Quilt Artists Guide to Color

Why study color theory? Well, the easy answer is so that you will have more information to guide you when you are creating things. A more complete answer is also a more complex one.

My bet is that you don’t realize that color is energy and therefore the best way for you to control that energy is to learn to harness it. To harness it you must first understand the kind of power it holds.

Each color has a different energy and just like people, colors behave differently in combination with other colors. We can call that the interaction of color a system. It is a system based on theories made and asserted hundreds of years ago. Though those theories still stand to this day, we add new and intriguing information to the system all the time. We now know more about how light is seen by the human eye, how color affects the human psyche and that the colors we see with our eyes are our brains way of making sense of the light waves moving through the atmosphere.

Back to that easy answer, “to guide you when you are making things”; learning to harness the energy of color, understanding the interaction of colors and becoming acquainted with as many varieties of color as possible will make it easier and more enjoyable for you to make more beautiful, interesting and successful art, quilts, jewelry, whatever your heart desires.

So, come along with me, art quilter and instructor, Heather Thomas and let me introduce you to a system that just might rock your world as you learn new meanings for the words scale, value, harmony, texture and so much more.

BONUS MATERIALS FOR THIS CLASS

CLASS RESOURCE PDF
Download this PDF as a guide to creating your own set of color scales.

CLASS RESOURCE PDF
Download this PDF for a visual guide of Pure Hues, Tints, Tones & Shades.

CLASS RESOURCE PDF
See Heather’s painted and fabric color wheel examples.

CLASS RESOURCE PDF
Download and print this PDF for a blank color wheel allowing you to create your own version.

CLASS RESOURCE PDF
Download this PDF for a detailed class supply list.

MEET YOUR EXPERT
Heather shares how learning about color has changed her life and how it can change yours too!

Session 1: Introduction: Why Study Color Theory

In this segment, you will be introduced to the system of interacting color. Heather will walk through all of the major areas of study covered while taking this class. She will use a large selection of small quilts and other artwork as she introduces you to the color wheel, the color scale, visual and tactile textures, value, intensity, saturation, visual temperature and more. She will also show you some tools to have on hand that will make learning about color easier and talk about how to set up your creative space and how to arrange you color media, be it fabric, beads, paint etc. so that it is easy to see and therefore easy to utilize.

Session 2: The Color Wheel and Color Scale

In this session, Heather will show you how most color wheels are organized. She will help you understand how all colors are formed from the primary colors of red, yellow and blue as she introduces the idea of secondary and tertiary colors. At the same time she will teach you all about the color scale which includes color in its pure hue, tints, tones and shades.

Session 3: The Value of Value, Inherent & Relative

This segment is about that overused and often misunderstood word; value. Heather will instruct you to paint out or use fabric to create value scales as you learn how the inherent value of a color affects how it works in combination with other colors.

Session 4: Texture, Print and Raising Surface

This session is all about visual and tactile texture and learning how to use them to create movement, rhythm, surface tension, dominance and so much more. Heather will help you understand how what is printed on the surface of a fabric or its visual texture, can affect the piece and in turn the viewer.

Session 5: All About the 12 Colors

Here is where the fun begins. In this session, Heather will introduce you to the twelve colors in the color system. She will instruct you to either paint out color scales for each one or show you how to use fabric to do so.

Session 6: The Interaction of Color

To help you understand how colors play off of and with each other, Heather will guide you through the exploration of the following exercises; working with neutrals, monochromatic play, exploring direct complements, working with complex complements, using analogous runs, playing with triads and creating with tetrads.

Session 7: Principles of Design

In this final session, Heather will introduce you to the idea of working toward a sense of balance while using variety and striving for unity in each new piece you create. She will show you how color can come into play as you are striving to create a balanced and unified piece of work and how you can use value and color scale to increase variety.