Visual Language - Colour and Value

Colour and value are two important considerations when making images and are another device that is more subconsciously read by the viewer and is seen as the overall mood and tone of the work. Obviously colour is one of the first things you notice when looking at an image, and can solely determined whether that image resonates with you or not, but I personally don't believe that I tend to read into colours as such beyond that impression.

Most of my work is black and white and always has been. I seem to get stuck with colour, overwhelmed by the unlimited selection and unaware of how to properly match colours for a chosen affect. As said above, I feel like I have to be very conscious if I am to evaluate and consider the use of colour in the work I am looking at. I think the thing I notice most is whether the image works as a whole, and the feeling of the image and how I respond to that feeling, rather than the individual colours that are being used to create such feeling. Perhaps if I was naturally more conscious of other's use of colour, I'd be better at employing it into my own work more seamlessly.

Even without the use of colour, value and tone are incredibly important. I am very aware of this within my own work, and enjoy trying to manipulate light and portray shade effectively. I want to get a lot more ambitious with this too, taking lots of inspiration from Hopper's use of light as well as the beautifully stunning etchings of Martin Lewis.

STUDY TASK

For my fan art poster I really wanted to test out the half-tone to create areas of shade to contrast light. Trying to avoid tricky and intricate registration I opted to just create a whole layer of half-tone with the intention of picking out the couple and drawing attention to them. I think the final image does achieve this, even if I may have played around with halftone on the bottom layer too next time to create more depth and contrast. The colours were not a direct choice, firstly because I was again stuck as to what colours would work for this particular piece and secondly because we were sharing a screen with someone else so we had to use the same colours. Even if Im not big on the colour choice I think they overall print does work....but then again I don't really know...who does, though?