Color, Mood, and Significance

As an artist, one of my favorite things to do is to show mood or the significance of meaning through color. The color of an image really changes the way the viewer perceives it. If I were to paint a portrait of a woman, and painted her in cold colors; she would appear to be depressed and hurting. If I were to paint her in warm colors she would appear happy, and approachable. I also love the use of contrasting colors to bring out the importance or significance of meaning. For example Henri Toulouse Lautrec, a famous painter from history, would only use color to highlight one thing in his famous posters. A famous opera singer who was known for her blonde hair; for example, he would represent her with yellow bright hair and leave the rest uncolored. I like to do this as well. One of my pieces, the celestial dandelion, I phased out the grass surrounding it, and altered the colors to bring the dandelion to the forefront of the image. I highlighted the individual "furs" on the dandelion by creating a glowing effect so that those pop out to the eye. The colors I used were to show that nature has a celestial, and heavenly quality to it. If you look at many of my pieces, you will notice a lot of plays on color. The color completely changes the feel of the image, and gets across certain messages that I am trying to convey.