Saturday, July 04, 2009

In the last class we were taught about complementary colors, two colors across from each other on a color wheel through the center of the wheel. In the modern color wheel they would be magenta-green, blue-orange and yellow-violet. The complementary colors increase the visual intensity of each other when placed in close proximity. This theory of complementary was formulated in 1850 or so and was used extensively by the impressionists (Monet etc). James showed us Van Gogh's paintings before he moved to Paris and the ones after he moved and started using the complementary colors. In one of the letters he wrote to his brother, Van Gogh had mentioned that he was experimenting the usage of three pairs of complementary colors in the same painting.

We learnt to mix a pair of complementary colors (plus white) in varying proportions to form a Dyad. We were supposed to make an abstract painting using this complementary blend only. Here is the picture of what I made using the blue-orange complementary pair. When I was working on this one Vinay pointed out that the Indian cricket team's new jersey designed by Nike uses the same complementary pair :)

9 comments:

karthik c said...

cool :) i learned the same thing in kalyan's photography workshop... he was saying that if the frame has colors which are very close to each other in the wheel, it makes the frame more pleasing, like yellow-green :)

ashwini bharadwaj said...

yellow-green is a lovely combination (think it's nature's favorite too) :) think the idea is to choose the right/different shades of the complementary colors, I am trying out one (not an abstract one this time :)) with red-green and yellow-violet, will post it once I am done.

Kiran said...

brilliant work again!

ashwini bharadwaj said...

hey, thanks kaNo :) not finding enough time to complete the others i have started :( did you make any new one?

Kiran said...

well make sure u take pictures and post them here. its a cool way of keeping urself going.

some horses in the making since 2 months havent found time to progress :(

Kiran said...

hey - hope you are able to publish here that ribbon abstract (and other old ones) as well

ashwini bharadwaj said...

The link under the "Works" tab to the right of the page has all the finished and photographed works (it's a link to the picasa web album) :)

Sridhar Raman said...

Nice stuff! As an artist myself, I understood the whole complimentary colours thing completely. :P

Deepa said...

Very beautiful ones Ashwini.