Beth/Lyric Project Week 6 (Color Relationships)

As a reminder to those of you that don’t normally keep up with my blog (if you do, skip to the next paragraph), I have started a project that I’m calling the Beth/Lyric Project. In the spirit of the movie “Julie/Julia,” (i.e. Julie working through Julia Child’s cookbook) I have decided to work through the exercises in Lyric Kinard’s “Art + Quilt, Design Principles and Creativity Exercises” book. My goal is to get at least one of the exercises done each week. I’ll be posting my progress on Sundays. I’d love for you to work along with me. If you decide to do that, please post and let me know how you’re doing—send pictures too! If you have trouble leaving a comment on my blog, email me at bschnellenberger@gmail.com.

In the Color Relationships exercise, the instructions said to “cut squares of different backgrounds and create several small color studies.” Well, I didn’t want to make “several small color studies.” I decided to do one big one. I’m thinking I’ll end up cutting it up and adding to it. The point of the exercise was to discover “how different background colors change the perceived color of the squares.”

There was one problem with what I did with this exercise. I found out (too late) that because I used such a bright color, there is not much difference in the color of that square regardless of what background I used. I would have been better off using a less “in-your-face” color. This IS a learning experience. I did discover what colors made the yellow square pop off the page (dark purple, dark blue, black) and what colors make it disappear and look sickly (pink). I discovered that I really liked how it looked against the orange on the right side, fourth block.

I also learned a good lesson on lighting. I took a picture of the exercise both indoors and outside. I was amazed at the difference it made in the colors of the background squares.

This is the outside shot…

The colors are fairly “true” in this photo.

This is the inside shot…

Look at the dark background squares; they all look black. There, actually, is only one black background—left side, fourth block.

Next week’s exercise is “Color as Emotion.” Hopefully, we’ll discover what color combinations represent which emotion/mood. Come on; join me in doing this exercise. It is on Page 44 of “Art + Quilt.”