William Turner Use Of Color Essay

The Burning houses of Lords and Commons by Joseph Mallord William Turner uses color in a fluid way. Instead of using sharp contrasts of colors of different wavelengths and from opposite ends of the spectrum, the artist prefers to use more complementary shades and tones of the colors he uses. While Turner uses blue, yellow/red, green, brown he styles them in a way that the colors complement each other, seamlessly shifting from one hue to the other the work never looks as if one color is offsetting the other. No color is specifically drawing your attention from the other, in order to make it stand out more. In terms of temperatures from the colors used Turners use of these tonal colors and shades gives the work a warm color palette. Turner uses a more middling shade of blue, than a sharply bright sky blue or a dark indigo. The warmth of the colors also show in the use of the brown/yellow used in to represent the flames of the …show more content…
Using bright yellow, red, blue, and different shades of green. But the colors don’t seamlessly transition from one to the next, it begins with one color, then sharply breaks to the next color. Derain shifts from using bright yellow to bright red in the middle of the houses of parliament, he uses a dark green to represent Westminster Bridge, and a dark indigo to represent the people of London, all while using a cloudy white in the background to make the colors pop more. When referring to the temperature of this work still has a warm feel to it, choosing to frame the warmest colors, red and yellow, at the front and center while also making it the largest in the work. The focus of the work is the houses of parliament and the focus is a warm feel. Derain also keeps the warm temperature by using darker blues and greens of to represent the people and the bridge, also using a warm nature green on the left border around the cloudy