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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
Suggested Videos and DVDs:
Elements of Design, 1989 (30 Minutes)
Color Perceptions (33 minutes)
The Impressionists: Seurat, 2006 (56 minutes)
Monet: Legacy of Light, 1989 (28 minutes)
Artists of the 20th Century: Kandinsky, 2004 (50 minutes)
Mary Cassatt: American Impressionist, 1999 (56 minutes)
