The Science
of Art:
As an
Artist, an Art Teacher and a constant student of Art I believe it’s important
to know and the science behind art.
I have to
agree with these phrases.I am not sure who said them first and yet I find myself repeating these phrases to my students
a lot. The concept of teaching science behind art might be overwhelming for
some in a full fledged classroom. Limitations such as restricted time might seem
challenging I still think it is a possibility worth exploring. With careful lesson
planning, effective time management and dividing
your lesson plan into multiple sessions can
help overcome this
challenge .
So what is
that Science I have been talking about?
There are so
many subjects to explore. At this point I will take one subject at a time.
The first one
I want to explore is subject of color and pigment and science behind it.
Color: Imagine
living in a world without color .What fun would it be to create an art work in
just black and white or grays and for how long? Colors help bring beauty to or
art and our world.
What is
color?
Color is a
pigment used in painting. It is the light that comes from the objects. Color
is the visual perception which categorizes
our ability to see things in various tones, hues of red, blue, yellow, green
and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light (distribution of light
power versus wavelength) interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities
of the light receptors.
How about
two experiments which help us understand color better?
More to do
with science: Make A Rainbow!
Material
required: 1. Mirror
2. Jar
of water
3. Modeling
clay
4. Bright Flash
light
5. Shallow
dish
6. White card
You can see
rainbow without having to wait for rain.
1. Pour the water into shallow dish
until its half full.
2. Put mirror in the water and put it in
sloping position with help of clay.
3. Shine the flashlight on the part of
mirror that is under water.
4. Hold the card above the dish.
A rainbow appears
on the card. See how many different colors are there. (You may have to move
flashlight and card before you can see the rainbow.)
As the white
light from the flashlight enters and leaves the water, it splits up into bands
of color.
Pigment:
Pigment is a substance which is used with a
binder or water to create a wide variety of colored expressions in all
non-digital art mediums.
What is
pigment where does it come from? : A pigment is a material that
changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of
wavelength-selective absorption. ? In simple words: We see colored objects in their distinct
color pigments because that particular object is absorbing all other colors of
spectrum and reflecting only that particular color.
Naturally
occurring pigments such as ocher and iron oxides have been used as colorants
since prehistoric times. The Industrial and Scientific Revolutions lead
to a huge expansion in the range of synthetic pigments, pigments that are
manufactured or refined from naturally occurring materials, available both for
manufacturing and artistic expression.
Some fun
Facts about Pigments:
Fun Facts:
1. Pigments based on minerals and clay often bore the name of the city or region where they were mined. Raw Sienna and
Burnt Sienna came from Siena, Italy, while Raw Umber and Burnt Umber came from
Umbria. These pigments were among the easiest to synthesize, and chemists
created modern colors based on the originals that were more consistent than
colors mined from the original ore bodies. But the place names remained.
2. Indian Yellow was once produced by
collecting the urine of cattle that had been fed only mango leaves.
3. Ultramarine, originally the
semi-precious stone lapis lazuli, has been replaced by an inexpensive modern
synthetic pigment, French Ultramarine, manufactured from aluminum silicate with
sulfur impurities.
4. Vermilion, a toxic mercury compound
favored for its deep red-orange color by old master painters such as Titian,
has been replaced in painters' palettes by various modern pigments, including
cadmium reds.
5. Fluorescence is the emission of light by
a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a
form of luminescence. To make things fluorescent a special chemical is added to
the ink called an optical dye. The optical makes normally invisible elements of
the color such as ultra-violet visible.
Experimenting
with color using with art and science:
Print pretty
patterns
Material
required: 1. Palette
2. linseed
oil
3. Thick paper
4. Dish of
water
5. Water
color/tempera /poster paints
6. Paint
brush
The colors
transfer to the paper in the same way that they do when color pictures are
printed in books.
1. Put some paints
on the palette.
2. Mix a
little linseed oil with each color.
3. Put one
color from the palette on the brush and gently add the paint to the water.
4. Add
another color. Swirl the colors to make a pattern.
5. Gently
lay a sheet of paper on the water, so that it lies on the surface.
6. Carefully
peel the paper away from the water. Lift it out and lay on a flat surface.
7. Let the
paper dry . Try printing with more patterns with other colors.
The colored
oil does not mix with water ,so it transfers to the paper.
I hope you
had some fun with art while exploring science.
Some other
projects which work well are shaving cream art and tissue paper collages. These
are some fun ways to further explore the art and science behind colors.
Please as usual
leave your comments .I will appreciate all feedback.
