Jeff's Online Color Theory

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Week 1

Mood/Jump to Expression

I chose to try and depict fear in my picture. It's a feeling that everyone goes through at some point in their lives and in very persistent. I tried to use elements that would show the different physical changes that people go through when they're afraid. The background, a black to mid-tone gradient, represents both the dilation of the pupils and mystery and uncertainty of the dark. The concentric circles show the quickening heartbeat as the space between the circles grows smaller toward the center. I used red for the circles to represent both the heartbeat and the blood as the pressure increases in the veins and arteries. - Bryan Wingfield

The Dreaming

This is a concept piece of a landscape idea I had for an area in a game. The idea is that the players might find themselves in "The Dreaming" which is a vast area that is the realm of dreams we all tap into while we sleep. I thought of the area as an mysterious, odd, desert filled with yellow-green sand (the idea of the sand man - Or Sand Men in my world) The sand pours out of the sky on top strange floating platforms where it pools and then runs off filling the Dreaming. Broken structures dot the land scape half buried in the landscape. Structures and even people can be found in the most odd and out of place situations throughout the dreaming much like oasis's is a real desert (remnants of peoples dreams). For instance you may cross a dune to find a old woman in what appears to be a half buried town square drawing water from a well and surrounded by her children. Only when reaching the edge of the square she and her children begin to fade and swirl off as sand in a wind that is strangely not present. And the world is populated by Dream Spirits (The Sand Men) who are near formless apparitions made up of the sand itself.

(An idea I had was that they would shape shift during combat to resemble any other monster in the game and take on their abilities. Thus making the sandmen manifestations of things people encounter in their dreams and making combat interesting by forcing players to adjust their tactics to whatever they shift into.)

The odd coloring is immediately jarring. You know it's not right the way it is and the purple, green, and oranges lend both a sense of mystery and unrealness to the entire landscape. The shadows also don't always appear to make sense, and while in the dreaming there is a day and night cycle there is no sun or discernible primary light source, lending to the alien nature of the world.

This was drawn and colored in Alias Sketchbook Pro. - Ryan Maehr

Expression

In this work that I've done I wanted to express the happiness in the simple little things.  I've used vibrant colors to to convey the different energies that one can get from taking a breathe and enjoying the everyday things. Seen in the piece is a picture of my mother bending down and holding a flower. After watching her while I was growing up and seeing the way she loves flowers, I thought, there must be something there I don't see. I tried to depict a fun and happy scene of what it might look like through her eyes. 

- Kevin thompson

Ok, so for this project I decided I would go a bit more abstract.

- Eric Wilson

I have a subtle fear of the dark. Mainly I am scared of what could be lurking ahead of me in a dark room. For this piece I found a picture of a scary looking dog, and I mean this looks really creepy. like scary as is dog. If I could I would have just submitted this picture it brings fear into perspective.

This piece is supposed to signify imagination or creativity. I used purple due to it's exotic nature and it's meanings. It's supposed to give an otherworldly feel to this image allowing it to feel like something different and strange. The figure is supposed to resemble a fairy of some type, and it's the focus of the image since it's a good symbol of the imagination. The rest of the picture is simply to feel like a strange and different world. I tried to give it an interesting sense of lighting to make it feel even more mysterious. I choose to only use purple because I wanted to focus on the meaning of it. Flitting Fancies was picked a the title because the 'fancies' can be the imagination or creativity making us fancy things and 'flitting' was used to signify the swiftness they move around as and the fairy featured in the picture. - Ariel Gould

  In my piece “Containing Rage” you will see me forming a fire ball with four heads going down the middle resembling what looks like a totem pole. I chose rage because it is what I have been feeling lately while at work. So I decided to use this assignment to vent some of my rage. I used red because it symbolizes rage and fire. On their own they are powerful, but when joined together they are unstoppable. I chose a black background to symbolize me being by myself having to deal with controlling my rage. 

     The first face you will see is that of a goblin which will remind you of Yoda. This is the calm and most dangerous of the four because of his own inner peace. He decides when to attack or retreat. If you look above him you will see a face of an ogre who seems to be weeping with rage. He cannot control it therefore he needs to be on top so I can keep an eye on him.  The face below the goblin is that of the snob. He thinks he is better than everyone and hates being below anyone. The last head on the bottom is of the sweeter side of rage. Its conniving and deceitful with its whimsical ways. Luring others to do her bidding.- Nestor D. Delgado

This piece was very fun and interesting to create. At first, I considered doing a piece on anger, but after seeing how many classmates did anger or a variation of it, I decided to try a different expression. After going over a few designs in my head, I settled on a design for stress or anxiety. My first part was creating something to represent the viewer, an avatar, if you will. I thought of the Zoloft commercial with the oval-shaped thing and I decided to go with something similar. In addition, I simply like circles, so creating this little guy was fun. I decided to have him looking up with his mouth just a small line. I added in two smaller lines under his eyes to further express his negative feelings. Next I wanted to express the feeling of having multiple things coming at you all at once, kind of like at work how many things can get thrown your way all at once and you feel like you are overwhelmed at times. These could also be people bearing down on your or pointing at you, so I wanted something sharp-looking to convey a sense of danger or impending pain. I think the long, narrow triangles worked very well to that effect. In addition, the dark red color was effective in creating an angry atmosphere to the triangles, which only furthers the sense of anxiety. Lastly, I decided to make the background a dark, pale blue, which gives a hint of depression or negativity, as if the place the little guy is in is a subtly bad place. Overall, I was extremely please with how this picture came out and I did not want to add too many elements that could clutter up the picture. Hope everyone enjoys this as much as I do! - Justin Day