Hue/Saturation Chart

Okay, so I was reading some more through Johannes Itten's The Art of Color and he had an impressive looking plate of hue/saturation (color) chart.

I've heard of people trying to replicate this chart in order to test their color skills, and when I came across it I thought "Ok, lets give this a go".

So...

I feel as though I might have done this same exercise back in my art school days. My eye has completely changed since then and I think attempting to replicate this chart with as much precision as possible is really helpful.

Here's something interesting:

I color picked my hand-painted chart in Photoshop. It was really hard to stay honest, especially since the watercolor paint that I used gave many of the squares an uneven shade and I could kind of pick from regions that helped me make the chart look more accurate then it actually was.

Basic Instinct

When I was in art school I didn't see the point of studying painting because it seemed obvious to me the process was instinctive, not something that could be taught.

These days however, since I've made Print and Pattern Design my focus, I've been struggling a bit with color. Instinct can only take one so far before you start asking yourself why your choices have the effect they do.

 I borrowed a copy of Johannes Itten's The Art of Color to better understand the relationships between colors. He had a couple of interesting exercises pertaining to subjective color that I thought I'd try out. These are watercolor painting using colors I am most drawn too. Essentially using instinct/intuition to create "harmonized" personal color palettes. After doing about 10 different painting, I was surprised to see how similar they all are when placed side by side. 

And what did I learn about myself? 

Apparently I've got about as much subtlety when it comes to color as Rainbow Bright!

Floral explosion!

Getting in touch with my inner William Morris.
This always happens when I visit the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens.

Graphics moments on the Highline

I was in New York about a month ago with my husband working on a photographic tour of the city. A highlight for me was the Highline Park. The park is built on an old rail about 1.5 stories above street level and winds in and amongst the buildings of the lower west side neighbourhoods. It's a great way to experience the architecture and gives you an idea of how much work, thought and design goes into a city like New York.

Watercolor tests

Shape Crazy!

It's spring and I've got palettes to match!

I snagged most of these images off of Pinterest and generated the palettes myself.