Friday, April 21, 2017

Simultaneous Contrast - Off the Wall Friday


13 years ago, Cynthia Corbin said to me, "Why are we talking about color choices.  Put some fabric up on that board.  You make Visual decisions Visually".  She was right then and she's still right now. Even though, I'm a planner and I've gotten into the habit of planning out a specific palette, that doesn't mean I truly know how all the colors are going to look together until I see them together.  I mean, the color wheel says they go together -- so they should right?  Well, yes and no.


How colors appear is relative to what's around them.  So yes they all "go together"  but how they appear when you pull them from your stash might not be how they ultimately look when you get it into your piece.

 And THAT's what the topic of Lesson 7 was in Katie P-M's Online course - Simultaneous Contrast.



Actually, I did understand this concept, but never gave it a second thought when I was designing a quilt.  Once I created this piece, I definitely have a better understanding how an awareness of the  simultaneous colors involved can effect the out come of a piece.  Its just one more tool in the toolbox  of color that you can use to set the mood of your piece.

In my latest lesson, I could  see how the cheerful, bright ORANGE I chose for the palette muted out as the values of its complementary BLUE.  Because of that effect I could use it create depth in this piece.  The shapes graduate up from dark to light leading the eye up ..... going from a complex grounded feel to an a more airy simple feel at the top.

For that matter, You can see how orange appears totally different when you put it against other colors.


The second part of this lesson was working on simplicity giving homage to the Modern Quilters Movement.  So the piece had to be simple AND show simultaneous contrast.  Let me tell you - doing something simple - does not mean that getting the composition is easier.  It took me 10 long hours to get this piece done and its not even quilted.  sighhhhhhhhhhh

On to Lesson 8  - the last one!!

So What Have Been Up to Creatively?

1 comment:

Sylvia said...

It is a good lesson! I love the fabrics you put together for this piece.