Blog: Color Theory and Emotional Effects

Colour Video

1. Describe Color and it's effects on emotions. Use the appropriate vocabulary of color in your posting.

Shade, tint, hue, intensity, value, even the words used to describe it are evocative. Colours can make a serious scene look ludicrous or tender or breathtaking - it can make an art work look playful or serene, flat or three dimensional and it can make the viewer feel sedate or agitated or anything in between in short colour can manipulate emotions and artists have been using this knowledge since the dawn of art.


2. What is a theoretical aspect of color that most intrigues/fascinates you? Why? I am most fascinated by how colours work with and against each other - because I need this to make my own designs "work"

3. In the Color video, what made the biggest impact on you in regards to color and it's effects on emotions?

What made the biggest impact on me were the quotes from Monet about working with bits of colour rather than objects to give the feeling he wanted, and Vangogh's quote about using unnatural colors to evoke feelings of dislike for a place. The idea that red evokes anger and blue can denote despair, etc. were not unfamiliar ideas to me - -but Mark Ruthko did take that idea a bit further than most and even on my computer his red painting did make me anxious.


4. In the Feelings video, what made the biggest impact on you in regards to color and it's effects on emotions?

It was not the words in this video that had the biggest impact on me - what had the biggest impact on me was seeing how Goya used color differently at different times in his life and those techniques and choices of colour made the viewer feel differently about the art of Goya. I had never liked Goya, I always thought he was an angry, hate filled artist and I found his work disturbing..but watching this I saw his earlier works that I found more calm, almost fun.