The Power of Colors

While writing the previous post on color, I became acutely aware of my connection with colors. Colors wake me up, challenge me, inspire me, and change me. For me, and for many, color is what makes the world go 'round. Seeing a gorgeous combination of hues is sublime. Just take a look at this and tell me that doesn't light your fire.

A few months ago, I "met" Brandi, a jewelry designer who draws her inspiration from color. This week, she hosted a Color Palette Blog Walk, and here is my contribution. Tomorrow's theme is "blogger's choice--what's inspiring you."

Well, what's inspiring me right now is the time I have had in the woods with my family recently. A camping trip to the mountains, a climbing trip to an old haunt of ours, the quiet discovery of kids in the forest with no agenda and no distractions.

This photo was taken at our campsite. I was trying to capture all the different greens that were glowing above our heads, and the almost graphic quality of the darks where the leaves overlap. The photo doesn't quite do it justice, but making this color palette for it made me happy. I was transported back to the campsite, with all the serenity, scents, and feelings that go with it.

Also inspiring me right now? The skill, tenacity, and finesse with which our girls scaled these rocks. We are looking forward to a lifetime of rock climbing together as a family.

What's inspiring you right now?

Take a look at the color palettes other artists have created here. Amazing.

Beginner Drawing Lessons, Part III

Yay! Welcome to the third and final lesson in this three-part series: Color

Where would we be without color? The deep blue sea, scarlet poppies, and blazing sunsets would all be pretty nondescript without the hues that make them unforgettable.

There is so much to learn about color, but I'm going to keep it fairly simple here. While it is true that a strong foundation of color and color relationships will take an artist's work to the next level, for the purposes of this simple lesson, we'll skip the color wheel, so as not to bore the kids to death, and jump right to actually using color.

To start, let's go back to "seeing with our eyes and not our brains" (I know, I keep bringing this up, but it is one of the best things you can keep in mind when rendering objects). Just like the tomatoes of Lesson I are not perfectly spherical in shape, nor are they just red. On a single tomato we can spy red, orange, yellow, and deep crimson, and even a hue that seemed somewhat blue, not counting the greens of the stem and browns of the blemishes. It is precisely this myriad of color that makes an object interesting when rendered.

Take a closer look. See the variations. Encourage your kids to believe that they really are seeing colors that don't necessarily "make sense," like blue on a tomato.There are many reasons for seeing that blue, like a reflection from a nearby object, or the combination of a particular shade of red, mixed with the low-value tones of a shadow.

Even if your subject is a factory-made piece of purple plastic that features a consistent shade, that purple is going to appear slightly different, depending on how the light and shadows are effecting it. So, you see, nothing should ever be rendered as just one color, even if it is...just one color.

Color Exercise:
For this lesson, you will not necessarily need to set up a still life. In fact, drawing from nature would serve this lesson best, as objects that occur in nature tend to have many variations in color.

• Take a walk with your kids around the yard or inside your home. Point to objects and have them say the first color that comes to mind, like "green!" for grass.
• Next, have them take a closer look. If they can, have them touch the object, and look at it from all angles, noticing color differences. For example, a leaf might be bright green on the top, but a muted yellow-green on the underside. See if they can recognize more colors than the original one-word answer.
•  Once your kids start drawing their objects, encourage them to use as many different colors as possible. A peach could be drawn using orange, red, brown, and yellow, as opposed to coloring it light orange in one place, dark orange where the shadow is.
• Once they are comfortable with using so many colors, ask them to draw an object using a completely different set of colors. They could take a small collection of blues and oranges and render a leaf with shadows and highlights using the wacky colors. The end result will be an eye-popping composition. 
• For and advanced challenge, try drawing a set of objects using only blocks and patches of color—no lines—like we did with value in Lesson II.

If you're you're interested in exploring color a little further, Marmalade Moon just posted a great list of color inspiration links.

I hope you and your kids enjoyed this Beginner Drawing series. I plan to expand upon these lessons in the future, and will keep you posted on that front, as details emerge.

Colorful Necklaces & Some News

Sometimes, when I look at my body of work, I am painfully aware of the lack of color. This perplexes me, because my world revolves around color. My home is painted and decorated in a rainbow of shades, my shoes span the spectrum, and I gravitate towards pretty much anything that is a beautiful hue. My current color of choice is this one:

Somewhere between the time I started making jewelry and now, my pieces have taken on a very, uh, metallic feel. I know that's a bit obvious, but I am feeling the need for a departure (if only temporary) from my usual industrial-meets-organic"colored" jewelry. All those grays and browns of winter and early spring have gotten the best of me, so I'm introducing a little color into my line just in time for summer.

I'm on the hunt, prowling the web for gorgeous stones to frame in silver and oh, is it fun. Wouldn't this make an amazing piece?

In other news, the summer edition of the online magazine Rhythm of the Home was just published. This one is bursting with interesting articles, cool crafts, and all things summer. I contributed a tutorial—check it out here.

(Colorful necklaces now listed in the shop)

Red Cabbage Wonders

Irresistible. Each and every time I cut into a red cabbage, I am amazed at the graphic beauty of it. I cannot get over that bright plum (cabbage?) purple, swirled into mazes that fold over each other in beautiful randomness.

And every time I cut into one I think to myself, "Someday, I'm going to give this cabbage the props it deserves." I dream of painting, drawing, knitting or interpreting in silver this boldly contrasting composition. I'm working up to that, but this weekend we did do a little experimenting with the color.

I boiled the cabbage for about a half hour, allowing all the pigment to leach out and boil down to a slightly thicker liquid. The result was this inky, deep purple dye.

We soaked some cotton string and fabric scraps in the dye and they dried this gorgeous amethyst color. The girls have big plans for me to knit stuffed animal hats with this string, and make clothes for their soft friends with the fabric. We shall see...

Of course, we ate the remainder of that cabbage. There is an excellent recipe for Red Cabbage with Lemon and Black Pepper, in A Homemade Life, by Molly Wizenberg (Of Orangette fame). If you haven't picked this book up yet, I highly recommend it. Our favorites from that book also include Tomato Soup with Two Fennels, and Custard-Filled Corn Bread. yum-y!