Exploring Value and Color

Value and color are very important to the world of art. When creating my value scale and color wheel, I could tell these elements were important because different values give depth to an artwork by providing contrast and shadows, while color and its different hues help in creating pieces of work that are lively. Knowing how the different colors interact is important because the base of each color, or how they are mixed creates the different shades and can provide value to art without using black and white. When creating this project, the media I enjoyed working with more was the acrylic paint. Paint is more smooth than charcoal, and the different colors are more appealing to the eye. I also found that when using the paint, I felt more relaxed and enjoyed using it. When I was using the charcoal, I felt anxious and tried to create the scale faster than when I created the color wheel. What is important to know from creating these studies is that value and color coincide with one another. Value is the lightness or darkness of the colors being used, and with the different colors contrast is developed because there is a separation between the varying hues. Without value, there would not be color, and without color , there would be no value. The videos that were watched to help in the creation of this project provided some interesting information. I was not aware that the colors red and blue were not true primary colors. It was interesting to learn that they are too dark to be base colors, so the true colors were magenta and cyan. I wonder if this change was made just to make things more simple for children as they started learning. Another interesting thing that was learned was that when using pencils, they create expressive lines when sharpened. The form of the pencil needs to be more blunt in order to create value passages, and this is done by cutting it with a knife. These videos were interesting because they provided easy steps to creating these projects, but they also provided cut and dry information on what was right and wrong. With value scales and color wheels, they themselves are not considered art. They are tools. This was made apparent within the value scale video.