Once I had my fabrics painted, it was time to select the colors I would use with them. Orange was a given since it was in one of the fabrics.
So what about blue-green with orange?
Although this is one of my favorite color combinations I immediately thought “no.” I guess because I’ve used it so much.
But, what if I expanded the palette to include yellow-orange and red-orange? And expanded the blue-green to include pure blue and pure green? That was better. (Except for that one overly bright orange fabric top right.)
It needs some value contrast, right? Let’s see what the addition of black looks like.
Yes, that works better. But, do I really need ALL these colors? Would it be better to simplify?
I eventually settled on the palette above, with both orange and black as accents. Of course, this is just the starting point. There’s no telling where I might go from here.
Do you audition your colors before designing or do you wing it as you go? Do you use the same colors a lot?
Ellen Lindner
It’s so much fun to see how you work and how you think about creating your art! I admire your dedication and your adventurousness! Thank you for sharing your adventures! Can’t wait to see the outcome of your deliberations.
Thanks, Laura! These adventures are not necessarily the fastest way to create something, but I do have fun with them.
I interview my fabrics before including them in my quilts. Everyone says I have an “eye” for color.
Oh, you “interview” them. I like that wording. 🙂
I spend lots of time auditioning colors… and almost always end up dumping some and replacing them on the fly.
I have certain colors I love and am excited to work with when I initially audition. Those are the colors that best match what was in my mind. But then I often have to regretfully reject those lovely colors and replace with colors that actually work (now that I think about it, this is amazingly like the writing process — I’m primarily a writer, not a fabric artist). By the time I’ve made my final choices, the palette may not be at all the same as what I had envisioned.
And then, when I’m actually working on the project, I may pull a fabric and replace it anyway. Sometimes those last minute decisions are the best.
Your process sounds fairly familiar to my own, Lif.
I once heard, “If your composition isn’t working, take away your favorite thing.” I’ve had to do that more than once: very similar to what you’ve described.
Oh wow, “take away your favorite thing”. That is wisdom! When I’m writing this is so true as well — often it’s because I hang onto some string of words I’m in love with that I’ve got the problem. That means I have to fix all the other words to match the loved ones, and *that* means I’m not fixing for story flow, but for those few words.
It’s the same with fabric. Taking away the favorite fabric means that we are free to look at the rest of them with respect to the whole project instead of with respect to that one fabric.
Exactly!
I usually audition fabrics before I start a new project. I often start with a focus fabric and go from there, but I’ll go back to my stash if I think I need to. I go with my gut when choosing fabrics. I find that if I belabor my choices, it just doesn’t work.
You’re right B.J. I’m guilty of over thinking at times.
Two Saturdays ago I took part in an ‘improv round robin’ workshop with an art quilt group that’s part of my guild. We had to choose a ‘curated palette’ of fabrics – and I took that to mean a color palette. I struggle with color. I studied my color wheel and the ‘3-in-one color tool’ by Joen Wolfram, and decided upon a split complimentary color palette, with yellows and oranges and a red and a blue. I learned that I know very little about color and need to study it at some point. I was happy with my color choices, though. I like your fabrics a lot!
That sounds like a fun (and challenging) workshop. Learning about color is a good thing. I have fun playing with it, but I think I’m still more “guideline bound” than intuitive. But you know that they say, “Intuition is experience.” In that case, I’m gaining intuition!