Colour (Week 5)

This week we were beginning to bring colour into our own animations and how the use of colour would effect our work, possibly bringing our creations to life or provoking a reaction and response amongst our audience. I have always been nervous about bringing colour into my work and favoured a style of simple black and white tonal values, focusing more on details and creating texture. However I was excited to begin the lesson of colour as within previous weeks, the lectures have really presented the topics in an appealing and interesting manner, presenting the information and topic step by steps in an easy to understand manner. The lecturers have taught techniques and information that allows the process of colouring to be made simple and in a way which I may never have approached it alone before in my work.

To begin our lesson we began to learn of the different combinations of colour palettes, what they are called and what they may include. The first one we had learned about what Monochromatic, which is having or consisting of one colour or two colours. Analogous which is three colours, sharing a dominant colour of red or orange, Complementary which is a pair of colours, combined or mixed with the strongest contrast and Triadic which is three colours, evenly spaced. Throughout art the first three colour palettes I was the most familiar with, as Monochromatic would be an example of the many tonal pieces which I had included and designed my work within. Analogons would have been familiar from viewing movies such as Amelie which favours a strong dominant colour scheme of green, red or orange and was quite pleasing to the eye and relaxing to watch. Complementary was probably the most common colour plate to be as it would be favoured amongst most bodies of work and includes many colours that work well with one another, that are visually pleasing and read well for the theme of the movie and context. The colour palette I was probably most unfamiliar with was Triadic and was one that I hadn’t noticed many artists use as I mistaken it for a Complementary colour scheme but upon colour analysis. I recognised how the specific array of three colours worked well with one another and were the only representatives of colour present.

This was a really interesting lesson to learn as it was a intriguing point to really look at the movies or animations you are viewing and look more closer, because including things like angles, scenes, dialogue and colour palettes a lot goes into making a piece of art. This lesson was something which I was excited to bring forward into my own bodies of work and encourage my own artistic growth, by adding and changing different colours and colour palettes into my work. Another lesson which was going to encourage a professional progression within my work, was the ability and the strategic use of colour to promote a audience reaction or to support an action or story within your animation. I had learned about a number of different colours and how they all expressed and encouraged different emotions.

This was not the first time I had learned of a paring of colours causing a reaction amongst people as I had previously learned that red and yellow together are a great combination in promoting hunger within people and are why popular chain restaurants such as McDonald’s and Burger King use these colours within their advertising. Within this lesson I had learned how many colours used separately or within combination together can be successful in encouraging a negative or positive reaction within a audience. I had learned that the colour red was the first colour children were able to recognise, which is interesting and helpful as it is the colour of attention, danger, to stimulate, encourage and is also to represent love, power, luck and happiness, probably why it is used in a lot of celebrations. Other colours which we learned about was green, which can encourage, balance, relax and promote peace which is a good reason from many people to use nature as a way to calm themselves down, to relax and take a breather, but can also be used to show ominous and venomous. Blue is also a very tranquil and calming colour used to show to softness of the sea and ocean, but also a quite clinic colour used amongst many hospitals and pharmacies which also depicts a emotion of trust, however coldness and isolation which many people can feel within hospitals as they are on a journey alone and may not feel within the best of health. Pink I learned is a very appealing colour used the increase a persons pulse, can encourage fascination, creativity and show innocence, empathy and sweetness, which is probably why it is a popular colour for animations or holidays surrounding love and is a very sweet and childish colour used for cartoons and babies toys.

After the interesting lesson of colour I was eager to start combining my creations for ‘Material World’ with colours and possible picking the right combinations of colours to promote a audience reaction to ‘Material World’. The first idea when creating a colour example for ‘Material World’ was to create Water Boy with a combination of cool and warm tones of blue and to pair this with the nature island behind him, with a brown mountain rising up from a darker surface and gravitating higher to a soft green and icy peak. I thought this was a complementary colour palette of different shades of blue, natural green and brown and was great to include detail within. Within the story and even depicted as Water Boy, the character presented quite a timid and gentle exterior. Which is what the natural state of water is within many rivers, lakes and oceans. I thought the use of the colour blue was fitting in presenting the neutral and calm side to Water Boy, but also maybe the cold and isolated feeling he may feel within Material World and how everyone is born a lonesome wolf and on the fight for survival. The next colour palette I used was a mix of greens and brown for the mountain located in the heart of Material World, I used these colours as within Material World everything is surrounded by nature and is how the world was before mankind and destruction. I used the brown as the mountain had risen from the dirt and mud and then added green and white on top as the mountain began to find light from the sun and began to grow grass and flowers, but also how it began to grow so tall the higher it got the colder it got and began to freeze over. I thought the colour green was well suited to the heart/volcano of Material World as green is a colour to show balance, peace and to relax which is what the mountain means for all the creatures looking to follow their path. Green is also encouraging the characters in reaching the mountain which has been their lives journey from creation, but also a fitting colour as many of these creatures are drawn to the mountain but are unaware of the the ominous side of the mountain and what venomous creatures many also live within.

Our next task was to choose two scenes from a animation we liked that used colour to further tell the story or scene which they were trying to within their art and the two scenes I have chosen are from the Studio Ghibli movie ‘Spirited Away’. Spirited Away is about a young girl called Chihiro, who finds herself trapped within a spirit world and must find a way to escape so that she can rescue her parents and return home, all with the help of a family friend Haku. The scene I have chosen depicts two strikingly contrasting parts within the movie and really do well in using colour and imagery to encourage the audience to feel what the characters are feeling within the story. The top scene is when Chihiro has had a difficult day within the spirit world, misses her parents and takes a moment to herself outside to collect her thoughts. The prominent colour used here is blue shown in the sea and sky and even in her clothes. It is a array of different blues and shows a sense of calmness but always isolation within the scene. Chihiro feels so alone and lost and is at a point were she is depressed about her situation and feels distant and lonely being so far away from her parents and home. As this movie is my favourite I really felt this while watching this scene and it is so understandable right now, learning how the colour blue is used to promote this reaction in viewers. The next scene I have chosen is a stark contrast to the first as in this scene a spirited named No Face, is angry, hungry and has a admiration for Chihiro. He has noticed she has disappeared and has began to create a ruckus within the spirit bath house, he is getting more violent by the second and will not stop until someone brings him Chihiro. This scene uses a lot of dark colours such as using purple for the background and having the main character dressed all in black with only a contrasting colour of white for the mask. This is a quite scary and erratic scene for all characters within and makes the audience feels tense about the scenario they are viewing and what the future of Chihiro entails. The purple is fitting for wealth and luxury of the colour as he throws money to the workers to find Chihiro and mysterious and rarity of his character, as to why he wants Chihiro and where he has came from.

I learned loads about colour and the different reactions it can encourage, this lesson was really interesting for me as it will encourage me to include colour within my own art, to pay more attention to the colour palette I am using and how I can use it to encourage a audiences reaction within my story and how an array of both positive and negative feelings can be felt.