I’m currently enrolled in a mini-collage class with Jane Davies. For week one, she had us paint A LOT of swatches. Surprisingly, I didn’t need to buy any paint. I guess I’ve done more of this over the years than I realized.
I’m pretty good at mixing colors, but I still gets streaks sometimes.
Jane asked us to paint only what she calls sophisticated colors. These are colors with both some black and white in them. In other words, they’re somewhat subdued. More like the colors you might paint your home than the bright colors children like. Of course, I like the bright colors, so their omission has already piqued my interest. After quite a few swatches, I checked my collection for light, medium, and dark. I thought I was on track.
After about 80 swatches over all this is what I had. Not bad, I thought.
But, Jane, asked for more lights and neutrals, so I painted up another 20 or so.
She also encouraged us to paint Chromatic Grays. I’d never heard this term a couple of months ago, but now it seems that I can’t get away from it. As the name implies, these are grays that have a significant undertone of a particular color. These are the colors I initially identified as being chromatic grays.
Now I can see that at least two of these are too colorful. I guess I’m learning.
Again, the idea of using these duller colors is piquing my interest. Since I plan to eventually do some of the class exercises in fabric, I pulled out a few drawers to see if I even owned any chromatic grays.
Hmm. I think probably not. Maybe this will be a future fabric dyeing project for me.
How about you? Do you ever dabble in other media? I think it’s a good creative exercise and I’m excited about it.
Ellen Lindner
