Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Colour

I am deeply affected by colour, especially the colours of the countryside I’m in. Moving to New Zealand was quite a shock for me as the colours are so different to Australia. Below are photos showing the stark differences between where I live now (bright greens and flowers) to where I lived in Australia for 5 years (dusty browns and washed out greens).




Such different colour palettes! But I love both of them - the richness of my new home...the stark harshness of my home country...just wonderful, inspiring, beautiful...


Following are some resources available on the Internet directly related to colour:

Pantone

Pantone Fashion Report Spring 2008 - an analysis of the colours predominately used by designers at New York Fashion Week, September 5–12, 2007

Color Matters – lots of interesting stuff on colour theory.

Colr.org – a very cool site that lets you select and save colour schemes and tag colours with names that are meaningful to you. You can also view and rate other people’s colour schemes.

Worqx.com has a very good overview of colour theory.

Colour wheel

Colour therapy, also known as chromotherapy, is often facilitated in the healing rooms of alternative health practitioners. It can be used to balance energy in the areas of our bodies that are lacking vibrance, be it physical, emotional, spiritual, or mental. Try Colour Therapy Healing or About.com Color Therapy

The Power of Color -
One of the best tutorials on the web. Excellent design, easy to understand basic concepts (from The Poynter Institute)

Web Safe Colours for those designing web sites.


Some things to think about, and hopefully spark your creativity:
• How do you use colour in your art/craft
• How does the colour of the countryside around your home influence your work? How do you think that would change if you moved somewhere with a very different palette?
• What is your favourite colour to wear? Does this colour appear more in your work than other colours? Is this intentional or does it occur unconsciously?
• What is more important to you – colour, texture, light, technique?

2 comments:

Melanie Gray Augustin said...

Hi!

I'm so glad you found my blog, so that I've now found yours!

For me, I had a "colour revelation" when I moved to Japan the first time. Before living here, I was a professional photographer and preferred to work in Black and White. I felt like I discovered colour for the first time in Japan. Not so much the landscape, but their use of colours in paper and textile designs. It's so different to how we use colour and I'm still trying to get the understanding and confidence to use those combinations in my own work.

Shell said...

Yeah, there is a beauty in each of those landscapes. I often think that I would love to live somewhere that is always green, with lush grass and rolling hills - the south island of NZ being a great example. But when I am overseas i miss home - the sense of space here, and the light - there is nothing quite like the light in this country, it doesn't hide anything - it reveals all truths I think. Anyway, I rambling now. Yes, colour has such an impact on us and we don't even know it! Great links!