Launching the Imagination: A Comprehensive Guide To Basic Design–Chapter Two

        Chapter two, titled 'The Element of Color', basically started with a review of what color is, what it is used for, the different forms, and the different colors. I had learned, from previous art classes, about all these things including color theory, the primary, secondary and tertiary colors, how color affects and is affected by light, and how to mix certain colors together to get other colors. Last semester I learned about hue, tints, tone, value, and shade, but the book went more into depth explaining that hue is a color and when you mix that color with white you get a tint, when mixed with gray you get a tone, and when mixed with black you get a shade. These would all fall under the category of value of a color which refers to how light or dark the color is. Some new things I learned about were monochromatic color schemes and analogous color schemes. I had her the terms before, but never knew that they had to do with color. I also didn't know how many color schemes there were including monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split complementary, triadic, chromatic grays, and earth colors. The part of the chapter I liked most was the very end when it explained the emotion and expression that can come out of a piece of art using color. Color keys, the dominant color, isn't something I have ever thought about before, but I really liked the exampled used in the book; Image 2.54 Sandy Skoglund, Radioactive Cats, 1980. This section of the chapter also talked about the power of color and how it can be symbolic when used the wright way. "Well used, color is one of the most expressive elements of art and design". There are so many different uses for color that I didn't even imagine before reading this chapter, but I like how the book showed that color can do so many things when used the right way.