TheVirtualInstructor Blog

Facts About Color

Color is a powerful tool. Many good artists and designers recognize it’s power and use it to manipulate to their benefit. Recently, I have been researching color in general and have uncovered some interesting facts about color. Use this information wisely, as it will allow you the ability to subtly manipulate your audience.

Color Can Affect You Physically

Did you know that the color in a drawing, painting, or object can effect the way you feel about it? In fact, simply the color of an object can affect your mood and feeling. There is actually research that suggests that the light of colors can affect the center of emotions found in the hypothalamus. This region of the brain, in turn affects the pituitary gland, which controls the endocrine system. The endocrine system, in turn controls the thyroid and sex glands, which control hormone levels. Hormone levels control mood and emotion. It may be a long trip, but color does physically affect our body through our mood and emotion.

Color Can Affect You Psychologically (Although it’s Hard to Prove)

I think that all of us can agree that color does affect our psyche. It is quite hard to prove this however, if you are the scientific type. Despite this, there have been several attempts over the years to prove the connection between color and psychology. Neuropsychologist, Kurt Goldstein experimented with the affects of color on one’s psyche in the 1930’s. These experiments yielded some interesting results on how color affects us. For example, the experiments showed that objects seen in red light appear bigger or heavier. In contrast, objects that were viewed in the opposite color, green, appeared smaller and lighter.

Here are a few more ways color is thought to have had an impact on psychology…

A factory in the United States changed the color of the bathrooms to an unpleasant green and saw production increase by 8%.

Customers of a coffee house constantly complained about the cool temperature in the room. At that time, the walls were painted a light blue. After changing the color to orange, there were no more complaints.

The color yellow can cause nausea, so it is avoided in airplanes.

Black boxes seemed heavier to workmen than green boxes filled with the same material.

Red can make you hungry, while the opposite color, green, suppresses it.

The color red can also increase your muscle reaction, make you want to gamble more, and raise your blood pressure. Blue has the opposite effect.

Blue street lighting resulted in lower crime rates in Glascow in 2000.

Blue conveys trust and reliability.

Green is believed to increase concentration.

I came across these interesting facts about color in my research and I thought that I’d pass them on. While color does have an impact on our psychology, we bring our own experiences to the table making color psychology an imperfect, but fun science.

A focal point is the area or areas of an artwork that demand attention from the viewer.  Most of the time, these areas are the subjects of the artwork.  You can control where a viewer’s eye goes in your artwork by using a few devices to create defined focal points in your artwork.  At the same time, not understanding these devices could result in emphasis placed on objects that you don’t want as the focal point.  Creating good, strong focal points in your artwork can lead to stronger compositions and a more effective way of communicating through your artwork.  The skill of creating focal points is really a skill that every artist should know and be able to do.

This lesson, just posted on TheVirtualInstructor.com focuses on five proven ways to create strong focal points in your artwork.  Contrast, isolation, convergence, placement, and the unusual are all devices that artists can use to direct a viewer’s eye to the areas of interest and most importance in an artwork.  To learn more about creating focal points in artwork and to see the video art lesson click here-> How to Create Focal Points in Artwork

The quest to end bad composition in artwork continues with part 3 on the video series on composition.  In this lesson, we take a look at The Golden Mean and how to use it to create more aesthetic  composition.  We also look at The Rule of Thirds, a derivative of the Golden Mean.

What is The Golden Mean?  It sounds pretty important and mysterious, doesn’t it?  However, it is quite interesting, especially when you consider how it can be used to create aesthetic composition.  The Golden Mean refers to a ratio.  This ratio is simplified to 1:.618 .  The Golden Mean is sometimes referred to as The Golden Ratio, as well as the Golden Proportion and the Golden Section.  It has been around quite a while and there is some debate on who actually discovered it.  It is pretty much universally agreed, however, that this proportion or ratio is generally more pleasing to the eye.  Therefore, we as artists should at least understand that it is out there and perhaps open ourselves up to have it at our disposal.

Then how to we use it? Well, one obvious way to use this mysterious ratio is by cropping our artwork to match the proportions.  In other words, make our picture planes length and width reflect the ratio 1:.618.  For example, a canvas may be 28 inches wide and 17.3 inches tall.  I know, that may be a bit strange and impractical.  But we can at least consider that maybe a 28″ x 17″ picture plane may be more successful than one that is 28″ by 22″.  Of course all of this totally depends on other factors as well, such as content.  So, The Golden Mean is in no way a rule, just a suggestion.  There are a couple other ways that the Golden Mean can be used to create aesthetic composition.  These methods are explored in the lesson and video posted at TheVirtualInstructor.com.  The lesson also addresses the relative of the Golden Mean, the more accepted and practiced, Rule of Thirds.  To see the video lesson and to learn more about how to use the Golden Mean to create aesthetic compositions, click here->Composition Part 3- The Golden Mean

Positive and negative space work in unison to affect the overall composition of a work of art.  Understanding how positive and negative space work will greatly improve your ability to create successful pieces of artwork.  The positive space in a work of art is the area of interest.  Usually, the subjects of the artwork are considered to be the positive space.  The negative space is made up of the areas around the subjects, or areas of  non-interest.  Positive space does not refer to “good” space and negative space does not mean “bad” space.  Instead, the artist can manipulate the balance between the positive and negative spaces in an artwork to create emphasis on desired objects or relationships.   An artwork may have a relatively equal amount of positive and negative space.  Or, an artwork may have mostly negative space and still be equally successful in it’s composition.  In the same token, an artwork could be made up mostly of positive space, with limited negative space and be equally successful as well.  To learn more about positive and negative space and to see the video art lesson click here->Positive and Negative Space

Here are a few examples of how the relationship between positive and negative space can be manipulated to create a successful composition…

The above image represents a relative balance between positive and negative space.

The image above represents a composition with mostly negative space.

The image above represents a composition that is mostly positive space.

Eye movement refers to the way a viewer’s eye “moves” through a piece of artwork.  By manipulating the placement of objects, lines, values, shapes, subjects, and so on, we can control the relative path a viewer’s eye may travel.

Movement is one of the principles of art.  The principles of art should not be confused with the elements of art.  The elements of art are the basic components of art.  Line, shape, form, value, color, texture, and space are the elements of art.  Composition mainly deals with the placement of the elements.  Ironically, most of the principles of art deal with composition.  Some of the principles of art include, harmony, unity, balance, proportion, movement, rhythm,  and variety.  In this lesson, we are dealing with eye movement.

One of the ways eye movement can be achieved in an artwork is through the use of geometric configurations.  People, in general, find geometric shapes to be aesthetically pleasing.  By creating geometric configuration to control eye movement in composition, you have greatly increased your chances of being successful.  To learn more about eye movement through geometric configuration in artistic composition, see the video art lesson, and examples of geometric configurations, click here-> Artistic Composition, Eye Movement

Not many people realize that Plato presented philosophies on everything, including art.  Although Plato, himself, was not a visual artist, we stand to learn a bit from him when it comes to composition.  Composition in visual art, to many people, is the hardest part of crafting a successful work of art.  Many artists, especially new ones, tend to view composition as a “trial and error” endeavor.  This is the wrong way to approach composition.  Creating good composition is almost a scientific process, complete with “rules” that will help you be successful.  The first “rule” that we are exploring comes from an unexpected source- Plato.  One of Plato’s students asked of him, “What makes a good composition?”  Plato’s answer was quite interesting.  Plato responded by saying, ” Find the variety within the unity”.  This statement is quite enlightening.  What Plato is saying is that we must have both variety and unity in our artworks, but they must work together. Too much variety leads to a lack of unity.  Too much unity leads to a lack of variety.  So where’s the balance.  That’s where the artist comes in.  To learn more about Plato’s Rule in composition and to see the video demonstration click here-> Composition in Art Part 1- Plato’s Rule