Color for Bead Artists

"Color Blocks" pattern available in "Out On A Loom" by Margie Deeb

What happens when you remove one color from an analogous color scheme?

Analogous schemes involve colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel. These schemes can have as many members as you like, as long as they are color neighbors. I’m often asked, “If I use all 12 colors on the 12-step wheel, is it an analogous scheme?” Yes! As long as you haven’t skipped any members along the way.

But what happens when you do skip a member?

I thought it would be fun to explore the results of an almost full-spectrum analogous color scheme.

Using my quilt-inspired split-loom necklace, “Color Blocks,” (pattern available in my book, Out On A Loom) watch what happens when I remove a major color member from this 10-member palette. (I’ve kept the intensity of the colors the same). The original color scheme is the one above left.

In version A I’ve removed all purple and violet.

In version B all blues have been removed.

In version C reds and oranges are gone; pinks have taken their place.

I like observing my own reactions. When I compare each of these versions to the original, I immediately prefer the original. Full-spectrum schemes are so satisfyingly balanced and whole. However, when I stop comparing and sit with the other versions individually, I get to know them better.  Within a few moments I can “hear” their voice separate from a full spectrum scheme. They then begin to appeal to me in different ways.

Version A seems more quiet and stolid without the violet/purple/lavender family. I’m not drawn to it, but its interesting to note how the lack of these colors  dramatically changes the tone.

Version B, with its emphasis on greens and lack of blue seems younger, much younger than version A.

And C is absolutely delightful. All that bright pink makes it so effervescent and playful.

What happens in your eye-and in your mind-when you look at these 4 palettes? Which do you find more appealing and less appealing?

"Color Blocks" in 3 different color palettes

Pepper

In language, the juxtaposition of contrasting images creates powerful metaphors. In music, contrast (of dynamics, chords, modes) creates sublime tension. In relationships, contrasting ideas, opinions, and perspectives can bring out the best in us (sometimes opposites attract). In weather, what would we do without the contrast of seasons? Without contrasts, everything is dull and boring (Muzak and corporate wallpaper come to mind).

I’ve been having a love affair with black and white my whole life. It shows in my choice of dogs: I’ve had a Dalmatian for the last 21 years. Pepper is our second.

But lately I had been thinking about the beauty of black and IVORY instead of white. While musing over this in the car one day, an ivory and black mini-Cooper stopped next to me at the light, as if confirming the track of my thoughts.

Replace white with ivory (or off-white), and you have a combo less stark and more elegant… slightly warmer in feel, yet still powerful in its force and presence.

This classic palette has been around forever, but having been blinded by winter-white-and-black for so long, I am just opening my eyes to its seductive beauty.

So I am experimenting with ivory and off-white tones in my neutral, high-contrast palettes these days.

However… as beautiful as this combo is, I will never dye Pepper’s fur ivory.

Ivory & Black Bathroom

A drawing from one of my sketchbooks is featured in the JetPens.com Gallery (JetPens.com is one of my favorite sites on the web, because they have the best pens around-many unavailable in the US- and I am addicted to excellent writing and drawing instruments). To see the ink & Prismacolor drawing, click the link and scroll down a bit. https://www.jetpens.com/jetpics.php

If you are curious to see more of my non-bead art (painting and drawing is my first love, color my second, and beads my third) here you go:

Sketchbook:
http://gallery.me.com/margiedeeb#100201

Paintings & Charcoal Drawings:
http://gallery.me.com/margiedeeb#100178

Watercolor

Green is definitely the color of spring 2009. According to Pantone® it will invigorate us and our wardrobes with three distinct tones: Vibrant Green, the calmer and sophisticated Dark Citron, and clean, clear Lucite Green (which you met in the February 2009 Margie’s Muse).

Yellow-Green and Fuchsia... does color get any livelier than this?

When spring and summer arrive, I can’t resist variations of lime-greens and yellow-greens. I draw and paint with them, bead with them, wear them.

They are quintessential spring, the first greens we see popping out of the ground in stalks.
Sometimes shocking, always playful and lively, these are the warmest of greens because so much yellow comprises them.
They combine beautifully with their analogous color wheel neighbors, blues and yellows.

But the most fun you can have is by combining them with their complements: magentas and fuchsias. Look at these earrings!

Learn more about pairing yellow-green with spring and summer colors in the March Margie’s Muse edition (its FREE download). Until then… how do you like your yellow-green?

I’ve just published the latest Color Report for Bead Artists Spring/Summer 2009. Its is chock full of exciting new colors to work with, including some of my all-time favorites (which I’ll tell you more about in future posts).

The 3rd in a series, the report gives bead artists specific instructions, descriptions, and ideas on how to use the 10 new colors of the season as designated by Pantone, the global authority on color. Pantone chooses its seasonal colors for the fashion, interior, graphic design, and marketing industries.

This season’s palette is my favorite in years. One of the most unusual colors is Lucite Green, a lovely tint with a retro feel bringing to mind the 50’s and the pastel revolution. It is cool, light, breezy, and very casual,and funky. Look at this Dorothy Perkins belted batwing tunic that is slightly dark version of Lucite Green.
Lucite Green – by The Stylish Geek on Polyvore.com

How fun is that?! I love how The Stylish Geek combined it with black and white.

Kristy Nijenkamp and I spoke to the Southern Flames last week. The topic was “Finding Inspiration Anywhere.” Among many things, I addressed the importance of proportions of colors in a smashing color scheme. Here’s what I consider a good starting point for a 3-color palette. Often 2- and 3-color palettes make the strongest, most memorable schemes.

Here are photos of Kristy and I presenting the colorful material.

Oh how I love the hues of the new Apple iPod Nanos. And their ad campaign! How fun, how colorful, how exciting! Watch the ad, and notice that the first two colors to enter the screen make a complementary harmony based on the C-M-Y color wheel that I advocate, use, and sell on http://www.MargieDeeb.com (and write about in The Beader’s Guide to Color). Magenta and chartreuse are one of my favorite combinations, and I’ve got the wardrobe to back that up.

Look to Apple for inspiring, truly functional design in both their products and marketing.