Hi there, Sandy here.
Welcome to another Friday Findings video at KeepsakeCrafts.net.
Several of you have asked me to make a video giving you some tips on choosing and using
colors in your creative designs and so that's what I'm going to do today.
Since this channel is mostly about jewelry, I'll talk specifically about choosing colors
in jewelry, but really color theory works across any media as I'll show you in a minute.
So a good place to start in choosing colors for your projects is simply with the beads
themselves.
Here's some beads I just got at ArtBeads and I absolutely love them, but how to choose
which beads to go with them?
So here's my box of blue beads.
I often will literally hold the beads over or right up against other beads to judge how
they will work together visually.
Of course there are more considerations than just color.
There's shape and form and size to consider, but color is usually where I start.
Here's my brown beads.
I might hold this over copper beads and just get an idea of what I think looks good with
these.
Making visual decisions visually.
Now if you're starting from scratch with a design, it helps to have something with colors
that you like for a reference and a jumping off point.
When I used to make quilts, this was often a piece of fabric.
Many times it was the fabric that the entire quilt was built around.
The secret is to make a note of all the colors in the fabric.
Take a look at the background colors.
Take a look at the shading colors.
Make sure to note the outlines.
What colors are they?
Because if you were to remove any of those colors, it would change the look of it.
You may find it helpful to cut a small square in an index card and place that over pieces
to help you isolate the colors.
You can even get simplified color schemes just by isolating small sections of a design.
Like here's a cute reptile fabric, but you may just use the green and blue and yellow
or you may use all of the colors.
This just helps you really focus on what's there.
You can also use scrapbooking papers, a greeting card that you received that you loved the
colors of or even household objects, like coffee mugs for inspiration.
Another example would be this, my very favorite mug with it's Laurel Burch kitty cats.
You could just isolate one of the heads and pull your color scheme from that and don't
forget to note that the background is black, the inside of the mug is red, which shows
from most angles, and the outlines are gold.
All of these colors contribute and add to the design.
Another thing I like to do is whenever I see a color combination that I like that's perhaps
unexpected or I wouldn't have thought of myself is to save it on my color inspiration Pinterest
board.
So when you're looking for colors to use in something, it's a handy reference to have.
Another thing to note is the tone and tint of the color that you're looking at.
If it's blue for example, on my little tile here, how much white or black does it have
or gray?
This one is blue with white.
This one has black and this one has gray.
And is it a true blue or does it lean towards green or does it lean towards purple?
All of your colors will have those secondary colors in them.
Here's fuchsia with a bit more blue, with a bit more red.
Purples that are more red or more blue.
The type of color it is will make a big difference in how your finished piece works all together
depending on the other colors that you decide to use.
By the way, these little polymer clay tiles were made in an exercise from Maggie Maggio's
Polymer Clay Color Inspiration book, which is very helpful with a very practical way
of looking at color, specifically at polymer clay, but the principles can be applied to
anything.
What I often do when I'm designing a piece is I will pull out everything I think can
possibly go into it.
Then I usually pull out one of my bead design boards and start laying things out, usually
around the focal point that I intend to use.
The process then becomes one not just of arranging, but of editing.
A lot of our art involves editing out what doesn't go rather than just adding in what
does.
Sure, for a necklace like this I could have thrown in everything but the kitchen sink,
but does it work as a cohesive whole?
So this necklace is one that I designed for a challenge.
I had to use the bird and the branch and this little copper dangle down here.
And here are just a few of the beads that I pulled out in the beginning for consideration
as part of the design.
As you can see, there was a lot of editing to do!
Any of these might have looked good with the focal beads, but if I had tried to use all
of them, it would have been a disaster.
So you can see where editing your colors is important.
Frequently in my designs I edit down to just a couple colors, often ones that are next
to each other on the color wheel, such as blue and purple or green and blue.
Using any three colors that are next to each other on the color wheel is called an analogous
color scheme.
So you could use those three or those three and that's always a safe bet.
Personally I just like the look, but you may also want to consider throwing in a smidge
of the color's opposite.
If you use these three colors for example, perhaps a touch of orange with the blue or
green with the red or purple with yellow.
I'm not going to get into a whole bunch of color wheel theory here.
You can find that in many places.
I don't physically pull out a color wheel very often, but I always have the principles
in mind.
Finally the best advice I can give you for choosing colors is to look around you.
Look in your closet, look in your home, look at the colors that you surround yourself with
and that you like or if you often play it safe and maybe go with neutrals or black and
white, you might take a look at something that you're drawn to, but you think you would
never wear or put in your home.
Use those colors as a jumping off point for your own inspiration.
Working with color is like any skill.
The more you do it, the more confident you'll be.
And remember that as artists, we're out to find the colors that WE love and that inspire
US.
Not everybody will like them, but if you like them, assuredly somebody else will.
So go forth and use all of the colors.
If you liked this video and found it helpful, I hope that you will subscribe if you haven't
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page for how you can get great rewards and help support these tutorials.
Happy creating!
Bye bye.