Quilt Along Part 2: Color Basics

You can probably tell by looking at my work that I'm a big fan of color.  I can't stress enough how important I think a working knowledge of color is to the quilting process, so I wanted to make sure I talked about it a little before I moved on to selecting fabrics.  This is by no means a comprehensive discussion of color theory, but it does cover some of the basics.  Hopefully it's helpful!

 

The Color Wheel is a tool used to demonstrate color relationships.  It's sort of like a circular rainbow featuring the Primary Colors: red, yellow and blue, the Secondary Colors: orange, green and violet, and the Tertiary Colors (e.g. red-violet and green-blue) that fall between each Primary and Secondary colors. 

It's hard to make a truly accurate color wheel with fabric swatches but, since fabric is what we use to make quilts, I wanted to show things in those terms.  If you're struggling with choosing colors, I encourage you to purchase an actual color wheel from an art supply store and take it with you when you're buying fabric.

Some industries, notably printing, use cyan, magenta and yellow as their primaries.  Still others use red, green and blue.  Without getting into a long discussion of why that is, I want to mention that, for our purposes, the traditional color wheel is the best reference.  (If we were dying the fabric ourselves, it would be another story!)

 

The red fabrics above are all about the same Value and Intensity.

 

Value refers to the lightness or darkness of a color.  If we were mixing paints, we would change the value by adding white to make Tints or black to make Shades of a color.

 

Intensity is a way of describing the brightness/vibrance or dullness of a color.  If we were mixing paints, we would add a color's Compliment (more on that in a moment) to make it more dull.

 

A Monochromatic Color Scheme, uses just one color.  The different levels of Value and Intensity in the fabrics above keep this Monochromatic composition interesting. 

 

Analogous Colors are the colors next to one another on the Color Wheel, in this case blue-green, green, and yellow-green.

 

Here is an example of an Analogous Color Scheme in those same colors.

Complimentary Colors are the colors directly across from one another on a Color Wheel.  The most basic are red and green, blue and orange and yellow and violet.  These colors contrast with one another nicely and make some of my favorite color schemes.

 

Here's an example of a Complimentary Color Scheme using blues and oranges.

And here's a more subtle Complimentary Color Scheme using pink and light green.  (Note that red and green are still complimentary, even in lighter Values.)

 

Reds, oranges and yellows are considered Warm Colors, while greens, blues and violets are considered Cool Colors.  In general, warm colors "advance" or appear more prominent in a composition, while cool colors "recede" or stay in the background.

 

This composition is made entirely with Warm colors.

This composition is made entirely with Cool colors.

 

Neutral Colors are the ones that don't appear on a Color Wheel (or at least not on a basic one).  On their own, they can make a calm, quiet composition.  Black and white aren't truly colors, but they can also make an interesting composition when used on their own.

With neutrals, and even different black dye lots, it helps to pay attention to the temperature (i.e. whether it's Warm or Cool).  In general, grays and blacks are going to be more cool than beige and browns.  Look closely though.  Sometimes you'll see a really warm rosy gray or sharp bluish brown.  

 

Neutrals and Black and White often look best paired with a brighter color.  Notice how, in all three examples, a Warm and Cool color have been paired: the cool gray with pink, the vibrant red with a sharp cool black, and the warm chocolate brown with a cool springy green. 

 

Here's an example of a composition pairing neutrals (grays) with bright reds and yellows.

 

Here's a more subtle composition using neutrals, pale pink and pale aqua.

 

Sometimes it's fun to use as much color as possible.  The composition above uses all the colors of the color wheel, as well as black, white, gray and brown.

   

One "trick" I like to use to keep a multicolored composition focused is to choose one color to specifically exclude.

 

For instance, here's the same group of fabric swatches, with the violets gone.

 

And here's the same group without any greens.

 

Here's a composition where I've employed that strategy.  It uses vibrant red, orange, yellow, green and blue, but no violet.

 

If you're having trouble coming up with color schemes on your own, you might consider an interior design book like this.  (I'll admit that I find most quilting books stuffy, so I usually go for fashion or interior design books if I'm looking for inspiration.) 

Do you have color tips and tricks?  Share them in the comments!  The next post, on choosing fabrics will be up tomorrow morning.

Comments

[jennifer]

Great ideas for those afraid to use their own color designs! Very thorough, thanks.

[jennifer]

k. i like this. i like where you're going. keep it up.

[Shannon]

Fantastic post!!!!

[Frogdancer]

This is such a useful post! I'm reasonably ok with colour, but it helps so much to see all the theory right in front of you like this. This is a post I'll be saving.
Thanks!

[Amanda Elizabeth]

This is so fantastic! I should have skipped 6 years of art school and just gone straight to color theory via quilting ;) I love how clearly you are explaining everything! Awesome!!!!

[JulieFrick]

One thing I've been wondering about with this quilt--is it more important to have a lights/darks mix, or just two contrasting or complementary colors? For instance, one could make the quilt with lighter values and darker values of the same color, or one could make it with, say, orange and yellow, since there are only two colors in each block. And what are the concerns you might run into with each approach? Just thinkin...

[Mary]

Just a tip--if you can't go to the Art Store, there is a "color tool" for quilters that is very helpful. I believe I got mine at JoAnn's and it is made by Joen Wolfrom. It is like a color wheel, but basically looks like a stack of paint samples tied together. Very helpful!
http://tinyurl.com/brpzhw

[Dani]

Great post! Very thorough and informative. I loved looked at all of your examples! So so lovely!!!
=^..^=

[Autumn]

this is wonderful....I will be posting a link to this on my blog. Thanks for posting. -Autumn

[jacquie]

nice review of color theory...what makes it great is your quilts as examples of color theory in action! it's also interesting to explore how colors can change when paired with different colors next to them or surrounding them. a pink framed with one color can look very different than when framed with another color. that's a fun concept to explore in quilts as well.

[Adele]

This is such a great post, thank you. I learnt so much. I love your blog!

[Holly]

I like browsing through the palettes on colourlovers.com. I am usually struck by several palettes and those are the ones that resonate with me. I use the color search options for graphic design on Illustrator and Photoshop. I'm a beginner on those programs, so it really helps me make my projects come together.

[Mandy]

Wow, that was explained so comprehensively, and using quilts really cemented the information in my mind. Thank you, I believe your quilt-along is going to enable me to formulate the way I construct quilts in the future. This will be only my 4th quilt, and by far the largest one. I don't feel daunted one iota, just enthralled.

[becky]

how great is all that info. love it, keep it comin' color is a hard thing to get. and then we always ask others opinions and get even more confused. thanks for giving us info so we can figure it out for ourselves.

[Jocelyn]

Oh wow! I am so color challenged. I think I need to print out your info and put it into a notebook. Thanks for a great post.

Jocelyn

http://happycottagequilter.blogspot.com/

[staci]

This is a great post! Thanks for hosting this quilt along - I'm excited to get started. I'm going fabric shopping tomorrow!

[Emily BB]

i'm excited to fabric shop but don't think that my supplies will arrive in time!!!

[Pamela S]

Beautifully presented, Elizabeth - thanks for sharing this valuable information.

[Kathy (mommyo)]

Great post. For me quilting has really helped me develop my sense of color. I liked your tip for removing a color in a multicolor composition. It really does keep the colors more focused. Thanks for all the great photos! In Joelle Hoverson's book, Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts, she has a nice section on color and also talks about finding the color behind the color of neutrals like grey and brown. I found it very helpful.

[Meg]

This series is already an excellent resource. Thanks so much, and keep it up!

[mara]

no tips or tricks but just...wow! great post! i didn't learn color theory until my FOURTH YEAR of art school (!!!) and, man, did it make all the difference in the world. if you *really* want to understand color, make your own color wheel with gouache or acyrlics, using just red, yellow, blue, black and white paints. mixing the colors yourself will help you to understand how colors work as nothing else will.

[Kat]

Wow, this was so helpful! I never really thought about the temperature of neutrals before...go figure. I am definitely bookmarking this post for future reference!

[Anita]

What a great post. I've been quilting for about 10 years and haven't really spent any time considering color relationships. I think it would really add a new dimension to the process. Thank you for taking the time to put together this informative post.

[Diane]

Elizabeth: Have you posted a picture of the finished Mod Quilt? Did I miss it somewhere? Thanks for all this information. I'm helping several ladies with beginning quilting, these posts will help them a lot. This morning I'm working on my paint box blocks!
Thanks. Diane

[Isa]

Hello
What Beautifull pictures and colours. Thank you for taking time to do this. It is very inspiring.
Isa