Week Two: Cyan + Color Wheel

I have been assigned the color: CYAN! I already love this color, so I’m looking forward to working with it and becoming more aware of its uses and dimensions. I have always been particularly attracted to the use of cyan (or turquoise) in jewelry design. I also think it is used as a bright and uplifting color in textiles and fashion. Perhaps some of these thoughts will inform the theme for my color book.

As per the assignment this week and according to the Coloraid instructions, I mapped out cyan’s monochromatic color planes. This was a really useful exercise because it allowed be to observe cyan’s range of tones and shades. It also helped to establish the subtle relationships between these variations.

The Monochromatic Free Form assignment was more experimental. I tried to be aware of the color relationships and the effect of placing similar or contrasting tones/shades side by side. In the first composition, I worked more instinctively to see how the flow developed. I also became aware of the triangle shape I chose to use, and how its sharp nature suggested direction and affected the feel and movement of the composition. I think the bottom half of the first collage starts to create a flow, but the top half seems a little chaotic.

I wasn’t satisfied with the first composition, and wanted to further my exploration. I thought the composition might flow better without having the shapes overlap/intersect. When the triangle shapes were placed side by side, they curved in interesting ways. So I took the remainder of my cutouts and created the following composition. I think it has a better rhythm and nice movement.

Since I attended a conference and trade show for the entire weekend, I needed to combine errands and homework. I decided to construct my color wheel using grocery store packaging (while shopping for groceries). I actually found it to be an interesting design and color study with regards to considering why products are packaged using certain colors. I found a lot of foods were packaged using yellows and reds, ie. soups, cereals and sauces, as well as a lot of green to symbolize eco-friendly or sustainable products. I found that home products used softer colors, like blues and violets, especially for items that are soft like toilet paper and kleenex. This was a rather useful study, even though a lot of people were looking at me funny.

Week One: Greyscale

This exercise took me back to when I first learned how to draw and had to create gradients using graphite and charcoal. It reinforced the subtleties of different shades and the emphasized the difference between warm and cool colors. This is my first experience working with Coloraid paper and I love it. I really respond to the matte, velvety quality of the paper and the beautiful saturation and intensity of the colors. It was easy to create a greyscale with the Coloraid, but somewhat more difficult to match that greyscale with acrylic paint. My biggest challenged in matching the shades of grey resulted from the paint being much cooler than the Coloraid. Also the paint was drying slightly darker than expected so I had to go back and lighten it on a few occasions.

I had fun creating Josef Albers’ Gradation study. I love to get ‘hands on’–whether it’s painting, drawing, cutting or pasting–so this was an enjoyable exercise. I chose to use Real Simple magazine because it was thick, therefore I figured it would have a lot of material to work with. I also think that Real Simple is beautifully designed, and assumed they would be considerate of the magazine’s printing quality in terms of color consistency. Again, I struggled a little with warm and cool grey tones, but I’m happy with the way it turned out.

Intro to Color Workshop

I am really looking forward to this Color Workshop course. Even though I have a background in Fine Arts and Illustration, I still struggle with choosing colors from scratch and creating harmonious palettes. I have discovered some tricks along the way to help overcome this challenge, such as  observing/photographing my surroundings and collecting inspirational reference materials, but overall I would like to gain a better knowledge and understanding of color. My goal is to be able to successfully choose colors that “work” together, justify my color choices with confidence, as well as understand which colors can reinforce my message and communicate in a meaningful way. I am particularly interested in patterns and surface design relating to the children’s market, so I would be interested to learn about a child’s perspective and perception of color. I also hope to carry-on an important practice I developed while studying Textile Design in Copenhagen, which involved regularly utilizing a sketchbook to quickly record interesting color combinations and collect samples of inspiring visual imagery.

I have hundreds of colored pencils and really enjoy working with this medium. Today my favorite colored pencil is: Black Grape.