It Takes Work to be Creative!

My oldest daughter, the librarian and I made a quick trip to visit my younger daughter and her family this week to celebrate the 11th birthday of my granddaughter.  It's a longish drive -- 7 hours when including all the stops I need to make for stretch -- and so as many of you do, we listened to a book.

The book is titled Vincent and Theo, The Van Gogh Brothers by Deborah Heiligman.  (She found it on Hoopla.)  It's the story of the two brothers personal relationship and is drawn from nearly 700 letters written by Vincent to his younger brother.  We are a bit more than halfway through it and I'm in awe of the depth of their conversations with each other via the letters.  

I was reminded of an account of DaVinci I read 15 years ago.   He was never satisfied with his work and left behind enough UFO's to mentally cripple most people.  Yet, we admire his work and the legacy of ideas he left for our benefit.  He didn't know that would happen, he was working through ideas in his head and some worked but most didn't.  

We left off yesterday at the end of a chapter about a period in Vincent's journey to the paintings we know him for during which he was striving to expand his understanding of color. 

He had to learn to use color? 

What? 

He was an artist, isn't that part of their genetic make-up?

Of course it isn't.  It's a skill built through the creative process of learning.  Learning is experimenting, trying out ideas, imitating others who we admire -- in other words, it's work.   Vincent had some innate talent for drawing but he didn't rely on that to become an artist.  The author relates many examples of how he worked through the same drawing exercises repeatedly in an effort to learn and improve the skills of his trade.  

This particular chapter was discussing Vincent's discovery of complementary colors and he made the comment in a letter to Theo that using complementary colors "enriches the colors".  This occurred five years into his journey to become an artist.  Wow, I thought.  I use complementary colors to create contrast quite often but had not realized they also enrich one another.

I've been looking through some pictures I took last week on a walk around the perimeter of a large local meadow which is bordered on three sides by a lush forest of hickory, beech, and maple.  Just for fun, I've been naming the color schemes used by nature and focusing on the impact those color schemes have on what attracted me to photograph them.  

The meadow was alive with tiger swallowtail butterflies -- at one point, I could see nine fluttering over various parts of the meadow at the same time!!  

I took quite a few pictures but the ones I like best are when they were posed on this red-violet swamp milkweed with a rich green background of foliage.

The contrast of the complementary colors -- green and red-violet -- make the whole photo more vibrant.

These crabapples caught my eye as I walked past -- complementary colors!

I also made a mental note of how large they are this year -- time to make crabapple jelly!!

I think this shrub is in the dogwood family -- look how these berries stand out on their red stems. 

Compare that to how much less obvious these blue berries appear -- analogous colors.

Complementary colors -- does nature use them so things stand out?

Did I notice this grass because it stands out against the green background or because it was so different from everything around it?

Perhaps some of each? 

So if Vincent had to work at learning how to use colors, I should not be intimidated by the fact that using color is not intuitive for me.

It's work!

And it's work that I love!

Enjoy the weekend!

Mary

Contrast Basics for Traditional Quiltmaking -- Print and Scale

This is the third in a series of three posts to share some of what I've learned about creating contrast in quilts.  I believe these ideas pertain more to traditional quilt making than to art or modern quilt making styles.  I'm a traditional quilt maker, relying on traditional blocks to create my designs. 

 

One of the most valuable experiences I've had as a quilt maker was a five year stint as a sample maker for King's Road Imports when they first began to offer cotton prints to the quilt supply shops in the mid 1990's.  Fashion fabric companies were losing business as women moved away from garment sewing.  So the companies began to offer prints to quilt shops but rather than the traditional small scale calicos they offered an exciting array of large prints and new color combinations. 

 

It was my job to create quilts that showcased how to use large scale, multi-colored prints with the traditional smaller scale prints -- it wasn't easy at first, but it was exciting!!

 

This is a Hunter's Star block I just finished making for my January Stash Bee swap and it does a good job of illustrating the contrast of print scale.  I didn't realize until I had assembled the four units that all of them were a combination of a large scale and a small scale print.

Changing the scale of the prints also generates visual interest seen here in this close-up. 

The use of strips and plaids is another way to build contrast into a quilt.  The strip used in the center of this star was random and I let that show rather fussy cutting six identical diamonds.  What other type of contrast do you see in this block. 

 If you said warm versus cool, you are right!

 

This is a piece I created last winter as part of Karen H's Soupcon follow-along!  I strayed from her design plan somewhat but I love the contrast of that super large scale floral and all the small scale traditional prints.  Polka dots have become popular in the past 5 years and the light background ones offer a wonderful option for backgrounds such as in the center of my piece. 

 Can you categorize the color scheme?  It was the fabric artist's idea, and it's the split complementary color scheme I highlighted in last Monday's post (HERE).  Did you know that "pink" is not a color family?  It's red or red-violet tinted with white.  And the "brown" in the center motif fabric is actually a yellow with black added. 

 

When I bought that large scale floral, I didn't buy any of the coordinates because I have a large stash accumulated over a span of 30 years and I know that I have fabrics that will work with just about anything.  Then I take all my clues for pulling fabrics from the print -- it provides the color inspiration and I pull prints that vary in value and print style and scale.

 

I like the excitement I can create in a quilt like my big maple leaf piece with a wide variety of prints and colors.  I blogged about it last fall (HERE) if you want to see close-ups of it.

Not everyone likes that but the principles of using value and print contrast can be applied to any color scheme to create a unique and exciting quilt!  In this basket sampler (more photos of this HERE and HERE), I confined the colors to brown and blue.  Value then became the primary way to achieve the contrast so each basket is easy to see.  The background is an ivory solid and all the prints range from medium to dark in value. 

 By using a large scale print with both colors for the sashing, setting triangles and outer border, I achieved another element of contrast which makes this quilt so successful.  Notice that the closer the prints are in value, the less contrast there is between the individual triangles in this block.

You can begin to actively and consciously use these contrast principles in your own quilt making.  Start out by analyzing quilts you love.  When you are browsing through a book or magazine or enjoying a quilt exhibit, take the time to consider how value contrast, color contrast, and print contrast work in the quilts you like.  If you start a list of the results of your analyses, what should begin to appear is a summary of your preferences in each of those areas.  Then you can begin to ask questions to compare these preferences to your quilts.

 

If you are drawn to quilts with strong value contrasts, do you make quilts with strong value contrasts? 

 

If certain color schemes catch your eye regularly, does your stash reflect that preference? 

 

 As you begin to identify these preferences, you will gain more confidence about making your own fabric and color choices rather than always relying on someone else's kits.

 

And that is what makes my quilts unique and will make your quilts unique -- using them as a showcase for your personal preferences!!

 

Now go stitch something together!!

 

Mary Huey

www.maryhueyquilts.com



Contrast Basics for Traditional Quiltmaking -- Color

Color is the most frequent topic of conversation among quilters in my opinion and it's certainly the most interesting part of any quilt for many of us.  Color is the thing that catches our eye about a quilt before anything else.  You can see the same quilt in your favorite color and love it, but not even notice it in a color you don't like. 

While it's the factor that catches our eye, it's also the element of making a quilt that intimidates many of us.  We are under the illusion that we have to be "artistic" to create satisfactory color combinations.  That's not true.  What is true is that it takes practice to recognize your color preferences and to learn how to manage colors in such a way that they please you.  I've had lots of practice -- 26 years of keeping shop and over 35 years of teaching will do that. 

Some things I've learned from all that experience:

Everyone has color preferences that are the result of where we live and subtle cultural cues.  That means we need to understand where we are with color before we can move into uncomfortable color zones.  (That also means you might need to stop relying on "designers" and manufacturers to organize your color combinations for you, but that's a "soapbox" I can't get on today.) 

Step one is not to be intimidated by the color wheel.  There are a couple basics that are easy to understand.  This represents the twelve basic color families.  The outer ring are the "darks" that have black added to the pure color.  The middle ring are the pure colors.   The inner ring are the "lights" that have white added to the pure color.

Next you need to understand that every combination of colors directly across from one another on the wheel are STRONG or HIGH contrast.  So if you want a bold, strong contrast in a quilt, choosing colors that are opposite each other achieves that no matter what that combination is.

 

Here's one -- violet and yellow.  Since I've chosen prints as close to the pure colors as I could get in my stash, it's a very strong contrast.  If I want to soften it, I could change the value of one of the prints.

 

Or I could chose a color closer to the violet.  The closer two colors are on the wheel, the softer the contrast.  So here is the violet with red -- squint at the pictures and you can't even tell the block is a 9-patch.  

When you chose colors that are adjacent on the color wheel like this it's called an analogous grouping.  Analogous groupings add a lot of interest to a color scheme.

When you are working with a two color scheme, adding a little of the adjacent colors to one of the main colors works well.  The technical name for this is split-complementary.  In this illustration, the yellow-green and red-violet are the complementary colors (highest contrast).  Adding greens and yellows will make that palette more interesting.

 

 

 

Another element I find helpful is to use the warm side of the color wheel versus the cool side.  This is the cool side -- can you guess what colors are on the warm side?  So when we want to create a calm color scheme focusing on this group of colors helps us achieve that.

But when we want to go happy and bright and hot, we use the warm side to evoke those impressions.






Batiks are not my favorite palette of fabrics but I know they are very popular with students so when I want to make a teaching sample using batiks, I rely on this warm versus cool aspect of color to achieve the contrast I prefer in a quilt.  This 8-pointed star is a good example of that.

Look back at the "split-complementary" view of the color wheel -- what is it? 

It's a warm and cool contrast -- in fact every combination of color opposite each other on the color wheel are warm and cool!!













This is my happy color palette -- an ivory or white ground with clear colors.  I've learned a lot from fabrics that "sing" to me.  I've learned to create combinations that please me by imitating them.  This piece is currently being considered for a project and it may or may not get used for it, but I will definitely use it to pull my fabric pile because I want it to be a happy quilt and this make me happy!!  I don't need to define the combination, but it's helps to recognize how the contrast is achieved -- it's using all the shades of green as a secondary background.  The colors that show up the most on it are the reds, oranges, and yellows.  The contrast with the violets are softer -- because it's closer to green on the wheel. 

I hope these thoughts about achieving contrast with color are helpful to you, but experimenting with color is the only way to get comfortable with it.  Remember, quilters who do "fabulous" stuff have their share of ugly stuff that has helped them get to the point they are today!!

Mary Huey
www.maryhueyquilts.com

Contrast Basics for Traditional Quilt Making -- Value

I've just begun participating in a couple of on-line "follow along" projects and lots of the participants are posting their fabric combinations, some asking for advice, and it brought out the teaching "shop owner" in me.  So I decided to share some of what I learned via 26 years of helping students and customers chose fabric for quilt projects.  Most of my experience is with traditional block piecing so it may not apply to other aspects of quilt making. 

 

Let me begin by sharing that teaching and working with Gai Perry's excellent book, Color From the Heart (C & T Publishing, 1999) which is still available as a "print on demand" edition if you don't have it squirreled away in your library.

 

Value is more important than color in tradition blocks.

 

Mary Ellen Hopkins was the first teacher to point that out to me and I've tested the premise more often than I care to admit.  Sometimes I get so caught up in creating a beautiful fabric combination that I forget to consider if the value of the prints achieves the look I want.

 

So here's a quick lesson on value.  Blue is easy on the eyes so here's a range of blues. 

 

 

If you were to pull out all the fabric you own in one color range, you would be able to organize it from the very darkest to the very lightest.  Some quilters use "value finders" -- I squint or take off my glasses -- to get the placement correct. 

 

It's easy to pick the very darkest and the very lightest, but that muddle in the middle -- mediums?!?

So to make it easier, I break down that medium muddle into dark medium, medium, and light medium.   These definitions may help you sort it out.

Lights are white or off-white background with a bit of color -- you can see the background clearly.

Light-mediums are either pastel backgrounds or have a density of color so that the background is obscured.

Mediums have a color background and often have lots of other colors printed onto it.  Busy, dense prints with lots of colors are usually mediums even though the background may be navy or black, etc.

Dark-mediums may have a darker shade background, but they are also less densely printed -- more of the background shows through.

Darks are the darkest shade of a color with no other colors in the print design.

(These definitions are simple and intended to make this less intimidating.)

 

Once I pull a stack of potential fabrics for a project, I rank them in value order.  Then I experiment with positioning them to achieve the "look" I want.

 

If I want a bold or strong or clear contrast, I use the lightest and darkest values of the group, eliminating the medium range. 

If that look is too bold, I can replace the "dark" with a "dark medium" or the "light" with a "light-medium" as in the next two photos.

 

 

Eliminating both the "dark" and the "dark medium" lessens the contrast. 

The lowest contrast occurs by using values that are next to each other as in this "light-medium" and "light".  Modern quilters refer to this as "low-volume".

I can achieve a low contrast with any of my five value groups just by keeping the value close together on the scale as illustrated in the following two photos.

 

My students will tell you that I rarely offer them an opinion on their color choices.  Instead I try to help them evaluate their choices against the "look" they are trying to achieve.  By pointing out the value contrast that I see in their stack of fabric and asking if that is what they envisioned, they are able to make their own decision. 

 

The most successful tool in making value decisions is auditioning -- don't buy into the myth that everyone but you can "visualize" the way their block/quilt is going to look. 

Lay out all the options, leave the room, come back and pay attention to your first response!!

Your brain knows in a flash what it likes -- sometimes we just refuse to listen to it.

I believe that when I'm hesitate about a decision, it's my brain saying "no" and I'm not listening.

 

I hope this little essay is helpful to you.  Practice it by pulling out a stack of fabric (it might need tidying up anyway).  I'll work up another one in the next few days about achieving "Contrast of Color" based on my experience selling thousands of yards of fabric.

 

Piece on!!

Mary Huey

www.maryhueyquilts.com