BLACK AND WHITE

Black is defined as the absence of light or the complete absorption of light while white is the opposite and results from the combination of all the colors visible to our eyes. Although Black and White are not vivid colors, they can speak for themselves. Here is how!

No matter what you do, black and white will be the basic colors for everything in your life. Black will be used to express strong emotional feelings, emphasize on distinguishing the main traits of a subject or it can be mixed to other colors to provide them with more intensity and power.

White on the other hand will act as the softener and will be expressing clarity, purity and will usually have a positive connotation.

We can see their application in many instances especially when it comes to self expression in fashion, films, lighting, paintings, and drawings where the use of black and white becomes a language that shows the level of accentuation or neutrality perhaps one wishes to achieve. Their meaning can be opposite in two different cases and you can choose to work with one or the other to make your desired statement.

Many artists choose to use black and white to concentrate on elements such as composition, value, lighting and form. One of them is Concept Artist Charlie Bowater, which says that painting in black and white is great because it completely cuts out having to think about color to start with and you can focus on the image as a whole and resolve any glaring issues before implementing colors if desired. Results can be as impressive and meaningful.

Another application where black and white can be used is when the wish to provide a more historic and reserved look to your art form. A great example of this is looking back at short films from the 1920s when television was only in black and white. Charlie Chaplin for instance was great at passing powerful messages through his acting and the content of his sketches without having the use of colors to complement the setting. The black and white became a signature to his productions and his films became a great inspiration to everyone who has since wanted to create similar type of filmography.

This being said, the use of colors is definitely a great tool to express a variety of emotions however black and white goes back to the roots of history and life. It’s the essence to everything around us and is used in every application.

The proof is we always refer to black  as a reference point so how about we stick to “black is the new black” and never change that ;)!