Module 3: Color Theory and Emotional Effects

Color is very crucial in terms of art. It is the quality of an object of substance with respect to light reflected by the object, usually determined visually by measurement of hue, saturation, brightness, or chroma. It sets the tone with any piece of work and creates a sense of feeling within the audience. Color is stated to be a function of light and also dependent on it. We associate things by its colors, just like trees are supposed to be green as water is blue. Color can also give people emotions such as blue gives a sense of sadness and yellow can be associated with happiness. Any bright color is exciting as any dark color can also give a sense of fear, sadness, and loneliness.

For not really being too aware of art and art history, its intriguing to me how much color relates to the way someone can feel or how color can express something about a person.The theoretical aspect of color that most fascinates me is that we are born into associating colors to things or colors to emotions. We learn that "happiness" can be portrayed through bright colors like yellow or orange, as black or dark colors symbolizes sadness, or anger.

I learned that color has much impact on the way we feel. It controls emotions and feelings that we sometimes cannot convey through words. In the part of the video where the artists were painting the ceilings of a chapel, it was interesting to me see how the paint itself was made. In Titian's painting of the woman, the speaker of the video described the way the artist painted, he said, "the red of the virgin's robe reflect onto her hand, her blue coat cast blue onto her neck." The color of the clothing a person is wearing in any painting can really show the audience what the artist was supposed to convey in terms of feelings and emotions.

In the feelings video, I like the way that David's audience was used to the way his art depicted the ancient past and portraying pleasure, but he reversed it and included darkness and strong feeling.