Who doesn’t love color? Most of us do. Maybe because of its ability to affect our moods, or maybe because of it’s pleasing effect on our eyes. Whatever it is, I’m sure you’ll agree that color is quite irresistible. When I started work on the “Circular Blocks” series, I set a few parameters to follow. One of them was to have a bright color scheme as one of the identifying marks of this series.
Here’s the marked background fabric that I started to work with to create my bright color scheme.
Using Color Wheels to Create Color Schemes
I’m often praised for my use of color and I’ve received an award specifically for my “excellent use of color”. But you’ll be surprised to know that the process of choosing colors (a bright color scheme in this case), is still to this day a very thoughtful process for me. It’s not something I’m able to do in a cavalier way.
Oh and that’s not because I haven’t tried to approach it in a casual way. I have, believe me, I have many times. But I always find myself circling back to the color wheel. At least to set the initial parameters of my color scheme of choice, I use the 12-color wheel. I have one drawn and posted on a wall in my studio, but I’m not always in my studio when I’m thinking about color. So I’ve learned to draw it from memory.
Now, I’m quite comfortable sketching a color wheel on a scratch paper or napkin. Sometimes when I get stuck drawing the color wheel, I try to remember color mixing principles. Like yellow and blue mix to make green etc. Try it, when you draw the color wheel or refer to it often (even if only mentally), it becomes second nature to you.
Creating a Bright Color Scheme
For this bright color scheme, I chose to have neon green and neon pink be my dominant colors. Then, to my bright color scheme, I added orange as an accent color. On the color wheel, neon green and neon pink are opposite each other (complementary) and orange is next to neon pink (red).
Now that I had decided on what colors I was going to use in this bright color scheme, the next thing was to select fabrics for my fused applique.
I marked circular shapes overlapping each other on the surface of my background fabric. Then to make sure, I had harmony in my bright color scheme, I chose threads to match the colors of the fabrics I chose.
I suggest you start using the color wheel to make deliberate color choices. Pretty soon, you’ll find it easier to create unified color schemes. You’ll often find me working in black and whites because I think they’re equally challenging. But I’m quite happy with the bright color scheme I created with this piece.
Click on the video to see how I put it all together to create this bright color scheme.
Warmest Regards,
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