Reading 1: Color and Light Chapter 1 Notes and Illustration Studies

Tradition
- How have artists before discovered uses for light?
Old Masters Color - colors are stark and light is used for mood and emphasis
The Academic Tradition - Sciences discovered and applied to art. Science of Perception, New Pigments, and Plein-Air Practice.
Open-Air Painting in Britain - painfully accurately portrayed by British Plein air with observant colorists to be very accurate
The Hudson River School - Glowing light of the sun. Studies of the sunlight majesty. Fascination with nature's sublime moods. Landscapes
Plein-Air Movements - Light used to draw in the eye to the majesty along with striking compositions. Used stark colors and large spreads of color to show expansive sky. Also a contrast between tints, deeper pigments showing emphasis to smaller things (the river)
Symbolist Dreams - using light to emphasize holiness or mood. Glowing figures wreathed in light to indicate radiance and something supernatural.
Magazine Illustration - using limited color palettes and tints to explore color emphasis. Color is now full of use to use, but color can be used to contrast. Cool tones to stand out against warm tones. Red-green palette contrasting and lowering with yellows, violets, and blues.

Light and color work to create moods and emphasis and composition. With science developments, we see more experimentation in pigments, and an ability to create moods. We haven't quite dealt with impressionist atmosphere yet... focus on lighting and how color is used in limited palette as well as

John Singer Sargent - Experimenting with light
in painting here lots of shapes to be found in the lighting, reminiscent of the Academic
Tradition but with Sargent's own personal touch and flair (known for going against the grain technique wise)

Ophelia - John Everett Millais
His use of carefully rendered light emulates the Open-Air Painting in Britain.
Super meticulously rendered light working directly from reference.
Lighting is realistic to emphasize subject 

though not an old masters piece, this
one reminded me of the lighting
strategies utilized in the Symbolist dreams and other holy paintings. Limited color palette, lighting drawing your eye to the point of emphasis but still a hint of the sublime

JC Leyedecker - After they mentioned that for a long time
the saturday evening post illustrations were done in BW and Red because
of the limited print capacity, I looked it up. Absolutely blown away
at the skill in this limited color pallette and how he both uses the colors
to realistically render the people but also to bring the right emphasis to the points
he wants you to pay attention to (hat is brown, red cheeks and tie, hands stand
out against grey coat.