Confused about colors

[mtw]

Last quarter my drawing teacher showed the class some slides of paintings and drawings and mentioned how the light on things brought focus to them because the light color stuck out most from the rest of the drawing or painting. This quarter my figure drawing teacher is telling the class that black tone makes things look closer than lighter tones. From somewhere else I've also heard the black colors recede, while bright colors come forward. Could someone clear this up for me, because I seem to be getting mixed information or I'm not understanding it correctly.

[egerie]

What I can remember from my school theory is that in general bright elements make things stand out and darks makes things recede. BUT this is just a basic concept. For instance, atomspheric perspective lightens everything in the background. Ex: Blue/white haze. fog like mountains far off in the distance.
On the other side of the coin, dark overlays in the foreground give you a more accentuated field of depth. Ex: Some of Vermeer's works use this (http://www.artrenewal.org/images/artists/v/Vermeer_Johannes/large/Vermeer_The_Love_Letter.jpg) . And cartoons rely a lot on it too :)

Now I don't understand why your figure drawing teacher said that.. maybe to push his students to correct their shadows and make them more intense ?
Other than those tibits of info I'm puzzled. :confused:

[kaini]

when we talk about atmospheric perspective, saturated colours are in the foreground whereas lighter tones are used in teh background. Same with black tones, since they are quite saturated they should be in the fg.

In the painting of Vermeer, these black shapes are used only as a compositional device. Vermeer moves the viewer's eye to the girls with this trick.

[MindCandyMan]

hey kaini could you talk a little more in depth about saturation...I'm not quite sure what the concept behind it is...I feel liek I hear people say two different things and it's hard for me to understand at this point. Maybe you could clarify a bit?

[egerie]

Kiani: you're right. I was wondering if maybe the teacher was refering to those ? *shrug*

As for saturation of colours, it's also a good thing to exploit in order to draw focus to a certain part of the picture too.
Be carefull, tho, as saturation and lightness of a colour are two different things. In long distance atomspheric perspective they usually are linked together.
Oh gosh meeting gotta go