Assignment 3: Colour: Urban/Man Made - Harmonious and Contrasting Colours

For the final four images I chose to look at the Urban/Man Made envvironment.

Urban/Man Made - Harmony - Complementary Colours

The first image is of an apartment block, taken in Portsmouth and is part of the redevelopment of the old Naval dockyard at Gun Wharf.

7072: 1/350s f5.6 90mm

Colour Details: This image is so clear that a colour sketch wouldn't add anything. This is closely framed to achieve the 1:2 orange:blue ratio which appears nicely balanced. Vertical framing and diagonal lines from the perspective give movement up the orange coloum and then follow the diagonals to the right.

Urban/Man Made - Harmony - Similar Colours

7124: 1/500s f5.6 60mm

I  photographed this in the Market town of Alton which has a lot of red and yellow brick Victorian buildings but was pleased to find this freshly painted lilac and blue cottage to give me a cooler colour example for the assignment. I had to tidy up the image a bit and eventually decided on a landscape crop to remove the roof and upper window.

Colour Detail: All of the colours highlighted are cool (i.e. in the blue section of  the colour circle) The cobbled path forms a horizontal base, the verticals of the door and window frames give upward movement and the three different wall  retaining plates give interest and movement left to right, leading the eye to the window

Urban/Man Made - Contrast - Different Colours
This yellow painted house contrasts strongly with the blue sky. This is a good example of primary colour contrast.

6793: 1/350s f9.5 18mm

Colour Details With a luminosity of 9, yellow is more than twice that of blue which is 4. However, when making this diagram I realised  that the luminosity varies with the tone; i.e.the yellow wall in shadow is much less luminous than the wall in full sunlight.

Urban/Man Made - Contrast - Colour Accent
Very close to the apartment block in  the first image and part of the old Naval dockyard, is an old brick wall which has been preserved as part of  the Ferry Terminal. These coloured bricks are arranged in a simple diamond pattern. I have cropped the image to isolate the blue/grey brick as a colour accent.

7071: 1/350s f5.6 56mm

Colour Details: The accent here is that of the cool coloured brick contrasting the warm colours of the red and yellow bricks. There is movement across the frame diagonally which changes direction at the apex of an implied triangle. There is visual tension from the colour accent and the unfinished triangle outside of the frame. I have simplified the colour accent in the diagram.