Color Theory

[Chris Johnson]

I've been looking for a good book on the subject of color theory. I'd taken a couple color and design classes but I'm looking for a good reference. Anyone have any suggestions.

[dns2k]

i think fredflickstone has a tutorial and notes in the turotial section.

-dns

[BadMange]

I'm also seeking out a good book or two about color theory. If you do a search for "color theory" here you'll find the Fred Flickstone tutorials dns2k mentioned, plus a bunch of other threads with some good info. I found several good book recommendations in a thread at Sijun, check it out HERE (http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?t=34778&highlight=books).

-Bad Mange

[Signature]

There are some of the notes by FredFlickStone @ Sijun.
Links are there:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8851
If you find the notes at conceptart could you add the links in a new post there!?


Thread 1 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9504)
Thread 2 (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9505)


Hope the thread helps somehow.

That wasn't you who asked the question at Sijun?
Then maybe that thread will help ;)
http://forums.sijun.com/viewtopic.php?t=34778

lol BadMange was faster :)

[DragonGX]

Ive been trying to learn color theory.. its my main problem.. its just so hard to get the right colors, if i could get this down i would be 100x better an artist.. :(

[Chris Johnson]

Thanks, I'll have a look at those links.

[tinyhands]

.......

[DragonGX]

Originally posted by tinyhands
DragonGx- Maybe stop thinking about color so much. Focus on value. I haven't seen your work, but I'm guessing its value problems and not color. Either that or you just haven't learned to mix well yet. Color is a slave to value. If the value is right, color doesn't matter. You could paint a face blue and pink, and if the values are right, it'll work. Eventually color and value become one in the same.


You may be right. As far as monochromatic drawins/paintings I consider myself very good at values, but when I haev to introduce color, maybe I get too caught up in it.. It jsut seesm like I can never pick the correct color temperatures..

I jsut read Alla Prima, and I learned quite a bit, so I need to get doing some more work to get some practice in.. Ill think about what you said about values, I think that really might help me a bit.. thanks!

[tinyhands]

.......

[MadSamoan]

Johannes Itten's - The Art of Color is pretty much the definitive book on color theory.

Alla Prima is one of my most treasured books, but it covers color theory only enough for the purposes of painting and editing what you see before you and isn't broad enough for the purposes of inventing scenes, environments and characters and other commercial purposes.

[Idiot Apathy]

If you can get past the science and horrible charts this site is really amazing:
http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/wcolor.html
More than you would ever want to know.

I've been trying to do some basic color theory stuff in the thread in my signature, maybe it's a start? Have a look.

[DavePalumbo]

If the value is right, color doesn't matter. You could paint a face blue and pink, and if the values are right, it'll work. Eventually color and value become one in the same.

maybe a bit oversimplified, but more or less. Amazing paintings have been achieved on very limited pallets, but you still have to know how to relate colors to give a consistent temperature and believable light.

I saw a color reference once that blew my mind. It was in the library at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and you needed faculty present to look at it and gloves to handle it. I don't remember what it was called, but it was a foot thick and every page demonstrated some kind of color interaction through adjacent colors, overlaying color strips, charts, etc. Alot of interesting stuff like how to make a shade of red look green and so on. The thing that made it so unique was that it wasn't a printed book, each page was hand painted so you were seeing the actual pigment. They said that if you could find one today, it'd sell for tens of thousands.

[Gory]

That sounds a *lot* like Joseph Alber's color theory experiments.

Mica teaches Joseph Albers, although I can't say that I got a whole lot (translation: anything) out of it.