Color Theory and Emotional Effects

A color's value, hue, and intensity each affect our emotions in different ways. Combinations of colors can make us think of different things and the lightness or darkness of a color can change our mood and the mood of the painting we're looking at. Bright, intense colors have a more vivid reaction that pale, dull colors. When we think of blues it may be calming like the ocean and reds may have us thinking of violence. Shades of yellow can take your mind to the happy days of summer. Different people may have different emotions for the same colors. Blues may also make a person think of birth, as in our society when we associate blue with the birth of a baby boy. I find it fascinating that simply by changing the value of a color, adding black or white, it gives you an entirely new color and can completely change the mood and appearance of a color. A dark, bright red has a very different emotional feel and intensity to it than does a pale, light pink. When I think of the difference in those two colors I have two extremely different ideas of what they could represent in my head.

In the color video the idea that made the biggest impact on me in regards to color was that artists often look at what they are painting not as a scene, such as a nature scene, but as separate individual colors. Van Gogh said in the video to look at everything as colors instead of objects. Instead of seeing a tree, look at it and see long streaks of browns and different shades of greens. Perhaps instead of seeing a pond as water, look at it as a patch of blue mixed in with the other colors. I really felt as though I could walk outside and just see colors all around me after hearing that, as opposed to seeing houses and cars.

The feelings video, I enjoyed that they described feelings and art as a battle ground between God and Satan and the use of color in art depicted feelings that led to a view on either side of the battle, using shades of blues, whites, and yellows to highlight God and his goodness. The use of color in any painting makes one think about what emotions the artist is trying to get across. It's the idea that artists choose their colors based on the emotions that they which to evoke from their audience that intrigues me.