A Fun Exercise

My art group did a really fun exercise at our meeting this week. We all started with a drawing of the same block.

We each added lines and circles to our copy of the block then colored them. They all turned out completely different.

Here is mine.

Peg's block

Janet's block

Barb's block

And Linda's block

We have a sixth member of our group but she is out of town and didn't get to participate this time.

These photos aren't the best quality because I took them with my phone and I'm still learning how to use the camera on my phone, but you get the idea. Aren't they all so different! It was really interesting. For homework we each came home with another blank copy of the block. We are suppose to make more copies for ourselves and do a few more with different colors and lines. Next month we will decide what, if anything, we plan to do with these.

Color Homework

I'm a little behind in my Quilt University course, Artist's Toolbox. First I went to Retreat then my parents came for a week. The fourth and final lesson will open tomorrow, but I am still working on the second lesson. On Tuesday I thought about just skipping lesson two, but the class stays open 2 weeks after the last lesson is posted so I will still have time to get all my assignments done.

This week (well, the second week) we study color. I'm not going into detail about the lesson. I think you should take the class if you want details. It is a really good class, by the way! The gist of the assignment was to look through magazines and catalogs at the color schemes that were used. I tried to look at the advertisements and think about how they were using color to sell their product. I also looked for color combinations that appealed to me.

These are just a few of the pages I tore out and glued into my sketchbook.

In looking through my stack of torn out pages it was clear to me that I am drawn to blue, green and brown color combinations and any variation thereof. I can't say that this surprises me much. The other thing I noticed was how gray is used effectively. Look at the warm color scheme picture above. That was pulled from a home decor catalog. The wall is painted gray in that room. I tried to think about what other color they could have used. Everything I thought of would either compete with products for sale or blend too much with the products. Light blue would work, but I believe I like the gray better. Gray is also used in the last picture - the rim of the paint cans and the metal basket of lettuce.

Color Games

Last January my guild did the "Color Games" exercise from the May/June 2001 issue of Quiltmaker magazine. It was a lot of fun! The basic idea is you divide into small groups and each group picks a color. My group chose orange - the fabric used in the setting squares of the sashing. Each of the nine blocks represent a different colorway - monochromatic, complementary, analogous, ... - based on your groups chosen color. And you must use your chosen fabric in every block. We all had our color wheels out, traded fabric to get the just right shade of whatever we needed, and had a fun afternoon.