How I Use Color

Photography

As a photographer, I am not using color, instead, I am capturing colors. The photo was taken in NYC, I really like this photo, because I can pay close attention to how colors were used in daily life. This is a construction site with many tower cranes. I enjoyed how they are all facing different directions. Plus, the one that is closest to the camera has a different color, blue.

Painting

The painting was done for the 2D design class project. It was an architecture elaboration assignment. The reason why I only used one color on the painting is that the overall painting has a lot of movements. Using too many colors may cause chaos. Also, I have different values of grey to show depth.

Design

In this book jacket design assignment, I chose to use complementary colors. As I think the book jacket should catch readers’ attention immediately, I think the color combination of orange and blue works well together, I only used three colors on the cover which are orange, blue, and white.

My favorite color palettes

Photography

Speaking about color in photography, I would like to talk about William Eggleston’s work. Photography didn’t use color seriously until Eggleston came along. In the example I picked above, I enjoy how warm the colors are. The dominants colors are yellow and red. Even though the image has two bright colors, it is still harmonious. Warm tone colors are associated with heightened emotions and passion as well as joy and playfulness. But I also noticed that the passenger is dressing green which complements the warm colors.

Fashion

Despite there are five colors the model wear, it doesn’t look overwhelming at all. I think the hoodie, pants, and shoes’ colors are muted which coordinate well with the bright orange jacket. About fashion, people often said that no more than three colors can be worn at the same time. The black hat is definitely a smart choice. You can’t go wrong with black. Overall, the color combination is a warm palette that fits well in Winter. One saturated color and other muted colors can draw people’s attention to the jacket.