Color School

I love color.

If you’ve seen my work it’s obvious. I’ve loved color ever since I was a kid. I always had the most vibrant sneakers, especially during the throwback era. I loved to match my throwback jerseys with my sneakers. My older brother would tease me because I never had a “normal” pair of sneakers that could go with anything. by that he meant I never had a pair of all white or black sneakers. No neutral color sneakers to wear with any outfit. I was drawn to the crazy patterned vibrant non-matching sneakers. I guess that’s how my love for color initially started to show up. It was always just there. Naturally, I’m drawn to colorful things. I didn’t begin to understand color until I went to Columbia College Chicago to study photography. During that time I learned all about the different elements of photography that could help to create a dynamic beautiful image. One of my favorite elements is color. 

Controlling the intensity of colors in an image is the most fun for me. To take that even further, controlling how those colors complement each other makes it even more satisfying. In my process, complementary colors are the key to creating something beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. Once I was able to understand how colors worked together then I was able to run with the color rules along with the ideas that I wanted to work out. At that point, I knew I would be able to create artwork that would be aesthetically pleasing. 

A color is only as prominent as the colors relative to it.

All colors are relative to the colors they’re presently next to. It’s all about the overpowering or under powering of the current color combination. When I’m making a painting I always consider this rule. When beginning the painting process I prefer to default to contrasting colors that usually compliment each other. When I’m choosing those complementary colors I’m often drawn to choosing colors that are opposite each other on the color value scale. I normally choose two vastly different color values while keeping them generally complementary. I want the stark contrast. I enjoy the science of color and love to experiment with unlikely color combinations. My overall goal is to create something aesthetically pleasing as well as thoughtful and engaging.

Once I was able to understand color palettes and the manipulation of color, then I was able to use my own system to create customized color palettes. Now, here’s the fun part. I’ve created a process where I design each original painting digitally. I form the perfect digital composition and select all of the colors 

that I will use digitally. I then take those cover values and then plug them into my Behr color app. The color match function gives me an exact color ID and from there I can go to any store that offers Behr paint and have that color produced exactly as seen on my computer screen. Now I have an exact layout of what colors I’ll be using and a road map for exactly how I will execute the painting. This makes the actual painting process 100 times easier because now I don’t have to think about the infinite creative choices I could potentially make when painting. They’ve already been thought out and planned. Now all I need to do is execute the painting.

Choosing the right colors in a painting make the difference in how aesthetically pleasing the artwork will be. In my opinion it doesn’t really matter what you’re painting. Now take this statement with a grain of salt, because what I really mean is if you start with colors that compliment each other you are destined to create something that is aesthetically pleasing. Most times when someone looks at painting for the first time. The first thing that they notice is usually the color of the art. They will usually mention something about how the colors go together. It could be a painting that is boring to look at or could it could be a painting with a negative subject matter. All in all the color will be the first thought and the subject matter will be the second. 

-Von