt them down with other • cooking oil wax to make new candles. Especially look for ends • large pan and scraps of colored candles. Even a few pieces of • discarded candle ends old candles can color the wax for several brand new • 2 pounds of wax (paraffin, beeswax, or a candles. mixture) • wax crayons Another way to color candles is by adding wax • 2–3 feet of candlewicking crayons to the candle wax. If you plan to make very • wire coat hanger many candles, you can buy special wax dyes.