Color Theory with Anabella Wewer
The not-so-secret interactions of color in mosaic.
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A graphic designer by profession, Anabella has been immersed in color studies, practice and application since childhood. She has applied all that knowledge to her award-winning mosaic works, creating subtle monochromatic works (gradations), and expertly mixed color compositions. Mosaic Arts Online is thrilled to have Anabella delve into color theory, from Isaac Newton to the work of the post-impressionists, pointillists and beyond, and bring it all around to our mosaic practice.
In this online course Anabella breaks down the intricacies of those parts of color theory that apply directly to mosaic work. Using what appear to be unconventional materials (paper, yarn, watercolors, etc.), Anabella provides us with quick and economical ways to understand how colors interact and affect each other, and shows how it all relates to the art of mosaic. You will learn how to effectively use color, and how color interactions are affected by interstices and background/grout color. She explains how to mix colors successfully while explaining in detail how our eyes perceive and mix color to produce more vibrant works, the importance of understanding value and the relationships of each color to grayscale, and talks about the proportions that are necessary when mixing colors to keep the work from looking muddy or flat.
After all of the why's and how's are explored, Anabella explains how to use color wheels to easily decide on harmonious color palettes, and goes on to provide insights into studying the works of art produced in the period immediately after the color treatises came to be for clues on how to mix color for better results.
Once you complete this course, you will have the knowledge and skills to troubleshoot your own work, make better decisions when selecting material, selecting adhesive and grout colors, and use color theory to achieve vibrant effects in your mosaics.
Your Instructor
A graphic designer by profession, and a native of Caracas, Venezuela, Anabella is an internationally exhibited mosaic artist and passionate metalsmith. She is co-founder, and has been Creative Director of Black Box, a studio specializing in Web-based applications, since 1994. After discovering mosaics as fine art during a trip to the Vatican in 2004, she started taking mosaic classes in the United States, but quickly made the decision to train mostly in Italy. Her work is rooted in a sense of place and time, with a distinctive graphic feel that often incorporates type and her love of maps and fossils. Her passion for materials and history inform her work and push her to explore new territory grounded in time-proven rules and principles. Her background as a typographer guides her work, exploring the language of materials and technique to tell stories. "When I put hand to metal or stone, I aim to bring the viewer into a narrative, to provide questions to consider. I am intrigued by frozen moments in time; I like to imagine what came before and what follows. Place and time, their changing and their passing, and trying to capture their impermanence is my main artistic directive,” says Anabella of both her jewelry and mosaic work.
Anabella has studied Ravenna mosaic technique with Luciana Notturni, in Ravenna, Italy; stone micro-mosaic and opus vermiculatum with Arianna Gallo and Luca Barberini of Koko Mosaico in Ravenna; filati micro-mosaics with Maestro Carlo Meloni (Rome); abstract and modern mosaics with Verdiano Marzi (Ravenna/Paris), Dugald MacInnes (Scotland), Matteo Randi (Ravenna) and Dino Maccini (Piacenza) as well as with Valeria Manzo, Dagmar Friedrich and Laura Carraro at the Scuola Mosaicisti dei Friuli, Spillimbergo; and honed her skills using native materials with Rachel Sager; color in mosaics with Carol Shelkin, and got her beginnings under the guidance of Gina Hubler (Pennsylvania). Her native languages are Spanish and Portuguese, and she also speaks English and Italian. She lives in Macungie, Pennsylvania.
Course Curriculum
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StartIntroduction and personal Interview with Tami and Anabella. (6:02)
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StartPDF Materials and Resources.
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StartColor and color theory — in mosaic. (1:56)
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StartMonochrome work: Gradations (4:42)
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StartTransitioning between colors within a line. (7:16)
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StartHow many tones do we need for an effective gradation? (5:31)
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StartConsiderations when selecting materials for color. (9:23)
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StartReflections, mixing and intro to making color. (8:38)
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StartGradations in 3D forms. (6:21)
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StartColor in 3D forms continued. (4:09)
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StartThe color wheel and history of color theory. (9:09)
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StartAfterimages. (5:52)
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StartAfterimages in color (4:15)
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StartEffects of hue and value. (4:55)
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StartHow the interaction of colors affects our perception. (9:31)
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StartHow the eye blends and perceives colors. (7:11)
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StartGrayscale, values and afterimages. (9:16)
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StartMaking color brighter by selecting the correct neighbors. (9:50)
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StartHow light affects the color we see. (5:21)
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StartColor vibration. Dimension and color perception.. (9:50)
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StartSize of tesserae and color mixing. (4:57)
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StartHow background color affects our perception (and how that applies to thinset or grout color). (3:27)
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StartColor perception continued. (4:57)
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StartApplying color theory to mixing and making color. (7:59)
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StartChroma or intensity. (7:05)
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StartColor combinations using the wheel. (2:41)
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StartOveruse of contrasting colors. (2:59)
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StartCreating more vibrant solids. (7:56)
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StartPointillists and post-impressionists’s use of color theory. (7:24)
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StartTesting to understand proportion. (2:44)
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StartAdditive and subtractive color. Using the wheel to make compositions. (6:58)
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StartLight, additive color and perception. (5:09)
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StartWrap Up and Thank you! (1:06)