Using Color for Emotion
![Picture](/uploads/6/4/2/3/6423960/807008.jpg?429)
24X36, Acrylic on Canvas Board 2006
Objective: As the title of the page may suggest, the objective for the assignment was to use color in a way that help to convey the emotion of the subject matter.
The inspiration for this piece was a obviously a bear. The reason I chose to do a bear is because, at the time, I was fascinated with the duality of the bear. They have such opposing ideas that are tied to them; people say bear hugs, cuddly like a teddy bear, but then they fear the live animal. So, I chose to show the feared side of the bear because it would lend itself more to the emotion aspect of the assignment.
I wanted to convey anger and thought that the woodlands most fierce creature, second to the squirrel, would be the perfect avenue. The process for making the painting was fairly simple. I first had to think of what colors would convey anger most effectively and red and yellow seemed to be the best option. They are both bold and loud which already gives a sense of unease, and the red and yellow together seem to show anger. From there I drew out the image of the bear and started painting. I used a lot of dry brush technique because I feel it imitated the feeling of fir.
For this project the main thing that I learned was the power of color choice. Now, in this case the color choice was fairly obvious and very in your face with what was to be conveyed through those colors. This being said, it opened my eyes to how this could be used in a more subtle way in other pieces.