The Gray Recipe

Gray doesn't have to be boring. Everyone knows that the color gray is made with black and white. It seems simple enough. Add more black and it becomes darker. Add more white, it comes out lighter. But this seemingly innocent color has a more difficult, elusive side to it. What about a warm gray? Or a gray with a purple color cast? There is a whole range of varieties between black and white. In fact, gray doesn't even have to include black.
Grey can be made with colors with no black added. While mixing colors for my chromatic gray painting I quickly recognized the difference gray mixed with colors make. Mixing in brighter colors like yellow certainly made a noticeable difference. This is how one can get a warmth out of the notoriously dull color. By adding in colors , gray becomes less flat looking. It creates a more convincing color because grays, especially in metallic and reflective objects, act different in different lighting and environmental situations. That is, the light, and other things around a reflective object create different tones of the color. While mixing gray using colors is useful it also can be tricky at first.
The elusiveness of the color lies in the fact that mixing gray using only color and no black requires an almost delicate balance of complimentary colors. One can achieve a perfect gray using just blue and orange as they are compliments of each other. The goal is to reach a neutral balance. This does not always necessarily mean adding equal amounts of each color. Lighter colors usually have to be added in greater quantities. It takes a lot of experimentation and trial and error, but a balance can be achieved. I found the best two color combination plus white to reach gray is ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. It produces a classic gray that is similar to mixing black and white.

Why did the moon turned a rust color last Night?

Last night there was a total lunar eclipse that was visible to a large portion to North America. The moon was obscured by the earth's shadow for about 2 hours. The sky was very black except for the red glow that shown where the moon usually shines. It was the unusual red color that caught my attention. Why was it red?
It all has to do with light. During a total lunar eclipse the moon is in the behind the Earth in its shadow. The Earth blocks direct sun light from the reaching the moon. usually we can see the moon because of this sunlight that hits the moons surface reflecting light and its gray color back toward us to see. The moon does not emit light itself, so by taking away this direct sunlight we don't see it would normally appear.
Although the moon doesn't receive any direct sunlight, it still is lit by the indirect light that passes through the Earth's atmosphere. The Atmosphere acts like a filter and removes most of the blue color light leaving the deep red color. (mr eclipse.com)



sources:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/lunar.html
http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/LEprimer.html

Food Coloring: How food companies use color

Have you ever had a green or purple ketchup on your McDonalds fries? The famous condiment company Heinz introduced the new additions of Ketchup in 2000 and 2001 with great reception from kids. "When H.J. Heinz Co. launch- ed the green ketchup in the U.S. ... the company sold more than 10 million bottles of it in seven months." (Marketing Magazine) Kids were eager to try the new hue of the familiar companion to the french fry, but some adults weren't as adventurous.
This is the reason it was specifically marketed toward children who tend to be open to new things.
The company used green and purple food dyes added to its ordinary ketchup recipe to produce the two new colors of ketchup. There are 7 FDA certifiable food colors.(excluding restricted colors) They are:

FD&C Blue No.1 (Dye and Lake),
FD&C Blue No.2 (Dye and Lake),
FD&C Green No.3 (Dye and Lake),
FD&C Red No.3 (Dye),
FD&C Red No.40 (Dye and Lake),
FD&C Yellow No.5 (Dye and Lake),
FD&C Yellow No.6 (Dye and Lake)
(http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/colorfac.html)

Food coloring is put into many different types of food and drink including some that you wouldn't necessarily think of. For example, Salmon is sometimes dyed to hide color imperfections. Kool-aid and other drink and soda makers use colors that associate with certain flavors. It is purely for aesthetic purposes as the added color doesn't physically add to the actual taste. Companies use the perception of color so that consumers can identify flavors by sight without tasting it. For example yellow is almost synonymous with lemon as far as drinks go. Some have even suggested that the color even contributes to the taste value of foods. ( http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/?s=food&x=40&y=10)


sources:
http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/?s=food&x=40&y=10
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/colorfac.html
http://www.marketingmag.ca/magazine/current/national_news/article.jsp?content=20010813_18695

Colourlovers.com

I stumbled upon this site a few months ago and thought it was amazing. Colour Lovers is an entire website dedicated to color. Members can log in an create their own color palettes and patterns for others to view and rate.
It is a great vehicle for people to pick up inspiration from others or experiment with different combinations without opening up Photoshop or Illustrator. But if you do want to use creations from this site, there's an export option in various file types, Photoshop and Illustrator included. There is also a blog dealing with color and its practical applications in art and other fields as well. Topics range from the meaning of the GLBT rainbow flag to the true color of the Eiffel Tower.

Here is an example of a palette I came up with.
5 Color Print

How we interpret colors

Warning Colors:


This constrution sign is not orange by chance. The bright color is a warning color. The intensity of it immediately catches the eye in the presence of the more subdued tones that also can be found in a city. For other species, specifically bugs, bright colors often signify danger or threat. For example the milk snake is known for its bright bands of red, black and yellow along its body. Nature has already invented the idea of warning colors long before man began to create his oen objects.


This is an image of Mr. Yuk. This design was part of a campaign to safeguard children from ingesting dangerous household chemicals. You may notice that particular green they chose. The sticker implies sickness just from the
vomit green color alone. This color of green is almost always associated with sickness.

Sol Lewitt Conceptual Project

(photo: www.nga.gov.au)

The Concept art that we did in class was something new for me. At first I thought it was ridiculous that a artwork could be credited to an artist without him even touching the piece. But, I was also interested in the idea of just the instructions to make a piece rather than only producing it oneself. The piece we did in class was straight forward and simple enough that anyone could recreate it. The results was a big square made of tiles of curved and straight lines. I don't think it turned out right, because our lines weren't perfect. It looked off to me.

Performance Art

The Wall
Ingredients: Two to six people
One Wall

1. Participants stand with backs against a wall, hands down by their sides, plams facing, but not touching the wall. Everyone's eyes should be closed.

2. With eyes closed a participant ducks down.

3. Everyone opens his or her eyes to see who has ducked. If only one person ducks, start over and if everyone ducks, start over .

4. When more than one participant ducks down the standing people (or person)clap(s)

5. The clapping can go on for an unlimited time until the people or person clapping decides its over.

I tried this performance with my brother(18) and nephew(9). I read the instructions to them step by step. It was interesting to see who would duck down and who wouldn't. My nephew was quick to duck down as soon as I read that instruction and
I told my brother to clap. He did so for about 90 seconds. I thought that was interesting because I didn't tell him when he should stop. The decision was completely up to him.