For example, in this piece of artwork by Alphonse Mucha, a range of pastel colours are used to evoke a feeling of peace and to portray a calming scene of nature.The greens, in this case, are used to connote nature and are dulled down to a pastel shade to create a peaceful atmosphere. If Mucha had used a more vibrant green, the scene would have appeared more vivacious.
"Dark green represents greed, ambition, and wealth, while yellow-green stands for sickness, jealousy, and cowardice, and olive green represents the traditional colour of peace."1 In this artwork, olive green is used, therefore further demonstrating my point that this was intended to be a peaceful piece of artwork as opposed to a dark or sinister piece.
Due to its connotations, colour is an important aspect in creating the right message in a piece of artwork. Because colour is so capable of conveying emotions, it is important that I analyse different colours to find a colour which represents energy.
Red
This is a colour often associated with the positive feelings of love and the negative emotion of anger. Red is also used with sexual connotations, for example, in the book Of Mice and Men, Curly's Wife, a character with a significant sexual presence, is described to be wearing a lot of red in order to portray her as a 'sexy' character. This is also used to connote the danger relating to her due to the bad events that later occur.
"She had full rouged lips and wide spaces eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers."2
Red has strong connotations of danger and so it is often used in warning signs to catch attention, much in the same way it is also used to catch sexual attention when used provocatively.
After doing some further research, I found that red is "a hot color that evokes a powerful emotion of passion, lust, sex, energy, blood and war."3 For my final piece, red would be a relevant choice in colour as it is not only said to portray energy, but also portrays multiple other strong emotions relating to energy.
After reading Colour Psychology by Richard G. Lewis, I was informed of the reasons as to why red is seen as an energetic colour.
"The colour red has been found to stimulate the nervous system and increase breathing rates, and boost skin and blood cell regeneration. Consequently, it is recommended to use red when an individual wants to increase energy."4
I found this quote to be one of the most informative and helpful quotes I had found so far as it gave me specific reasoning as to why the colour red increased energy and therefore gave me a solid reason to use the colour in my final piece.
Yellow
The colour yellow is also described as a "cheerful energetic colour"5 because it is also a bright an eye-catching colour. Both red and yellow are vibrant and eye-catching colours so this means that to portray more energy through my final piece, these colours would be most fitting as opposed to Mucha's pastel colours. This is because vibrant colours draw the eye towards the piece and and create an overall more exciting and positive appearance, whereas dark colours such as black hold connotations of evil and fear, hence terms such as 'black mail'.
Colour Psychology informed me that "studies using yellow concluded that it increased mental stimulation, and boosted alertness,"6 although these aren't exact signs of the increase of energy, boosted alertness and mental stimulation are more likely to bring the viewer closer to understanding the energy of my work as opposed to making them drowsy and and less invigorated by the already energetic colour red.
Blue
This colour could be less appropriate because according to both Digital Skratch and Colour Psychology, blue is seen as a calming colour.
"The colour blue has been used in studies to relax muscles, lower blood pressure, and to calm hyperactive children."7 This proves that blue would have the opposite effect to what I am looking for and so it would not be an appropriate colour to use in my final piece.
"Yellows and reds have been found to provide subjects with an increase in energy and creativity. On the other hand, exposure to blues, pinks and purples is good for calming people down."8 This quote, in short, demonstrates which colours I should be using to portray energy in my final piece. To later help with that final piece, I have created a colour wheel based on the things I have learnt in Colour Psychology. Each colour contains a basic description of it's emotional effect so that I know which colours will be most appropriate and why.
1 Bourn, j., January 25, 2011, Color Meaning: Meaning of The Color Green, http://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-green/ [Accessed 26 August 2015]↩
2 Steinbeck, J., (2000) Of Mice and Men, New Ed edition. [online) Penguin Classics. Available from: Amazon Kindle Books. <http://www.amazon.co.uk/> [Accessed 28 August 2015]↩
3 Digital Skratch (2015), Color Psychology, http://www.digitalskratch.com/color-psychology.php, Accessed 28 August 2015↩
4 Lewis, R., (2014), Color Psychology (Profit From The Psychology of Color: Discover The Meaning and Effects of Colors), [Online), Riana Publishing International, Available from: Amazon Kindle Books. <http://www.amazon.co.uk/> [Accessed 28 August 2015] ↩
5 Digital Skratch, op. cit.↩
6 Lewis, R., op. cit.↩
7 Lewis, R., op. cit.↩
8 Lewis, R., op. cit.↩
9 Lewis, R., op. cit.↩
