This week was all about colour!
The first exercise was a fun one where we were to use colour to portray the landscape image given into two different emotions.
The first emotion I wanted to convey was ‘wonder’ which was a bit tricky. I knew I wanted to be very magical and aesthetically pleasing so I used a cool analogous colour palette with blues, purples and pinks (based on a galaxy). I liked using darker blues as the main colours and a combination of high-contrast and vibrant teal, purple and pink lightings to create a sense of awe.
The second emotion I picked was ‘cheerful’! I used yellows, greens, blues and browns because the yellow is linked to positivity, blue to calmness and green to nature. They also are just colours you’ll expect when you think of a landscape. I made sure all the colours were vibrant but not too overbearing to keep the natural image. I also neutralized some colours by using their complement as shading (yellow-purple clouds, orange-blue rocks).
For the second task the groups were switched again but I stayed in the same one as last week. We had to create five potential colour palettes for our world.
Palette 1: Aftermath ash, desaturated purple-pink colours that would show after an explosion or intense action, relief
Palette 2: Abandoned buildings, also darker desaturated colours but blue-purple that would be the colour theme for abandoned buildings (contrast to the bright city lights), mysterious
Palette 3: Night alley streets, dark atmosphere and vibrant lights with shades of green-teal for a radiative vibe
Palette 4: Explosions, intense warm colours, black and white to create drama and danger (for action scenes!)
Palette 5: Murky slums, muted shades of browns and greens, gloomy
I noticed a lot of these palettes were analogous, my group had other varieties in the chat but I subconsciously picked analogous ones.
The third task was using photos our group has taken to create colour palettes and discuss the mood reflected in each of the following categories; analogous, complementary, monochromatic. Our group didn’t get to do this as we took a while doing task two so I did this on my own. I also used 2 old photos I took because I didn’t like much of the photos taken specifically for this task.
Analogous orange-red palette: bold, vibrant, fiery, excitement, loud, danger
Complementary yellow-purple palette: muddy, mysterious, relaxing, empty, ashy
Monochromatic blue palette: solemn, melancholic, calm, isolation
The last task was to take the colour schemes we made in task two and three to re-work the drawing from last week’s tone and value exercise in colour and using them.
I choose to do four palettes: the monochromatic blue, analogous red-orange, muddy greens and browns, analogous green-teal.
Using last week’s grayscale drawing, I made a couple gradient maps that Jasmine (from my group) taught me how to do and applied them from the darkest values to the lightest ones, messing around with it until I found a result I liked. I’m pleased with how these turned out, and I believe they match the atmosphere and mood in the colour palettes we intended to reflect.
I really liked this week and learning about colour psychology was fun!