Color Theory: A City Landscape

This project turned out to be a lot of fun. While I know InDesign backwards and forwards, I've kind of strayed away from tedious tasks on Illustrator, but I decided I wanted to use this as the opportunity to jump in. I decided to trace this picture on the computer of this landscape. While using so many anchor points was overwhelming, I think I learned a lot. I saw the original picture at IKEA and wanted to recreate it by tracing it. I chose to vary the landscape and use the different colours to blend in across the page. I chose more muted colours, but I was happy with the outcome, as the colours provided a natural movement of a busy cityscape. I chose to create a tint with the blue and green by adding more white to the hues. Then I wanted to create a shade with the yellow and a similar, though not as pronounced effect with the brown, and then I chose to add white. I found this odd, but on the colour wheel, it appears like the blue and the shade of brown are complimentary (sort of) which I found interesting. Since I've mostly worked in InDesign and for print I have always used CMYK, so this time it was interesting to learn how to use RGB. I chose to use muted colours for my busy street scene simply because I think they convey the emotion of a crowded city accurately. I've lived in London, and the very dull blue reminded me of the dark streets and the dullness of one sometimes feels in the loneliness of everyday streets. The colours more convey the emotion of the city, rather than the city itself, which in essence is a very vibrant place.