Donald's Crime

The use of colour in this image is really interesting; the way the orange melds into the contrasting hue of blue and also the use of tone to create shadows and depth to the image.

Some more interesting background images created by Hans Bacher from Donald's Crime

"The Cold Heart" colour script

Daz Kalte Herz (The Cold Heart) colour script

In this colour script there are a variety of different colour scheme sets, some scenes consist entirely of one hue whilst there is also one that has only contrasting colours.

"Grandfather's Ship" colour script

"Grandfather's Ship" colour script

This is a quite simplistic colour script with no definitive shape to scene composition etc but is very expressive and clearly represents the mood and feel of the scenes. I also like the layout of this script which seems to insinuate the progression of the story more.

"UP" Colour Script

"Up" colour Script

This is the colour script from the Pixar animated movie "UP". It is interesting to see quite a large contrast between some of the colour schemes which enhance the overall mood of those scenes, the happier scenes containing vivid and warm hues with high saturation where as the bleaker more emotionally negative scenes contain mainly blues and heavily de-saturated hues.

Colour Phenomena

After reading the article "Phenomenal Illusions" on the "Phenomenal Qualities" blog I became to understand more about  the importance and impact of a colours surroundings and not just the focus of the base colour and the way it can alter colours in the same composition.

Square A and B are actually the same Hue, this is altered by the adjacent squares. (Deconstruction of the image below)

Deconstruction of the illusion 

Michel Eugene Chevreul whilst working at Gobelins Manufactory as the "Dye Directer". In his study "The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colours" he goes on to talk about other phenomena such as Successive Contrast or Negative Afterimages. This is when "...two colour areas are seen close together in space or time, each will shift in hue and value as if the visual complementary colour of the neighboring or preceding colour were mixed with it."  

This is to say when you view one hue then view a second different hue you perceive the colours mixed.

Simultaneous Contrast Illusion. The background is a colour gradient and progresses from dark grey to light grey. The horizontal bar appears to progress from light grey to dark grey, but is in fact just one colour.

Phenomenal Illusions: http://phenomenalqualities.wordpress.com/phenomenal-pictures/

The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colours by Michel Eugene Chevreul: http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/chevreul.html

Colour Proportion and its effects

It was already apparent the importance of hue, saturation, value etc when creating a colour scheme but the proportion and relation of a colour in a composition also influences heavily the type of mood and impact the image has. 

A way of explaining and experimenting with the effectiveness of colour proportion is to use a colour palette in the way of having a Dominant, Sub-Dominant and Accent Colour(s).  The largest area being the dominant colour and the smallest being the accent colour, usually a contrasting colour, differing in hue, intensity or saturation. 

Depending on the choice of dominant color, the feeling of the composition, and even the appearance of each color, is altered.  

Proportion & Intensity: http://www.worqx.com/color/color_proportion.htm

Colour proportion