I have been doing basic graphics design for more than five years already. I started doing graphics for church using Powerpoint. For the first two or three projects, they approved of my works without revisions nor questions. But one project came that required me to do major revisions that Powerpoint has now powers to do so. So I self-learned Photoshop and some basic knowledge on designing and layouting, shoutout to Youtube tutorials!
Through these years, I have been designing based on my own preferences-- if this looks good, then it's a go; and sometimes, getting inspirations from good designs I saw in the internet. I had no regard to some major technicalities and even the art of colors.
This week in our Digital Publishing class under Sir Ced Zabala, we were re-introduced to the Color Wheel. It's as if we were back to our elementary Arts class; but this time understanding and making more sense of its function. We were taught about the 8 color schemes which I will now be discussing with you using some of the photos I took as examples.
MONOCHROMATIC
"Mono" means one, "chroma" means color. Monochromatic color schemes have only one color and its values. It uses variations in lightness and saturation of a single color.
My subject for the first photo is a good friend of mine, Jackie Ruth, she was crowned as Miss Zamboanga in the year 2015. Taken at the Zamboanga City Musuem, Jackie was wearing a Mascota created by Al-Shamer. The brown, tan and light orange colors of the mascota matched the bricks on the wall as well as the floor tiles.
ANALOGOUS
The analogous color scheme uses colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. One color is used as a dominant color while others are used to enrich the scheme.
Not all goodbyes are painful. Take for example this sun bidding goodbye to the horizon as it set which I took at the Ebenezer Beach (side note: Ebenezer Beach gives you the best sunset view). It creates a beautiful sky masterpiece that made you all the more appreciate our Creator. This sunset painted a beautiful analogous color scheme to the sky.
COMPLEMENTARY
The complementary color scheme is made of two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel.
Taken at the Upper Pasonanca woods, Alyana wore red dress that complements the green leaves which made the red dress stood thus creating a powerful image.
WARM COLORS
Warm colors are based on yellows, oranges, browns, yellowish greens and warm reds. They are vivid and energetic, and tend to advance in space. They are colors found in fire and the sun.
This photo was taken at Maimoon Palace in Medan, Indonesia last September 2017. They have this store inside the palace where you can rent a sulatan costume to wear and take photos with it. I think I looked good here. 😉
COOL COLORS
Cool colors are based on blues, greens, pinks, purples, blue-greens, magentas, and true "blue-based" reds. Cool colors give an impression of calm, and create a soothing impression. They are the colors found in snow and ice and tend to recede in a composition.
The emergence of the stage lights and smoke was a perfect opportunity to take this wonderful photo of Jezreel, doing some final sound check and guitar tuning as we prepare for our church's Youth Service.
SPLIT-COMPLEMENTARY
One hue plus two others equally spaced from its complement.
Dom is another good friend of mine who strike a pose while resting from an exhausting swim at the Sta. Cruz Island. His rash guard was a stand out in the island that time as it had colors that complemented so well together.
DOUBLE-COMPLEMENTARY / TETRADIC
Two complementary color sets; the distance between selected complementary pairs will effect the overall contrast of the final composition.
Unashamed 2017 is an Asian Campus Conference under Every Nation Campus. This was night 2 of the conference where the Music Team lead us to a celebration song. These were huge balloons that descended from the General Ad seats on topmost down to the stage.
TRIAD
Three hues equally positioned on a color wheel.
"A friend to the whale and a friend to people" is what was written on this mural painting. Found in Silliman, this is one of the famous mural paintings in the campus that I had the chance to look up close.
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Analyzing and being aware of the harmony of colors through color schemes is a great help and boost in improving photos, paintings and graphic designs. This is something not really new to us, as we have learned this in our younger years but a rather a refresher. And I'm looking forward to more learning and re-learning with regards to Digital Publishing.
