Digital Tools for the Didactics of Colour in Fine Arts Studies

Abstract

This paper includes the results of an experience of educational innovation for the study of color structures carried out with the students of the Degree in Fine Arts of the University of Salamanca during the 2017-2018 academic year. This experience was explicitly focused on the introduction of digital tools that contribute to the acquisition of necessary skills such as the ability to analyze the chromatic structure of the pictorial work and its critical commentary, and to complement traditional color learning based on mixing of color on the palette. With this aim, we have initially worked with the digital tool Google Cloud's Vision API for the first analysis and we have finished the experience with Adobe Color CC, a complementary tool that allows the creation of own schemes. The project started with the coordination of contents and teaching experiences in related subjects in the Degree in Fine Arts. This includes both practical subjects of the areas of Painting and Drawing in which content related to color, chromatic vocabulary and manipulation of parameters are developed in depth, as well as the theoretical subjects of History and Art Theory in which an analysis of color for the elaboration of critical comments is needed. This paper explains the working process and the result of the experience once the above-mentioned tools were applied to the image analysis in the classroom.