I'm looking at the images below and realizing that the colors as photographed rather than developed "in camera" are quite muted from the originals. The only images with brightness are the actual digital images that I play with. So if I were to just look at the following images with no context, I would say that some of them have more muted, grayed out colors than I actually like. I could brighten them up on my cell phone, but that might also distort some things. Oh, well...
The first is one of my photos of a neighborhood pink rose that was in a state of perfection in a neighbor's front yard. I like to apply various filters to photos to see what alternate, unnatural, colors would look like. The first is one of my favorite variations. It's hard to match random things to the color wheel, but it is sort of a split complementary if you look at the purple as being a red-violet, pared with green and a buff that is not quite a yellow. The first one has the look of an old, faded document, faded memories, etc.
This may be a sort of split complementary too if you look at blueish green paired with a reddish shade and a orange shade.
The first two were difficult. I can safely say the one below is a monochrome.
Sort of complementary? It's much more difficult to start with an actual image and identify color schemes than to start with color schemes and create an image that matches them.
Here is someone else's work, from a book on art nouveau fashion. Hmmm, the red and the blue-green are almost complementary, but then you have the blue sky. Not really any one scheme. Green, blue and red-orange would be split-complementary, but that red is definitely red. The blue-green and red together, in long, form fitting shapes, seem elegant but restrained.
Another illustration by someone else. I see a tetrad: red, orange, green and blue. As far as my own color preferences, I am definitely influenced by bright, saturated tropical colors. They remind me of adventure and exuberance, probably partially because I would have to travel some distance to see such flowers growing in the wild.
Rather complementary. Orange and blue, though a grayish kind of blue. Or perhaps also split complementary: yellow orange background, almost red orange flowers (stretching it a bit) and blue gray leaves.
Back to my work. Kind of split-complementary again: yellow, orange, well, more blue than blue violet. Definitely contrasts with the other two colors. I keep doing these projects with paper and they are often not quite done I'm just not sure of what else to add, so they stay glued on their background waiting for more. I feel like this one needs more layers. Perhaps something semi-transparent with cheesecloth so you can still see the dominant design below. I like the high contrast and the restless shapes.
Triad? Yellow-Orange, red-violet, blue-green. The flower shapes were stamped over thin fabric that had been used as a drop cloth under a dying project. This one is pretty complex safari as lines and shapes, so I may just leave it as is. It's less yellow-tinged than this photo makes it look; in real life the purples and greens are more distinct. It has a kind of blunted tropical feel, maybe it's in the shaded corner of the greenhouse.
This was from a class on working with sheer materials that I took at Craft Napa last year. I didn't actually choose the materials, they came pre-bagged for the class, but I think we made some exchanges for colors we liked better. I liked being forced to use a lot of reds ad magentas, which I normally avoid. OK, so I'm flipping the color wheel back and forth and am really not detecting a namable color scheme. But the contrast between red and blue stands out the most. Again I'm realizing that working backwards from what exists to a color scheme is not always possible. I'm thinking the contrast in values here is rather important, with darker values towards the bottom. Exuberance and mystery, as the layers are see through and lower colors influence top colors.
Again, a mixture due to the brownish yellow background, but the complementary red/green stands out. I feel like it needs more complexity, but maybe not additional colors.
A kind of a twisted split complementary, with orange pared with green and blue. Since I started this piece I felt I have been constantly working to overcome the brown background. I was just very determined to use up some fabric I had sitting around and now believe I should have thought more about what I was getting into. I like the monochrome effect of brown to lighter oranges, and the orange/blue complementary colors, but still the brown seems to swallow up the brighter colors. I'm not nearly as annoyed by it when I see it in black and white (later post).
This is monochrome or maybe analogous brown-orange to yellow so far. I want to add some tiny bit of blue or maybe blue-green to add interest. I'm a sucker for fall leaves, the brief brightness before the cold and decay.
A closeup photo, of a peacock feather, with nature's colors, pretty much an analogous green-blue-violet color scheme.
A distorted photo of sunlight through bottles, split complementary red-orange, blue, green. This is more of my tropical influence, I love the saturated, contrasty colors together.
Sunlight through a canning jar, colors have been manipulated afterwards. Pretty much the same color scheme as above, but muted, mysterious and liquid.
Orange/blue complementary. Kaleidoscope images, variations on an orange brown monochrome scheme.
Sort of an orange/blue-green/blue-violet split complementary. The colors are more tinted than I had originally wanted but they are relaxed and flowy looking.
Analogous? Reddish through yellowish.
Another kind of twisted split complementary with red-violet, blue, green. Again tropical over-exuberance.
So, I see that I have a tendency towards split complementary color schemes, though sometimes the split is skewed a bit. I have converted several of these images to black and white in a later lesson and learned a bit more about why I like some a lot and others not so much.
NOTE: This study is from an online design class I am taking with Lyric Kinard called The Artist's Toolbox, part 1. Information on the next offering of this class can be found here: https://app.ruzuku.com/courses/34574/about.
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