Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
30 October 2008
25 November 2007
Primary Colors (Anonymous)
We're taught growing up (or at least we are in the USA - maybe we're the only idiots) that red, yellow and blue are the primary colors - that all secondary and tertiary colors can be mixed from them. We're shown a color wheel, which lays out how everything interacts, and all the colors seem to be there.
Everything seemed in order until one morning a month or two ago, I woke up and wanted to paint a piece with the scheme black, yellow and magenta. I dug around in my box of paints, which is short on fancy colors but has plenty of red, yellow, blue, black and white. I mixed and mixed and mixed and... well, magenta never materialized.
Granted, light and pigment primaries are a yin and yang, but I never gave any real thought to print primaries when painting - inkjet printers and all other four-pass process systems (magazines, product packaging, etc.) use magenta, yellow, cyan and black ink to create all other output colours.
Primary colors, by definition, 1) cannot be mixed from any other colors and 2) can be mixed to create all other colors. Magenta is a pure hue which must be bought, and can then be mixed with yellow to create red. Cyan is a pure hue which can be mixed with magenta to create "primary" blue.
What I'm driving at here is obvious, and I want to know if I'm going crazy or if I just overlooked something that's old news to everyone else. I'm in my twenties and I've only once heard someone else agree that magenta, rather than red, is the primary. As a lifelong artist who is continually experimenting at home and has taken (paid a lot for) a brazillian art classes (including color theory more than once), the notion that red is not a primary color drops the bottom out of my understanding of color like a soggy cardboard box. So much for the Holy Trinity.
This is probably obvious to anyone in the professional printing business, but it should be just as obvious to someone working solely in pigments. If I'm not going crazy here, then I think the red-yellow-blue dogma is a serious misinformation. Color forms the foundation for so many other disciplines and we're so conclusively taught to start at red, yellow and blue. I don't want more aspiring artists growing up thinking that, too.
I don't sense I'm going to get very far with this crusade. Maybe I'll just jump back on the grammar-nazi horse.
Everything seemed in order until one morning a month or two ago, I woke up and wanted to paint a piece with the scheme black, yellow and magenta. I dug around in my box of paints, which is short on fancy colors but has plenty of red, yellow, blue, black and white. I mixed and mixed and mixed and... well, magenta never materialized.
Granted, light and pigment primaries are a yin and yang, but I never gave any real thought to print primaries when painting - inkjet printers and all other four-pass process systems (magazines, product packaging, etc.) use magenta, yellow, cyan and black ink to create all other output colours.
Primary colors, by definition, 1) cannot be mixed from any other colors and 2) can be mixed to create all other colors. Magenta is a pure hue which must be bought, and can then be mixed with yellow to create red. Cyan is a pure hue which can be mixed with magenta to create "primary" blue.
What I'm driving at here is obvious, and I want to know if I'm going crazy or if I just overlooked something that's old news to everyone else. I'm in my twenties and I've only once heard someone else agree that magenta, rather than red, is the primary. As a lifelong artist who is continually experimenting at home and has taken (paid a lot for) a brazillian art classes (including color theory more than once), the notion that red is not a primary color drops the bottom out of my understanding of color like a soggy cardboard box. So much for the Holy Trinity.
This is probably obvious to anyone in the professional printing business, but it should be just as obvious to someone working solely in pigments. If I'm not going crazy here, then I think the red-yellow-blue dogma is a serious misinformation. Color forms the foundation for so many other disciplines and we're so conclusively taught to start at red, yellow and blue. I don't want more aspiring artists growing up thinking that, too.
I don't sense I'm going to get very far with this crusade. Maybe I'll just jump back on the grammar-nazi horse.
24 August 2007
Mark Steven Ritter and COLOURLovers in Canada's Globe and Mail.
Congrats to Mark for being featured in Canada's Globe and Mail (apparently it's like our New York Times, yanks), in an article about COLOURLovers. Mark has always offered me so much sincere encouragement and so many kind words (thanks), and he's a truly gifted artist who deserves recognition.
Here's my mashup of the article, with my own palette notes, linkage, and a smattering of external links for those curious about more....
Here's my mashup of the article, with my own palette notes, linkage, and a smattering of external links for those curious about more....
Painter Mark Steven Ritter works in his apartment/studio in Montreal, Aigust 16, 2007. Mr. Ritter has used colourlovers.com to create more than 1,200 palettes.
COLOUR ME OBSESSED
At ColourLovers.com, those with a passion for pigment create hues, swap palettes and even fall in love
REBECCA DUBE
Globe and Mail Update
August 17, 2007 at 9:13 AM EDT
They argue the merits of teal versus aqua with a seriousness usually reserved for foreign policy debates.
They create colours with names such as "elle était belle" (a lily-pad green) and "deep tissue massage" (a brick red).
They have hundreds of names for beige.
They are the self-proclaimed colour addicts of ColourLovers.com, a social networking site for people who enjoy exploring and analyzing hues.
Consider it a Facebook for the pigment-obsessed.
Since its launch in December, 2004, the site has attracted more than 20,000 members from around the globe, inspired home redecorations and website designs, and spawned real-life friendships and even one marriage.
If you've ever stared blankly at a display of paint swatches and wondered where to start, or despaired at finding a colour to complement the pink bathroom fixtures in your apartment, ColourLovers may be able to help.
"Colour is a pretty mainstream thing; we see it every day, but it hasn't gotten as much mainstream attention," says site founder Darius Monsef, a Web developer in Portland, Ore.
He started the site after taking an uninspiring class on colour theory and deciding that he - or at least the collective creativity of the Web - could do better.
Mr. Monsef says the Colour Lovers, as they call themselves, range from professional designers who use the site to develop colour schemes for websites and advertising campaigns to hobbyists who get hooked on combining different colours into palettes and giving them funky names.
"We have a lot of members who are not in any sort of artistic field, but this is their creative outlet," Mr. Monsef says.
The site allows users to create colours and palettes, share them, rate and comment on others' creations, discuss burning questions such as "what is the most unusual colour?" in forums, and send "love notes" to other users.
Prolific contributors include a graphic designer from Louisiana, a 16-year-old girl from Miami, a New Brunswick framer and an Ohio teacher.
"It's an immediate gratification: You're making something from nothing, and I think that has a lot of appeal," Montreal artist Mark Steven Ritter says. He has used the site to create more than 1,200 palettes - combinations of five colours that are the main attraction on the site.
Two of his favourites are "science fiction," an eye-catching mix of bright lime greens and soft blues, and "Rodchenko," named after a leading constructivist artist in the period following the Russian revolution, featuring muted greens and reds. Each palette, Mr. Ritter says, "almost becomes an art object in itself."
He met up with several Colour Lovers on a recent trip to New York and regularly corresponds with others in Singapore, Peru, England and Japan. He tends to gravitate to those who share his taste in dark, saturated and high-contrast colours.
Recently, though, he has noticed an influx of younger colour lovers creating brighter palettes that he finds surprisingly intriguing.
That's part of the charm of the site, Mr. Ritter says: "You might really love something you never would have thought of doing." He often uses the site to test out colour combinations for his paintings.
Site users rate and comment on them. "If I get a very good reaction, I'll apply it to a painting," he says.
ColourLovers inspired Vania Sofiandi to switch her career from business to graphic design, which she is now pursuing as a freelancer in the Chicago area.
Ms. Sofiandi, who has created more than 1,300 palettes, says the site changed the way she sees the world. Colour Lovers don't just see red or get the blues - they see fire-engine red or feel deep-sea blue.
"My brain randomly pops up colours when I'm feeling strong emotions," she says. "Dark, muted grey when I am irritated, blue cyan for adventurous, pinkish purple for admiration and bright pink when I feel narcissistic."
The site's appeal lies in its community as much as its colours, Ms. Sofiandi says. Two of her friends who met on the site fell in love, moved in together and got married last month. Alas, no word on what their wedding colours were.
Mr. Monsef says he hopes to expand the colour trends section of the website, which currently includes analyses of magazine-cover colour schemes and the colours of the world's top first-class airlines. (Purples and wood tones are hot with this crowd.)
"We want to be able to say, 'Last month, this shade of blue was popular with this demographic,' " he says. "It started as a fun colour-inspiration site, but now we want to give more value to the members."
Already, Mr. Monsef says, running ColourLovers has expanded his palette: "I couldn't have told you what chartreuse was before doing the website."
+THE GLOBE AND MAIL ARTICLE
+CHECK THE COLOURLOVERS BLOG POST HERE.
+MARK STEVEN RITTER'S SITE
+DARIUS MONSEF'S SITE
At ColourLovers.com, those with a passion for pigment create hues, swap palettes and even fall in love
REBECCA DUBE
Globe and Mail Update
August 17, 2007 at 9:13 AM EDT
They argue the merits of teal versus aqua with a seriousness usually reserved for foreign policy debates.
They create colours with names such as "elle était belle" (a lily-pad green) and "deep tissue massage" (a brick red).
They have hundreds of names for beige.
They are the self-proclaimed colour addicts of ColourLovers.com, a social networking site for people who enjoy exploring and analyzing hues.
Consider it a Facebook for the pigment-obsessed.
Since its launch in December, 2004, the site has attracted more than 20,000 members from around the globe, inspired home redecorations and website designs, and spawned real-life friendships and even one marriage.
If you've ever stared blankly at a display of paint swatches and wondered where to start, or despaired at finding a colour to complement the pink bathroom fixtures in your apartment, ColourLovers may be able to help.
"Colour is a pretty mainstream thing; we see it every day, but it hasn't gotten as much mainstream attention," says site founder Darius Monsef, a Web developer in Portland, Ore.
He started the site after taking an uninspiring class on colour theory and deciding that he - or at least the collective creativity of the Web - could do better.
Mr. Monsef says the Colour Lovers, as they call themselves, range from professional designers who use the site to develop colour schemes for websites and advertising campaigns to hobbyists who get hooked on combining different colours into palettes and giving them funky names.
"We have a lot of members who are not in any sort of artistic field, but this is their creative outlet," Mr. Monsef says.
The site allows users to create colours and palettes, share them, rate and comment on others' creations, discuss burning questions such as "what is the most unusual colour?" in forums, and send "love notes" to other users.
Prolific contributors include a graphic designer from Louisiana, a 16-year-old girl from Miami, a New Brunswick framer and an Ohio teacher.
"It's an immediate gratification: You're making something from nothing, and I think that has a lot of appeal," Montreal artist Mark Steven Ritter says. He has used the site to create more than 1,200 palettes - combinations of five colours that are the main attraction on the site.
Two of his favourites are "science fiction," an eye-catching mix of bright lime greens and soft blues, and "Rodchenko," named after a leading constructivist artist in the period following the Russian revolution, featuring muted greens and reds. Each palette, Mr. Ritter says, "almost becomes an art object in itself."
He met up with several Colour Lovers on a recent trip to New York and regularly corresponds with others in Singapore, Peru, England and Japan. He tends to gravitate to those who share his taste in dark, saturated and high-contrast colours.
Recently, though, he has noticed an influx of younger colour lovers creating brighter palettes that he finds surprisingly intriguing.
That's part of the charm of the site, Mr. Ritter says: "You might really love something you never would have thought of doing." He often uses the site to test out colour combinations for his paintings.
Site users rate and comment on them. "If I get a very good reaction, I'll apply it to a painting," he says.
ColourLovers inspired Vania Sofiandi to switch her career from business to graphic design, which she is now pursuing as a freelancer in the Chicago area.
Ms. Sofiandi, who has created more than 1,300 palettes, says the site changed the way she sees the world. Colour Lovers don't just see red or get the blues - they see fire-engine red or feel deep-sea blue.
"My brain randomly pops up colours when I'm feeling strong emotions," she says. "Dark, muted grey when I am irritated, blue cyan for adventurous, pinkish purple for admiration and bright pink when I feel narcissistic."
The site's appeal lies in its community as much as its colours, Ms. Sofiandi says. Two of her friends who met on the site fell in love, moved in together and got married last month. Alas, no word on what their wedding colours were.
Mr. Monsef says he hopes to expand the colour trends section of the website, which currently includes analyses of magazine-cover colour schemes and the colours of the world's top first-class airlines. (Purples and wood tones are hot with this crowd.)
"We want to be able to say, 'Last month, this shade of blue was popular with this demographic,' " he says. "It started as a fun colour-inspiration site, but now we want to give more value to the members."
Already, Mr. Monsef says, running ColourLovers has expanded his palette: "I couldn't have told you what chartreuse was before doing the website."
+THE GLOBE AND MAIL ARTICLE
+CHECK THE COLOURLOVERS BLOG POST HERE.
+MARK STEVEN RITTER'S SITE
+DARIUS MONSEF'S SITE
15 August 2007
COLOURlovers.
I should have blogged about COLOURlovers a long time ago. Anyone who's interested in color, this is for you. If you know anything about color, particularly hexadecimal color, you're already home. If you don't know much about color, you'll pick up so much so fast. Either way, you create a little account and amass a collection of unique colors that you put a name to (here's a couple of my alltime faves)
and then build palettes out of your and everyone else's colors:
At this point, there are around 20,000 members, 340,000 colors, and 120,000 palettes registered. Users tag, give feedback about and rank colors and palettes (my current top five palettes run on the sidebar of this blog, actually), and monthly color trends in the media and on the net are monitored. Think Flickr, but with colors instead of photos. I'm a long-standing member at this point, and I've made some solid contacts there, and there's an influx of new membership and activity.
COLOURLovers is one of those rare things on the internet: it'll never cost you a dime, it's benign and all-inclusive in purpose, and the entire community is supportive, genial, and comprised of genuine people. Although it does have a proprietor, the illustrious Darius Monsef, being a Lover feels like being a shareholder and every user has a hand in shaping the site. Plus it supports the arts, which I'm a sucker for.
I could blather on and not do it justice. For some reason, it's always hard to explain. But have a gander; you might be snagged. More on CL to come.
My Colours
Colourlovers Home
Top Palettes sitewide
Current Media Trends
Random goodness
and then build palettes out of your and everyone else's colors:
At this point, there are around 20,000 members, 340,000 colors, and 120,000 palettes registered. Users tag, give feedback about and rank colors and palettes (my current top five palettes run on the sidebar of this blog, actually), and monthly color trends in the media and on the net are monitored. Think Flickr, but with colors instead of photos. I'm a long-standing member at this point, and I've made some solid contacts there, and there's an influx of new membership and activity.
COLOURLovers is one of those rare things on the internet: it'll never cost you a dime, it's benign and all-inclusive in purpose, and the entire community is supportive, genial, and comprised of genuine people. Although it does have a proprietor, the illustrious Darius Monsef, being a Lover feels like being a shareholder and every user has a hand in shaping the site. Plus it supports the arts, which I'm a sucker for.
I could blather on and not do it justice. For some reason, it's always hard to explain. But have a gander; you might be snagged. More on CL to come.
My Colours
Colourlovers Home
Top Palettes sitewide
Current Media Trends
Random goodness
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