978-0205677207 Chapter 6

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Chapter Six: Light and Color

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

• Atmospheric Perspective

• Chiaroscuro

• Hatching and Cross-Hatching

• Value

• Basic Color Vocabulary

• Color Schemes

• Color in Representational Art

• Symbolic Uses of Color

Works in Progress

Mary Cassatt’s In the Loge

Chuck Close’s Stanley

The Critical Process

Thinking about Light and Color: Tony Cragg’s Newton’s Tones/New Stones

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

This Chapter Will:

• identify and illustrate the artistic methods of using light to create space

• illustrate how artists achieve form through shading techniques

• discuss the significance of value (or key) in a work of art

• identify and define the vocabulary of color

KEY TERMS

atmospheric perspective

highlights

penumbra

umbra

cast shadow

modeling

value

hue

color wheel

tint

shade

spectrum

additive process

intensity

saturation

medium

simultaneous contrast

after image

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MyArtsLab RESOURCES

Closer Look: Mary Cassatt, In a Loge

LECTURE AND DISCUSSION TOPICS

1. Atmospheric Perspective

Since natural light helps to define spatial relationships, it stands to reason that artists are

interested in manipulating it. For Leonardo da Vinci, light was at least as important to

the rendering of space as perspective. The effect of atmosphere on the appearance of

elements in a landscape was of prime concern to Leonardo, and through painting, he

formulated the “rules” of atmospheric or aerial perspective. Atmospheric perspective

2. Chiaroscuro

A primary tool of the artists of the Renaissance was to render the effects of light using a

technique known as chiaroscuro. In Italian, the word chiaro means light, and oscuro

3. Value

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The shift from light to dark that characterizes chiaroscuro and atmospheric is value.

Changes in lightness and darkness can heighten an artwork’s expressive impact. Pat

4. Color Theories and Color Schemes

Color theorists such as Goethe and Munsell, mentioned in the text, have constructed

elaborate systems of color relationships for use by artists and other industries, such as the

textile industry. Goethe measured colors and their effectiveness rather symbolically,

equating moral and religious significance to specific colors. In 1905, Albert Munsell

created a color wheel based on five primary hues with the premise of identifying more

5. What Was Michelangelo’s Palette?

Discuss with students that early films were made in black-and-white, yet in the last

decades, there has been an interest in colorizing these films. Ask students if they feel this

is an improvement or simply a bad idea. Does color enhance early black-and-white films,

6. Local Color versus Perceptual Color

Illustrate plein-air painting, also known as painting in the open air, with Monet’s

Grainstack (Sunset) (fig. 152). Emphasize to students that the shadow of the grainstack

is filled with cool blue and green colors, the top of the stack has deep blue and brown

7. Optical Mixing

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In La Chahut (The Can-Can) (fig. 147 & 148).Georges Seurat painted thousands of tiny

dots on the canvas in a process known as pointillism. He did not mix the colors on the

palette; he relied on the viewer to optically mix the colors. Seurat felt that by placing the

8. Symbolic Use of Color

Read Vincent van Gogh’s statement on page 120 of the text regarding The Night Café

(fig. 156) while students are examining the painting. Ask students if Vincent van Gogh

succeeded at expressing “the terrible passions of humanity” through careful color choice

CRITICAL THINKING: More Opportunities to Think about Art

1. Works in Progress: Chuck Close’s Stanley

Chuck Close is identified as an American photorealist specializing in close-up portraits

and self-portraits. Close is one of the few modern realists or photorealists who focus on

the human face. As Chuck Close states in Realists at Work, “There is a tradition of

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3. Works in Progress: Mary Cassatt’s In the Loge

Mary Cassatt’s painting, In the Loge (fig. 131 & 132), is a study in the contrast between

light and dark. This can be seen by comparing the final work to a tiny sketch perhaps

made at the scene itself. In the sketch, Cassatt divides the work diagonally into two

4. Thinking about Tony Cragg’s Newton’s Tones/New Stones

Chapter 7 ends with The Critical Process, an analysis of Tony Cragg’s mixed media

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

1. Color Facts

How is color interpreted in different cultures? Do colors affect our behavior? What are

2. Interior Design Choices

Assign students to visit several public buildings and evaluate their interior design. Have

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3. How Did Vincent van Gogh Use Color?

In Chapter 5, the text considered Vincent van Gogh’s The Sower (fig. 75) in terms of line,

mentioning some of the difficulties that he had with color in the painting. Ask students to

HANDS-ON PROJECTS

1. Seeing Music, Hearing Color

Have students play different kinds of music and create compositions with lines that are

spontaneous but contemplative of the sounds. The lines should interact with one another

2. Chiaroscuro Self-Portrait

Have students take photographs with varying directions of light source to change the

3. Mixing and Matching Colors

Give students an assignment that allows them to experiment with mixing colors to the

4. Finding a Value Scale

Ask students to go through old magazines and see how many different varieties of blue

they can find. Have them cut out small rectangles of each color and arrange them from

Other Suggested Websites:

Color Matters is a great website that explores color and how it affects our mind, our

Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on La Grand Jatte is exhibited at the Art Institute

Art 21: Art in the 21st Century is an excellent website and video/DVD series produced