BYU-I: Design and Color
This article is to help you learn and utilize the skills you would learn in BYU-I design and color class which goes into depth on elements and principles of design especially using acrylic paint.
The purpose of art and design is to attract attention long enough to convey a message. Design is everywhere. It says, hey this book is interesting. Hey this might be worth buying. Look at this discount. Try this game. Understand this mechanism etc. For anyone to succeed at art they need the ability to accurately observe, the patience to recreate, and practical understanding of the elements and principles of design. This class was focused on the latter.
Below you will find what you can expect to deepen your knowledge of and some you may try if you decide not to take the class but still want to practice what it teaches.
Week 1: Elements VS Principles
Elements and principles can be combined to convey your message. The difference between them must be understood. Elements are the smallest units of artistic structure. Principles are the strategies that help us use elements to make appealing compositions. Elements such as line or shape are simple to create but can be combined to create complex representations such as the human figure. We do not need to use every element or principle to create an effective composition. Instead, we need to utilize our elements and principles toolkit to convey a message. Every product must succeed first at design. It is helpful to think of elements as nouns and principles of the verb. Here are some examples:
- Repeat lines, harmonize lines
- Vary texture, contrast texture
- Emphasis value, vary value
- Balance shapes, unify shapes
There is a wide variety of design careers to exploring before investing in a single career path.
Here is another article I wrote specifically on the elements and principles of design.
Exercise: Come up with your own metaphor for understanding the difference between element and principles of design.
Week 2: Value
The element value is the basis of all other elements and should be considered first. Value can be conveyed through a 9-value scale from 1 being white or high-key, to 9 being black or low-key. Using only the first 3 values we create a high-key low contrast composition. It is best to have a series of values that are either high or low key and a contrasting value as the accent contrasting color. Atmospheric perspective is the idea that receding values fade to the background color. New artists often do not take the time to identify value differences resulting in only using high key values. Creating a simplified 3-value matrix can help avoid this issue.
Colors naturally have different values. 100% red will always be darker than 100% yellow. You can change an artwork using online tools from chromatic (colored) to achromatic (grayscale) to see this difference in value.
Exercise: Create a 9-point scale using white paint and black paint.
Exercise: Number values on a grayscale artwork using the 9-point scale.
Week 3: Shape
We can use shape as representative/abstract, negative/positive, to make form, and to convey organic/inorganic feel. Often, we rely on lines to convey shape however shapes are often more realistic without them instead using value edges. Shapes have many properties which we can vary to have different effects. Geometric shapes convey masculinity and seem manmade like a building. Curvilinear shapes seem more natural and organic as in the shape of a plant.
Forms such as a cube or the human face can be broken down into shapes called planes to help us understand them.
Remember that there are shapes within those shapes as well. There is the shapes of the highlights and shadows. There is the shape of the textures and the shape of the pant pocket. Be careful not to leave out shapes.
Negative shapes are the shapes that seem to compose the background. Identifying these shapes in the reference allows you to match the drawing better. Negative shape can greatly alter the unity, harmony, and contrast of the artwork.
It is helpful to try to use these elements and principles starting with non-representational shapes so you can focus on the principles rather than making the elements exact. Decreasing the abstraction leads to representational shapes. Both nonrepresentational and representational shapes can be used to convey emotion and messages.
Exercise: Paint flat opaque curvilinear and rectilinear shapes.
Week 4: Line
There is no set way to differentiate between a line and a shape. A road up close is clearly a shape. From a satellite it looks like a line if it is even visible.
Consider the many variations you can have of just line based on their characteristics. A line can be soft or hard, light or dark, wide or thin, implied, solid, or broken, horizontal or vertical, jagged, straight, swirl, curved, etc. Lines themselves do not carry emotion or meaning out of context. They do however tend to add variety, direction, and clarity. If lines tend toward one point, that point becomes a focal point.
Exercise: Draw every different line characteristic you can think of.
Week 5: Texture
Texture is primarily either described as physical or implied. The material you choose to your art has its own texture and affects what you can do well with it. The medium also can share many similar characteristics with line such as ruggedness or consistency. Usually, we think of 3D art for physical texture since it has dimension to allow you to experience it.
Implied texture is how art seems like it would feel. The canvas would be smooth to the touch but seem to convey a texture. Representational texture is visual texture through a recognizable item such as fur or wood. Nonrepresentational texture is the result of how the art was created and does not relay an item such as cross hatching or paint strokes.
To study texture you can create frottages.
Exercise: Take photos of different textures and recreate them on paper.
Week 6: Color
Every color has an inherent value, saturation, and temperature. Red naturally has a darker value than yellow. Darker value, warmer temperature, and purer saturation have more visual weight in that order. Avoid using too much saturated color in an artwork.
Mixing opposite colors often neutralizes a color in a more natural way than mixing with a gray scale value. Mixing digital colors is much lighter than what occurs with physical paints. This is because digital colors are additive whereas physical art is subtractive to light.
Colors appear different depending on what colors they are next to. Consider value before color to avoid colors that hurt the eye due to similar value.
Colors also appear through light whether direct or reflected.
Commonly used Warm pigments
- Cadmium Red Light
- Cadmium Yellow Medium
- Sap Green
- Hookers Green
- Manganese Blue
- Cerulean Blue
Commonly used Cool pigments
- Permanent Rose
- Quinacridone Magenta
- Alizarin Crimson
- Cadmium Yellow Light
- Hansa Yellow
- Viridian Green
- Phthalo Blue
- Prussian Blue
Pigments through the Ages — detailed pigment histories, recipes (webexhibits.org)
Exercise: Paint to match the colors on a color wheel using only blues, yellows, and reds.
Week 7: Color schemes
Color schemes are found in nature and attract us because they are natural. All color schemes may use gray scale colors as well. Value and saturation may vary as much as desired. Listed below are a few of the more common color schemes.
Monochromatic
Limitations: Temperature should not stray far enough to be considered a different primary or secondary color than the selected color.
Use case: For conveying simplicity or elegance. This is the most beginner friendly option.
Analogous
Limitations: Temperature can be two or three adjacent colors. The colors should have one dominant, one support, and one accent.
Use case: Creating harmony with variety
Complementary
Limitations: A hue and its opposite are the only colors used.
Use case: Advertising or art without text requiring the most attention.
Split complementary
Limitations: One color and the two analogous colors next to its complement.
Use case: Providing high contrast with lower tension than in complementary work.
Triadic
Limitations: Three evenly spaced colors. One dominant with the other two as accents.
Use case: Creating the widest degree of vibrance.
These color schemes were created using Adobe color.
Exercise: Create paintings using each of these color schemes.
Week 8: Design Principles
Any principle that helps control the viewers' attention effectively is worth investing in. There is a lot of overlap between principles of design. This class identifies dominance, subordination, repetition, contrast, variation, balance, and unity as the primary design principles. There are other principles which they classify as subhead. Below is a list of these principles which you may choose to research further.
The process of creating art is ideation, gathering resources, perfecting, and critiquing.
The ideation phase includes identifying the message, format, and content. In this phase you create thumbnail sketches. Thumbnails are an essential step allowing you to quickly eliminate bad ideas and determine your plan for using design principles.
Gathering resources includes creating a mood board, word lists, and mind maps.
Perfecting phase takes a working thumbnail sketch and a set of resources and refines the thumbnails use of elements and principles of design creating drafts and taking them to be critiqued.
Critiquing phase is where you evaluate your own artwork and seek outside opinions. Make sure your art looks good from a distance. Another pair of eyes with different level of art knowledge will be able to see things you do not. Never take critique personally and be willing to offer your own critique. We do others a disservice when we ignore a problem and do not offer constructive feedback. Make sure you know what kind of feedback you are looking for and identify that for the person beforehand.
Exercise: Record the definition of some of these design principles
Exercise: Practice the creating process and utilizing design principles
Week 9: Unity
Repetition is used to create harmony and unity. Formal repetition uses a grid to place evenly placed items such as honeycombs. Informal repetition is uneven but has clear connections to each item such as water. Informal is less harmonic and united.
Variation is used to create visual interest.
Unity is the element matching the overall composition.
Harmony is the element matching the other elements around it.
Exercise: Create abstract thumbnails focusing on variation, unity, harmony, and repetition.
Week 10: Emphasis
Emphasis is about making some elements more important and others less using contrast. In a nature scene this could be equated to atmospheric perspective.
We can also use contrast to create visual pace guiding the viewers eye across the page and keeping them locked in it. We create focal points along a line where the viewers eye will naturally go to next. We can make the viewers eye stop their by also using grouping at the focal point. Contrast besides applying to color and value can be used with other elements of design like texture and shape. Value contrast will usually make the most difference in where the emphasis is one the page.
Exercise: Cut and paste shapes onto vellum paper to create emphasis.
Week 11: Balance
Imagine a fulcrum on a holding a feather at one end and an apple on the other. Clearly the apple will have more weight. We can look at a canvas as a fulcrum. Using value, position, size and saturation we can change the visual weight of the piece. You want to balance to remain near the middle. Visual gravity is the feeling that something is pulled to the ground such as a box about to fall off a cliff. Both visual weight and visual gravity can be used to change how well the canvas is balanced. A fully symmetrical composition will easily be balanced but if we alter it slightly, we would have to do something to both sides to keep it balanced. Asymmetrical pieces can also be balanced such as in the artwork below. The scale and contrast of the sleight and the bird keep the image balanced. You can generally feel something is off in your gut when it is not balanced. Take the time to make sure your art is balanced.
Exercise: Create a symmetric and asymmetric composition. Both should be balanced.
Week 12: Golden Section
The golden section is a measurement that seems to follow a consistent size in natures measurements. The human body is as shown below is a great example of the golden section. The idea is that our eye tends to like this measurement in nature and so we should replicate it to make appealing natural looking compositions. The measurement is 1.0 to 1.618. Repeating this measurement, we create a spiral shape.
Exercise: Search the internet for images that use the golden section.
Exercise: Use the golden section using google drawing and only rectangles, triangles, and lines.
Week 13: Artistic motivation
Remember that communication not perfection is the goal. Complexity does not create a great composition. Communication and good use of the principles of design do.
Don't be scared of a blank canvas. You don’t have to create from nothing. Use references, thumbnails, and drafts to build confidence in your artwork.
Even little children love to draw and color because art is meant to be enjoyed. Don’t make art painful for yourself. Sometimes you may have to create art that is not what you are most interested in but you can still find ways to enjoy the process as much as the subject.
Exercise: Plan, create thumbnails for, and create a smaller draft of the final project which shows an understanding of the principles of design.
Week 14: Final Project
Exercise: Create an artwork that demonstrates mastery of the elements and principles of design.
Course Project Requirements:
- Clean colors
- Obvious color scheme
- Obvious dominance and subordination
- Use value contrast and saturation to create 3 focal points
- Use rule of thirds
- Full range of values
- Use overlapping shapes