Beth/Lyric Project Week 8--Value and Hue

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.

This week’s exercise covered “Value and Hue.” I was instructed to “cut several 2” squares from one medium-value solid fabric. Try to find a pure hue, no tint or shade.” Now that was a challenge. After looking through my stash, I chose a hand-dyed blue. I went to my color wheel and looked at the “pure” colors. This one most closely matched the “pure hue” blue on my color wheel. I then had to find contrasting colors to the blue and gather all the values from very light to very dark to use as backgrounds. I had done squares in my exercise on “Color Relationships,” so I used circles this time. I placed the circles on these fabrics to see how different background colors change the perceived value of the circles. I really think I already learned this back in my exercise on “Color Relationships,” but it never hurts for important points to be reemphasized.

The actual exercise consisted of cutting strips of three different background fabrics and placing the circles on top of them. I picked the combinations that made the blue appear to shift in value as it was paired with each background. I really felt like the pale yellow in the center made the color look darker, the purple showed a medium value , and the red/pink fabric gave the blue a lighter value. I did take the photograph outside, because light makes a huge difference when the pictures are taken.

I’ve made it to Chapter 3—“Building Your Vocabulary: Principles of Design.” The next exercise is called “Unity through Proximity.” I’ll be at my son’s in Arkansas over the weekend, so my exercise won’t get done till I get back. That gives you over a week to get the project done too. Join me…the exercise is on Page 54 of the “Art + Quilt, Design Principles and Creativity Exercises” book.