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excerpted from the May 2010 “Margie’s Muse” column (free downloadable PDF)
The definition of being organized is that you know exactly where you can find what you are looking for. For the most part, I am, even though it might not be apparent to one who walks in my studio. Other than tax documents, the most organized area of my life is color.
My oil paint swatches wall gives me the space to stare at colors in relation to other hues for long periods of time. Each swatch gradates from the purest version of the color on the left to a tint lightened with white on the right.
I organize my colors with chromatic meticulousness in every medium I work in (beads, colored pencils, oils, acrylic, pastels, markers… the list goes on). I do this not only because I thoroughly enjoy it and it allows me to understand the hues in relation to other hues, but also because it allows me the freedom to make stronger color choices more easily.
Sometimes students bring in all their colors to show me: they’ve piled every hue, value, intensity and shade are in the same container. No wonder they are intimidated by color. Its overwhelming to look at and try to make sense of. Overwhelming and exhausting.
When colors are organized in a logical fashion, the intimidation factor dramatically drops. When your eye sees order, your mind can think more clearly and can make more informed choices.
When colors are organized chromatically, I see blocks of hues first: yellows, oranges, reds, violets, blues, greens. Within the blocks of hue I arrange according to value and intensity as best I can. Now I can see clearly what is available and can easily pick the tones I want to experiment with.
I do this on the computer as well…
My green drawer these days is a little less tidy than I prefer
There are many of these articles around. This one from doc4design.com is worth the read. Not only for how well it makes its point, but also for that fantastic “speech” about cerulean blue in fashion that Meryl Streep lashes Anne Hathaway with in the movie “The Devil Wears Prada.” I loved that “speech” and its great to be able to read it.
http://www.doc4design.com/articles/color-trends-better-outlook/
Remember the Art Bead Scene Color Challenge based on a palette from the Spring/Summer 2010 Color Report for Bead & Jewelry Designers?
The entries are posted! What a thrill to see the endless variations of this refreshing palette. This demonstrates the unique beauty of expression and voice an artist can infuse into their color work:
Lyn Foley
And the winner is…Lyn Foley! For a prize Lyn receives two year’s worth of Color Reports and a $50 gift certificate from Humblebeads.com. Judges included Marcia DeCoster, Jane Dickerson and Lorelei Eurto. Here is Lyn’s winning piece, and the two stunning runner-ups:
Lyn Foley, Gretchen Coates, and Anna Lear created beautiful, memorable pieces, each interpreting the palette in a unique way. I’m delighted by how different each piece is, even though the color scheme is the same. Gretchen leaned toward lighter, paler expression, Lyn and Anna used bright, fully saturated version of the palette members.
Gretchen Coates
Visit their blogs to see more of their expressive work:
Anna Lear
… not what truly is.
Colors in context are a great example. They visually shift and fluctuate, in an ever moving dance with the colors and light around them.
My favorite illusion proving this was designed by Edward H. Adelson of Dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Here it is: (click image to see larger version)
The copyright holder of this file allows anyone to use it for any purpose, provided that the copyright holder is properly attributed. Redistribution, derivative work, commercial use, and all other use is permitted.Square A and Square B are the same shade of gray, the same color. Oh yes they are!
I can’t see it, either: my mind cannot reconcile the fact that they are exactly the same, because B is the lighter square, even though it’s in shadow (so my mind tells me).
Here’s proof that they are the same. I covered up the surrounding area– the context. Now it’s easy to see that they are the same (click image to see larger version).
A dear friend and her husband run a commercial & residential painting company. They tell me great color and people stories. One of my favorite, and a frequently occurring one, is the client who looks at two different walls painted in the same color and vehemently accuses their company of using two different paint colors. Because walls in a room face different directions and they receive light differently: one may be in more shade, the sun may be setting casting a very bluish or pinkish light on the other wall. Several factors may be involved. But the paint on each wall came from the same can. Its the same color.
We have a lot of fun in my color classes debating which color is lighter, darker, more intense, less intense. Its a bit easier for us to answer those questions because for the most part we are comparing swatches of flat color to each other in the same light. They aren’t any rigid context, like these checkerboard squares.
I share this issue with you to remind you that when you are dealing with color: COLOR IS RELATIVE. The color you think you see is relative to the colors surrounding it, the atmosphere, the lighting…many factors. You see what you think you see, not what truly is.
Being conscious of this empowers you to make more conscious, informed color choices.
For an in-depth explanation of the fascinating subject of metamerism, read the May 2007 Margie’s Muse: “Metamerism in Action.”
"Golden Earring" from Beading Her Image
Excerpt from Margie’s Muse, April 2010
I am and always have been fascinated with faces. I have a library full of portrait photography books, just to study faces. I draw them on a weekly, if not daily, basis. I photograph them. (I wish I could ask more strangers if I can photograph them, but the few times I have, it frightens folks… so I stick to people I know.) I go to the movies in hopes of big screen close ups… giant faces. I’m thrilled when they are so big I can see the pores! Women, men, any race, any color, any age (the older the more intriguing)… it doesn’t matter… I love faces.
I draw and paint so many faces that people tend to label this preoccupation as portrait painting. But I’m not a portrait painter. I am not as interested in who I am painting as I am the expressions and the feeling that the face conveys. I prefer depicting faces of people I don’t know so I don’t get caught up in trying to create a realistic portrait. And I don’t use flesh tones or realistic colors.
I consider my depictions of faces “landscapes of the Soul,” not portraits.
"Iris" from the book Beading Her Image
It is the Soul I am seeking. The Soul beyond the face.
A painting hangs on our meditation room wall. Its my favorite of all I have painted so far. When I sit quietly and look at it and let it look at me, I sense myself standing taller. I feel a surge of being filled with more power than I am aware of throughout my day. I look at Her face and realize “This is who I want to be. Everything I sense in this face is where I am headed.”
These are the kinds of feelings and thoughts I want my landscapes of the Soul to inspire in viewers. I want them to instill a sense of more in each viewer: “There is more than this I see right now. I can be more. I can want more. I am more than who I think I am.”
I chose to create Beading Her Image for two reasons: to unabashedly indulge myself in the study of more faces. And to honor the sacred of women: those innate qualities that women have (and often deny) of power, charm, compassion, and beauty (not the magazine kind).
Beading Her Image has been out 5 years now, and is not slowing in popularity.
My hope is that the beaded landscapes of the Soul in the book fill you with more of your own beauty.
To see all the accompanying photos and close ups for this article, download the Margie’s Muse PDF version.
[Beading Her Image is on sale 25% off through April 30, 2010]
In the Feb. 18, 2010 episode of Project Runway guest judge Tory Burch said “I’m not sure that blue and orange are that complementary, do you think so?” Heidi, Michael, and Nina (the show’s regular judges) agreed with her.
Maybe Tory meant “I’m not sure that blue and orange are that complimentary, do you think so?”
In either case she – and they – are wrong. And it irks me that fashion designers don’t take the time to understand how colors interact with one another.
Blue and orange are complementary: they visually complete each other. Blue and orange are also complimentary: conveying a compliment, something that is flattering.
I’ve run across so many people that should understand color, but don’t: interior designers, graphic designers, jewelry designers, painters, artists of all mediums. And now, the top fashion designers in the USA.
Color is absolutely critical to these professions — it can make or break a project. Color influences mood, decisions, behavior. It definitely influences how people spend (or don’t spend) money.
It’s shocking to me that these artists do not see the value of learning about color. Why wouldn’t artists want to expand their color knowledge (and possibly their income) to develop their mastery? It’s not hard, and it’s a lot of fun.
Leaving a BeadFest show I shared a shuttle van with another teacher and her assistant. They asked what I did and I told them I taught color. The assistant said “You should see [the teacher in the van]’s work – she’s great with color!” And they opened up many cases of her beadwork. It was all the same three pale colors used in combination. They were lovely combinations, not a thing wrong with them. But over and over the same combinations, the same degree of paleness, the same predictability. (I bet she doesn’t know that humans can see the most subtle shift in color, and can visually distinguish perhaps as many as 10 million colors.)
Years ago, before I’d published my color books, a very well-known bead author said to me “No one will want to spend time learning about color: there’s just not that much to learn. I know what works well together.” (By the way, after 40 years of doing so, I still study color on a regular basis and am still learning.)
I find many artists engaging in two severly limiting behaviors: operating under the the arrogant assumption that they know all there is to know about color, and limiting their work to a couple of combinations they feel safe with. They don’t risk anything. The price is that they don’t gain anything. There’s no personal voice singing through the work, you can see and feel the timidity of playing it safe. It’s mediocre. It’s boring.
As artists on a path of growth we start with the academics: theory and the color wheel. We learn the basics so we know how colors interact optically and impact us emotionally. Then we have the confidence to expand into our own voice, working intuitively and expressively on a solid foundation of learned knowledge. Then comes the magic. Then the mastery. Then the whole cycle all over again, many times, microcosmically and macrocosmically. A never ending, fun-filled journey, rich with rewards.
Congratulations and thank you, Dear Reader. You are not one of the folks blindly unconscious to the value of understanding color. You would not be reading this if you were!
Project Runway Judges: You are welcome to take any of my classes and learn about color with me. I can show you 50 ways to make the complementary colors blue and orange look fantastically complimentary. We did it in my Denver classes.
It’s here! The Spring/Summer 2010 Color Report for Bead & Jewelry Designers. Pages and pages of glorious color inspiration and information for your spring and summer creativity.
Marilyn Parker (Toronto) created the cover necklace
And guess what. My friend and fellow artist/author Jamie Cloud Eakin (Bugle Bead Bonanza and Beading with Cabachons) is giving everyone who purchases one a FREE bugle bead project PDF. You’ll receive a link when you purchase the Color Report. Thank you, Jamie.
I’ll be writing more about the spring/summer colors in the coming days and weeks.
I’ll be writing more about the spring/summer colors in the coming days and weeks.
Continuation from the previous post:
Rosanne & Me
My favorite activities were bead related, not ship related (except for eating, of course!). Teaching was a blast, and the gentle rocking and tipping of the boat made me focus in a new kind of way. I didn’t want to fall on a student’s needle. And I know they didn’t want me falling in their laps.
We gathered each night for instructor’s demos, open beading, and the bazaar; a relaxed, intimate way to end the day. One could participate as much or as little as they wanted. This was when I got the opportunity to meet and talk with new friends, and oogle their creations. And when I learned the passions of the other instructor’s on the cruise…
Barb Switzer
Barb Switzer’s wire work is the most intricate and unique I’ve ever seen. www.beadswitzer.com. For her, wire is the art and the focal point, not an add-on that enhances an existing stone or bead. I love her approach: in her hands, wire becomes a fluid, feminine medium that hardly seems like metal.
Tracy Stanley
Tracy Stanley of www.wiredarts.net brings a delightful sense of play and freedom to metalwork. Her pieces are exuberant, and I wished I could have taken one of her classes. With her kits and techniques, there’s ample room for individual expression, and she welcomes it. I also loved the echoes of hammers banging and clanging that issued from her classroom, reminding me of magical elvin forges.
Steampunk Queen Melanie Brooks www.earthenwoodstudio.com cages, embellishes, and decorates her extraordinary ceramic pieces in the most creative ways. Hers is an industrial kind of palette: dark metallics, olive greens, and browns. I was inspired by how she used these muted deep tones in ways that were not at all heavy. Tiny detail and texture make her pieces tactile and intriguing. I had to pick up each one and investigate for the surprises only available upon close inspection. Her thoughtful and intricate work showcases her distinct voice.
Rosanne & Melanie
Beverly Herman www.noeasybeads.com is a true master of bead weaving and design. I’ve seen gobs of bead weaving in the last 20 years, but nothing like the bracelets she makes using Heather Powers’ polymer clay beads. She’s not just an extraordinary master of technique (her bead embroidery is technical perfection). She has a true aesthetic sense of balance, or what is beautiful, and what is functional and wearable. I don’t know when I have laughed so much with someone I’d only known for such a short time. The two of us (and others) were boundlessly silly, a quality I admire more and more as I mature.
Beverly Herman enjoying her new Flip video camera
Heather Powers, www.humblebeads.com, facilitator extraordinaire of the cruise, creates exquisite, detailed polymer clay beads that gave me a sense of serenity when I looked at them and held them. From her tiny hedgehogs, birds and eggs, to Japanese-like floral motifs, and abstracted swirls of color, each bead is carefully crafted, an extraordinary treasure. She gave a copper-stamping-patina-resin-demo that I couldn’t resist. I bought all the parts and will make one for me.
Our supplies vendor were Pam and Belinda from Bello Modo, www.bellomodo.com, with a gorgeous selection of copper parts and findings. They were so helpful,tirelessly explaining everything to everyone in classes, at meals, and each night. I can’t recommend them enough – visit the site. Its full of magical beads and findings.
Heather Powers
So I am back, with a suitcase full of gifts from new friends, a shot glass with a faceted turquoise holder (thanks for the trade, Tracy!), and a clear plastic cup with blue flashing lights that looks frighteningly like someone is being arrested when I turn it on in the dark (how did I live without this?). And best of all, a heart full of wonderful memories!
As we disembarked Sunday, January 24th, I was sad to be leaving the friends I’d made in the short week of the BeadCruise 2010. What a week! But let me start at the beginning…
When I accepted the offer to teach on the 2010 Bead Cruise I didn’t know what to expect. Even though I grew up on the shores of Cocoa Beach, I’d never been on a cruise. But Heather Powers and her annual BeadCruise came highly recommended by students and renowned teachers, and I felt honored by the offer.
To be on a cruise ship is to be in another world. Cocooned from land and everyone on it, for a brief while you are living in a community of sorts. One where all your needs are taken care of by the most efficient, precise, organized machine of a system I have ever encountered. Imagine not having to clean, do laundry, or even think about what to make for dinner. And food delivered to your door any hour of the day or night. And pools, spas, fitness center, outdoor activities, music, games, all within walking distance. It is mind-boggling. And dizzying.
One of my sketchbook entries from the BeadCruise
We loved the towel animals that appeared on our beds each night after dinner!
I’m in constant pusuit of beauty. Here’s what I found on the Bead Cruise…
The most beautiful visual experiences were the limitless, unobstructed views of sea and sky… as far as my eye could see and mind could imagine. I never tired of the shifting colors, movement, and patterns. I wish I could spend a thousand more hours witnessing the majesty of the open sea.
Can't get enough of those beloved towel animals. We even shot a video of, as its ears quivered with the movements of the ship.
The most beautiful of all experiences was the community we beaders formed through our generosity and love of our craft. Bead artists are so generous, always wanting to share a new technique or idea with anyone who has a want and a moment to listen. I’m touched by this, no matter how many times I am part of it. In class someone had an issue with knotting, and there was Lila teaching everyone a Tailor’s Knot… not once, but at least 4 times (I lost count). I’ve wanted to learn St. Petersburg chain and Bev made sure she set aside time to teach me individually. Often when someone enthusiastically admires another’s creation to the point of aching desire, the creator takes it off and gifts it to them, leaving the recipient in tears. Like I said, bead artists are beautifully benevolent.
to be continued on Thursday (when I’ll tell you about the instructors)…
Excerpt from January 2010 Margie’s Muse
Study the two versions of the Aqua/Silver Mini-Radiant Sun Earrings. Before you read further, decide which you think works best and why. Read further and I’ll tell you my thoughts.
The one on the right is the final version that I sell as a kit. Here’s why it is a much stronger design than the one on the left.
Focal Point
I constantly stress in my teachings and writings that as an artist, its our job to visually guide the viewers’ eye and tell them where to look first, where to focus. We do this by consciously creating a focal point. Or several focal points in a heirarchal manner.
Lightest or darkest areas often create focal points, as do areas of greatest contrast (lightest against darkest).
Where is the focal point within the earring on the left?
Finding it is a bit confusing, isn’t it? My eye is drawn immediately to the visual horizontal band created by the lightest beads, the silver beads. That horizontal band is not an aesthetically pleasing focal point. And it competes with the upper medallion section of the earring, which seems a natural focal point because of the circular shape.
In the earring on the right, the upper medallion section features four silver beads. My eye is drawn right into that upper center, where those lightest beads are. Here the composition and the color are in agreement that this is the focal point of the earring.
After enjoying the medallion focal point my eye immediately shifts straight down the middle of the earring, drawn to the light of the 6 largest silver beads that create and triangle shape. A second focal point! It is the lightest area of the bottom of the earring. And the traingle shape intrigues the eye, beckoning more of my attention.
…
Color for Bead Artists 