SAQA "This is a Quilt!"

Happy New Year to all!!


Last November I had the opportunity to collect specimens for upcoming quilts. I plan on blogging on the process of creating a small, 9 x 9 inch piece for the Studio Art Quilt Associates exhibition, "This is a Quilt!".


Each of the pieces will be matted to a 8 x 8" opening and put into a traveling trunk show to demonstrate what is being done with quilts today.


This a photograph I took of a specimen of rose hips and some distressed leaves. Note the one undeveloped rose hip nestled close to the upper leaves.



Below is the design that I have created on freezer paper. I cropped closely to make it more dynamic and to produce the square format required for the exhibition. I will cut templates from the freezer paper to allow me to apply the design on fabric with inks.



I will post progress on the piece as I work. Please let me know if you find this interesting.

One of the first issues that I need to identify is what elements of the design need to come forward and what elements need to recede. This helps with choosing colors, and specifically in determining value and warmth or coolness of colors chosen. We will look at my choices next time.

First of all, the red hips are round with some wrinkles on them with dark centers.
One hip is in front of the other and is throwing a shadow on the hip behind.
The undeveloped hip's stem is in front of the stems for the other hips.
The three leaves at the top overlap each other, so the front leaf will need to come forward and the smaller middle leaf will have to drop behind the other two.
And there will need to be clarity in the leaf combinations on the upper left.
The undeveloped hip has a folded leaf on the front side of it, that will need to show the fold.

I have some challenges in front of me. I hope you will keep tuned to see how I resolve some of these issues - or if I can.

Happy quilting!!

Nancy

Update: Alternative Color Wheel Options

Turns out that my color wheel is so old that it is not available. Of course, the tool is so useful that a variety of newer ones are available. A little Google researching turned up a variety that are available. Here is one resource. http://www.softexpressions.com/software/notions/colorwheel.html#col

I liked the Rainbow color wheel a lot for selecting fabrics and identifying colors in a fabric. And I think I made get the shaded color wheel. Often the shaded colors are the ones I find the most difficult to identify. Don't know if this difficulty is the result of my aging eyes, or a lack of good color sense, or I am still learning. Hope it is the latter.

If you look down on the linked page, you will several options, including options for aid in mixing colors. Your local art supply and quilting shops are good places to look for color wheels.

Thanks for reading, and my next post will be on Color-Aids one of the best tools that I have for complex color decisions. And they are still available.

Nancy

The Color Wheel - Kept Close at Hand

This simple color wheel is my most used tool for selecting colors. I often work with shades and tints of tertiary (mixture of secondary and primary colors, like yellow orange) colors so finding the complementary color can be a bit of a challenge.

Please note, I have no interest in the sales of any of the books or tools that I am reviewing. They are simply my personal experiences.

This structure of this color wheel makes all the difference. It is easy to find the color wanted with the structure here. There are three rings on the wheel that can be moved separately. The top blue ring can be moved to the Key Color. In this first example it is on the tertiary color -- Red Orange. In the second example it is on red as the Key Color. This top ring also indicates the colors that will blend with the Key Color are the two colors to each side. The complementary or contrast color is directly opposite the Key Color.

I often work in complementary colors, so that relationship is very important to me. Other artists like to work in a more sophisticated palette of triadic colors and they are indicated here as well.

The second ring is white and has twelve smaller rings of the primary, secondary and tertiary colors (hues) with tints and shades for each of these hues on the smaller rings. Each small ring has a hole in the center. Tints are a hue with some white mixed in. Shades are a hue with some black mixed in.

The bottom ring has one hole in it that can be lined up with one of the smaller rings on the second circle. Instructions for using the color wheel are on the back of the bottom ring.



Notice in the bottom color wheel that the Key Color is now red and there is a piece of fabric exposed in the opening. The open hole can be moved so that the fabric lines up with the closest color.

In this case, none of the colors is perfect, but we can see that it is a cool (bluish) tone of red. That is it has both black and white mixed with the red and perhaps a wee touch of blue. We can also observe that the complementary color is green.

I find that I am often surprised by shades and tones, they will fool me as to the hue they spring from. This little tool really helps.

You can find this specific tool at many quilt shops and shows; similar color wheels can be found at your local art supply store.

Dear Reader, Hope this has been helpful. Please let me know if it has or if you have any questions.

Next time I will review Color Aids, an artist tool that I find really valuable when the color wheel does not quite do the job.
Thanks for reading.


Nancy

PS Turns out that this color wheel is no longer available. A similar one is available that has larger peak holes and a rectangular display of each of the colors and their tints and shades. I will post a link for this one in my next blog posting. Thanks for reading.

Mixing Colors Like a Pro

This is the third in the series of books on color. Betty Edward's color book, published in 2004, was a real break through for me in understanding how to mix colors to get what I want. Using language as simply as in her earlier books on drawing, she explains the concepts and importance of value and how colors relate to one another.



Her color wheel includes tertiary colors as well as the primary and secondary colors. Just learning that in order to mix colors you must first name them in terms of their hue, value and intensity was a real lesson that helped clarify a lot for me.



With a few key supplies, you can move through a number of exercises that build skills and your eye as you work through them. This is definitely a book whose exercises are worthwhile actually doing instead of simply reading them.



Edwards has some sophisticated exercises that are very useful using patterned fabric as a basis for mixing colors. In the first exercise in this chapter you start with a snippet of the patterned fabric, and you mix colors to match the fabric. The remaining exercises demonstrate how you can create many different color harmonies while making creative color and value changes.


Beginning quilters are often taught to find a patterned fabric with colors they love and then use the colors in the same proportions to create a quilt. This simple instruction has led to some great quilts with glorious color. This chapter lets you begin with that special fabric and then create many different combinations, all of which will be harmonious. Could be an interesting way to create a series based on different color harmonies.


The final chapter, like Quiller's book reviewed last time, is on master artists and their use of color. Here the emphasis is on the meaning and symbolism of color.


This is a book that could be useful to new quilters and experienced ones alike. If you have not made an in-depth study of color, the exercises in this book may well help develop your color comfort.


Dear Reader, thanks for your attention and the great feedback I have had to this series. My next postings will be on a couple of tools that I frequently use in color selections. Please let me know if these postings have been helpful and interesting.

Susan asked that I give the ISBN numbers for the books. Great suggestion, so here are the numbers:

The Magical Effects of Color, ISBN 0-914881-53-1
Color Choices, ISBN 0-8230-0696-4
Color, ISBN1-58542-199-5

Thanks for reading,

Nancy

Color Choices - Book Review

This book by Stephen Quiller was published in 1989 so is likely to be found only as a second hand book.

This is another key book I used to study color, and the second in my series of three books. Quiller is a painter and uses color very successfully as seen in the many examples of his points throughout the book. For the painter, Quiller has a color wheel that is terrific, with 68 specific colors that are keyed to their pigmented names. For the painter, he gives specific examples of paints by brand names for watercolor, acrylic and oil. Dyers may find this useful as well.

His book was where I learned about mixing colors and the degree of warmth or coolness in reds, yellows and blues. That you can't just mix any blue with any yellow and get the green you want.

For a fiber artist like myself, the examples of why some neutrals appear deadly dull and some are vibrant goes beyond specific paints. Now that I work with inks, his advice on how to obtain subtle but lively neutrals comes in very handy. One of the most useful aspects of the book are the many studies illustrating different effects from small color changes.

He gives 5 basic color schemes with lots of studies, diagrams and completed paintings to illustrate each of them. The book also has a number of exercises for the reader to use to develop one's own sense of color, which for Quiller is a matter of seeing.

Quiller also provides guidelines for developing one's own color style and discusses dozens of color masters over the ages to examine how they used colors. The book concludes with a chapter on color usage by Master Colorists across the ages including Rembrandt, Vermeer, Turner, Blake, Van Gogh, and up to O'Keeffe, Wyeth, and concluding with Wolf Kahn.

This was the book that taught me to consider the emotional impact that I wanted a piece of work to achieve, and to structure my color palette for the piece around that. For example, I had long wanted to do a piece on the salt water marsh and tried for several years to create one. None worked. I kept trying to do it with marshy, muddy, realistic colors. Quiller's book helped me see that the color of mud did not convey the sense of mystery and wonder that I felt for the marshland. So the piece I created is a Blue-Orange complementary color scheme.

Next time I will add to this review of books. The third book on color will be by Betty Edwards who wrote Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain.

Dear reader, thanks so much for reading and please let me know if these book reviews are interesting or valuable to you. If they are I will keep posting about the books I find helpful in my early development and today.

Nancy

Color Studies and Resources

When I began creating art quilts, I really had a lot to learn. While much of what I needed to know was the crafting of a quality piece, the most difficult element to learn was how to design a piece of art that I could feel good about.

One of the first aspects I studied in some depth was the use of color. Three different books made a tremendous difference in my comfort level with this aspect of the art quilt. This posting is on one of them. I will cover the other books in later postings.

The first book was one by Joen Wolfrom, The Magical Effects of Color, published in 1992. I have read it cover to cover several times, and when I want to obtain specific effects, I have often referred back to her discussions on how to use color expressively, or to create luminosity or other special effects.

This was my first color book and was a great place to start as she illustrated her points with quilts from many different quilters, both traditional and art quilts. She covered each of the primary and secondary colors and what they could do in different combinations. She also had excellent information on value and how to use it. This was the resource that taught me the difference in tints, tones, shades and hues.

A real eye opener for me was her discussion of the impact of tints that were somewhat grayed or yellowed, as if using a non bleached muslin for background.

Chapter 10 has exercises to help develop your eye for color and are well worth doing.

Dear Reader, please let me know if you find this review helpful and if you would like to see comments on other books that have been important in my development as an artist.

Thanks for reading.

Nancy

Holiday Wishes

Happy Holidays to All

Hoping that the peace and joy of the season is with you and yours.

And may your coming year be as bright and fruitful of all you desire as these berries.

Nancy