Colour My World Yellow

I think yellow is the perfect colour for April's Colour My World Challenge, no? Where I live, it's just starting to warm up, so we're starting to see daffodils and crocuses. After working on black last month, I thought we needed a pop of bright to work with this month.

Before we talk about yellow specifically though, I wanted to share this great TED talk that Janine sent me. Beau Lotto of Lotto Labs talks about the role colour and value play in optical illusions. Fascinating! Thanks Janine!

 

From wikipedia.org

So, yellow. It's the warmest colour on the colour wheel and psychological the happiest of the colours. It's a primary colour whose complementary colour is purple. However, according to Johanne Itten, an artist and colour theorist, a balanced and pleasing composition of purple to yellow would have a ratio of 6:1, not 1:1 as we might expect for complements.

For those who want to learn more about yellow, here are a few good online resources:

• Sensational Color's Yellow
• Wikipedia - Yellow
• About.com has some great ideas for colour palettes using yellow
• For inspiration, check out National Geographic's Life in Yellow photo series

Did you know why most pencils are yellow? When pencils were first being made, the finest graphite came from China. As yellow is a colour associated with royalty and respect in the Chinese culture, pencil makers in the States used that colour so that people would know that those pencils were the finest. There's some brand power 1890s-style. And yet in Greece, yellow means sadness and we associate it with cowardice. Things that make you go hmm, eh?

Take a moment to think about yellow. What do you think about? How does it make you feel? 

I think the sun, daffodils, "Yellow Submarine," the Simpsons, yellow lights, school buses, my second son's favourite colour (at least it is yellow today), corn, yellow peppers, sunflowers, and lemons. Personally, I like bright golden yellow, but in small doses. Light yellow actually makes me feel queasy, which I find weird. 

For this month's challenge, I think I'm going to do something sun-related, maybe experiment with some seta colours or more collage. Still mulling so we'll see... 

If this challenge interests you, you can find more information on my Colour My World Challenge page.  You are more than welcome to join in anytime. 

Hope you are having a great Tuesday!