Color—the theory and practice of painting Famous Artists Course in Commercial Ar, Ilystation and Design Guin Fosty (9049681, The color wheel ---------YELLOW, a of BLUE-GREENAn introduction to color Every artst who wir color should have a clear understanding of what color is ‘how to organize it snd how to employ i¢ to best edvantage Color is a sensation we experience when our eyes ate sruck by light waves of| varying lengths, We sce objects Because nature has given um avery sensitive and complex receiving system in the form of aur ees, nervous system, and brain, Our eyes pickup Hight waves and francate them into a sensation of sight jst 33 or fens pick up sound waves and ragalate them into a senstion of ound Tn arder for us to see anything, there most be light. The rays of ight which come ts from the san we al we light. Yet, strange as ie may seem, this white light contains all the colors that we ace around us This is demonstrated when you se a rainbow during a summer shower, or shine 2 ray of white Hight through 2 tiangelar piece of glass called 4 prim. Sir Tsiac Newton, in 1607, fst die fovered how pure white ight could be divided into diferent groups of color eaves by using the prism in this way. All colored objects contsin pigment which hat the abilisy to sak up certain rays of color, while reflecting others The pigment in he skin of & red apple, for instance, reflects only the ved rays and absorbs all the ethers. A green apple, on the other hand elects only the green rays to our eyes while absorbing the others Some materials are espedally rid in pigment. These materia ate carefully selected and purified into the paints you buy at your local at store. They have bbeen manufactured from various plants, animals and minerals. When you mix these pigments you are mixing pute color, In other words you are working with purified pigments which have the special property of rllecing the particular ‘colored waves you want to see, while absorbing all the others, rem now en, un Jess otherwise noted, al ou color discussion will bein terme of igen, and not flight (Color is «highly personal and variable clement. There are, however, cert Dasic principles inthe handling of color which you must master. The material resented in these pages wil explain these principles. Your ultimate development sa colorist, of course, will depend toa large extent upon your own imagination, ingenuity and tase ‘Most people describe color in a vague, general way. They wie such terme at “baby blue!" “apple green” “grat green,” “canary yellow,” “coral” “peachy” us" ete. Any person who works professionally vith color, however, whether the uses it in making paintings or for some other purpose, must be mere precie Hes faced with the problem of using snd contralling hundreds ofdlleren color Scientists prepared the way for the development of logical «olor systems As Jong ago as 1866, « scientit named Helmhola discovered that every color bas ee diferent characterises or dimensions: hue, value and intemsiy. He ne- flected to work out practical system for applying his theory, so it had litle in fluence on art until mich Inte Around the turn af the century, Albert H. Mon sel, an instructor ia are realized that everyone who wants t0 use color correctly must recognize and understand these color characterntic, Beginning with thie theory as 2 starting point, he developed complete system for the analysis and organization of colo. Teday the Munsell sem is widely yard throughout the sword “To work with calor, i is not necessary for you to study oF memorire compli cated systems of numbers and lewers. AS 2 practicing artist, you are mot con ‘emed nov with leaning how to recognie, judge ané control ferences in the three dimensions of evry sole: ac, value and inteniy "The fllowing pages wil give you the information you need in oder todo this, 1 you master this material, you will be able to judge and describe any coloe ac curaely. You will so know how to mix two o more colors together to make ‘eaely the color you want, Finally, you will etrm how to combine diferent colors fn pleasing and efective compositions. Ie is important to remember, however, that leaning to understand and we color results not from resting about how itis done, but by actual practice of eye tnd hand, These pages will give you the information you need, but the mot ir- portant thing i @ apply thi information to your own work with coor