Hi all! Boy it has been a long time since I posted here! Today I have a few color inspiration samples.
It doesn't matter what kind of art you are creating, color is a huge part of each art creation. Colors help translate the emotion the artist is trying to portray. Even when I am making beads color is a one of the biggest parts of my design planning. I've noticed I tend to choose colors that mimic my mood. If I'm feeling more subdued one day I might choose colors that are darker in shades. Happier moods bring out happier brighter colored bead designs like pink, orange, yellow, green.
BUT it's more than just picking colors to match your moods. It's also about making the colors harmonize together. If the colors don't "work" together the whole design can come out looking less than satisfactory.
I've been taking a lot of time to research colors. How they affect our moods, what they mean and how they work together on a color wheel. I've also restarted my little color inspiration book which I use to reference when I'm having "beaders block" - just like writers block I get stuck and can't think of what to make or what colors to use and hit the point where I'm ready to tear out my hair! ARGH!
I started this book awhile back, but found it was too small. I have since upgraded to a very large book to hold all my color ideas. Every day we are surrounded by colors, colors and more colors! I take those every day colors and use them as my inspiration. When I see colors that work together I then find paint chips to match those combos which get glued into my book. Then the hunt begins to locate magazine clippings of items that match those paint chips. My friends who are all too sweet provide me with all their old magazine subscription once they have finished reading through them. I have quite the large pile building up in the corner of my craft room, I think they think I'm a little crazy for taking all the old magazines but I put them to great use for myself.
Once I have the paint chips and the magazine clippings that match I glue them all together in my book. This creates the perfect color sample of the colors I want to combine in my glass designs. I generally try to pick out three colors that work together, however, many times the three that I have together are all harmonious and can be used as any two or three together, in other words not all three have to be used.
Alright enough with the minor technical part. Onto some pictures. Below are some of the color samples from my book and beads I've made that were inspired by these colors. Enjoy!!
Here we have Pink, Orange & Green, all in bright shades. How fun these colors are together! The writing under each color sample corresponds with the glass color name that I either plan to use or did use to create the look.
Here are my bead results. I chose not to use the lime green in the above color sample and instead opted for just the orange and pink. All three colors above will work together in any combonation. I could have used pink and green or orange and green, ect. I also could have changed the shade of the colors. Made them more pastel or opted for darker shades (sorry for the blurry picture...I'm still figuring out how to get great pictures of my baubles, that's a whole other adventure).
Next is pink, black and gray....very sexy / punk chic color combonation.
Again here I chose to only use two of the colors. I picked pink and black. I left the gray out for no reason other than I wasn't feelin' it. The pink I used is also lighter than the one in the picture, but that's ok there is a lot of room for playing around with the shades of color used. I could have used a dark pink instead and it would have looked fine.
One more quick thing, here is a link to a fabulous site that allows you to either click a color (along the right hand side) and it will show you numerous color combonations for that particular color or you can also customize it and pick exactly what colors you want to see together AND you can save it!! Check it out if you're stuck and in need of color inspiration:
Color Combos
Thanks for stopping!!
Firebug, Nicole
