Visual Art Paper 2 (Essay) May/June 2015

Question 2

  1. Explain colour hamony.
  2. Write notes on any four of the following:.
  3. analogous colours;
  4. triadic colours;
  5. monochromatic colours;
  6. warm colours;
  7. cool colours.

     

Observation

This question attracted a good number of candidates and some of them responded poorly to it. The poor responses made such candidates to lose part of the attainable marks. The following were some of the points the candidates should have highlighted:
(a)        -           colour harmony refers to the various ways in which an artist combines
colour to achieve unity and pleasant effects.

-           harmony is achieved by combining related colours and such relationships include analogous, complementary, etc.

(b)        (i)         Analogous colours  

  • these are colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel e.g. red, red-orange.

 

  • colours which contain one common colour e.g. blue and blue-violet are analogous

          (ii)        Triadic colours   

-     these refer to the use of three equally spaced colours on the colour wheel. e.g. yellow, red, blue.

 

(iii)       Monochromatic colour

  • this is the use of one colour in a composition.
  • one colour that is used in different values and intensity using tints and shades of the hue.

 

(iv)       Warm colour

  • they give the feeling of warmth. 
  • these are generally on the yellow to red range on the colour wheel, e.g.  red, orange and yellow.
  • they have advancing quality.   

 

(v)        Cool colours

  • those colours in which blue is dominant.
  • they are on the opposite side of the warm colours on the colour wheel
  • they give a feeling of coolness.  e.g. blue, blue-green and green
  • colours that seem to recede.
  • they suggests distance