Color Conundrum 2

Color Play by Joen Wolfrom

Here's more on color characteristics.  This book, Color Play, is also written for quilters, but the message can be used with any fiber.

Joen Wolfrom explains pure color, tints (color with white), shades (color with black), and tones (color with gray). She defines intensity, value, color temperature, and monochromatic color schemes. 

When she begins explaining complimentary color schemes, there is a twist.  I learned that the primary colors are red, yellow, and blue.  The complimentary colors are opposites on the color wheel - red and green, blue and orange, and yellow and purple. Other color relationships are based on where these colors are placed on the wheel. This is the artist's pigment wheel.

However, Joen Wolfrom uses the Ives color wheel in her book. This color wheel is used in dyeing fabric, printing, and photography.

In the Ives wheel, the primary colors are magenta, yellow, and turquoise. The complimentary color pairs are red and aqua green,  blue and orange-yellow, and yellow and violet. ( I must admit, I like the red-aqua green complimentary pair better than the red-green combination). She understands that many quilters have not had any formal color training, so she suggests that they start with colors that interest them and experiment from there. Maybe I'll be trying some chartreuse-red-violet designs!

She shows many design examples and sample quilts. An entire chapter is devoted to each color family (yellow, green, blue, violet, red, and orange) and the color schemes for that family. (She has 3 pages in the yellow chapter on chartreuse and it's color combination options!) She ends her book with a chapter on quilt illusions that can be created through "color play" - depth, luminosity, luster, shadows, highlights, and transparency .

This is a good reference book for exciting color combinations.