Transcripts
1. Introduction to Colour Journalling: Would you like to know how to make your artwork pop and sing, by using unique color combinations representative of your own personal art style? Do you feel baffled and overwhelmed by traditional color theory? Do you lack the confidence perhaps to develop your own color palettes? Having trouble knowing just what an entree and column may be and how to recognize it. Hi, my name's Claire Biggarden. I'm an artist Illustrator. In this skill share class, I'll teach you how to observe color and where to look for it and then how to document it in your personal collagen. By keeping a colored journal or sketchbook, you'll naturally form opinions about color and the combinations that you're drawn to as an artist. This will help to develop your signature style and also your confidence in developing color palettes. Will get to know color and how different combinations work together so that you feel confident and ready to create usable color palettes for commercial work or to experiment with more novelty color palettes for your own personal practice. I used to work in trends and fashion and I used to develop color pants will trade fairs. I can give you a unique insight into seek out trend forward color combinations to use in your own work for maximum effect. You'll have access to a number of useful color boards which I've prepared for you for your own personal use. I'll show you just how I observed color stories I see around me. Please join me and learn how to make this wonderful color journal. It's a wonderful process for an artist or designer because it means you really get to grips and fill color confident.
2. Why create a Colour Sketchbook/Journal?: We all see color very differently according to our upbringings, our cultures, and it represents different memories, associations to each and every one of us. That is why I want you to look at color in a personal way to create your own personal color journal documenting the interesting color associations that you find every day whilst at shopping, visiting an art exhibition or even away on holiday. It is this documenting process which allows you to remember the moment you've seen color or the combination of colors and been inspired by it. But it also allows you to continue working through a color idea, making new associations, and trying out new combinations in order to create a color palette unique to you and your art or illustration project. It's also a tool that you will find, will inspire many artistic projects as you become fired up by the inspiration you have found through working with color. Traditional scientific color theory means very little to me, but as an artist and designer, I've always found that through documenting and developing my own ideas about color, I've grown confident in experimenting with unusual combinations. Breaking color rules to me really is very satisfying because that's when the magic happens and something truly beautiful takes place, and your personal color style is born, of course. Through color journalling, you will develop your own unique style and your sense of what you like, what colors inspire you, and what you can do color-wise to make your creative artwork, pop right out. Your color palletes will have their own identity, personal to your own art style. Through your personal color associations, you'll learn to create color palettes as if they were standalone abstract paintings, and then develop them into mood boards, creating new associations to inspire themed project inspiration. You'll learn to group together an interesting set of colors to convey a message or representation of a location or an era or a memory. You'll learn to group together an interesting set of colors to represent your own style or brand.
3. Where to look for colour: For those of you who live near a big city, window shopping is a wonderful way to find color. Spend a day window shopping with a friend on or about seeing what color combinations you may find interesting and new in fashion and interior shops. It's a wonderful way to spot key color trends. If you see an interesting color in a designer shop window, it is likely to be carried forward and trickle down to the highest tree at some point. If you notice that you're finding several shops displaying similar color combinations but in different ways, you know you're onto a winner. It's likely they use spotted color trend. This is important to document in your journal, so that you've not only learn to recognize and follow color trends, but also so that you can later develop your own version of the palette in question by your color journal. Earn yourself with mobile phone camera, practice a little discretion of course, because some shop owners may not willingly let you photograph their window displays, but they are in the minority. Take snaps of everything you find inspirational color wise. It may be the painted decor, theme of a boutique, shop window, a city sign or poster, a painted townhouse perhaps that send you home inspired. I love magazines, I hoard magazines because they are a great source of wonderful photography, and in the end inspired by so many color stories from them. Fashion magazines are a great source also for trend hunting, although if they're already in the magazine, chances are the trend is already happening, but it will have a lifespan. As an illustrator or textile designer, you can still pick up on the trend and make it work for you. Do your version of it. Many commercial companies will still be interested in the theme trend over several seasons because it takes a while to filter through. Certain colors go wild and others enjoy a shorter lifespan. But fashion magazines are good also for spotting print trends and combinations of color. My all-time favorite though, are interior magazines. They have the best pictures of all, and they are usually very clean images which one can use to cut out and stick very easily. A word about using images in this way though, don't forget, I'm promoting this cutout and key practice for your own personal use in your personal color journal. In no way, would I recommend reusing images of any photographer in a commercial or public capacity. They will be copyrighted. Art exhibitions are a great place to look for color. Take a look at all the big city galleries. What are they sharing right now? Sometimes you will know just from the titles of the exhibitions what colors might be typical of a certain artist. If you do not have an art and design background, never fear. Go look as many art exhibitions as you can to get to know. Not only the typical colors are associated with certain artists or our movements, but also to be inspired and perhaps spot a recurring theme about a color at several different art exhibitions. Questions to ask yourself once wandering around, could be. Are there any colors particularly that stand out to me that I like? Is there a general theme here of a particular group of colors? Is there a color which keeps showing up that I've seen a few times? Curators of these exhibitions have an eye on what is happening around them in the metropolitan World on a how to pick up on trends. Their curated shows often reflect this. You may find colors which are strongly repeated throughout several exhibitions. Congratulations if this happens, you've probably just stumbled across the trend for an important color that will start to slowly grow and become popular. This may take a while before you see in the shops, but once this happens, you will know that your observation will lead to more confidence with color. You are starting to form your opinion about color. If you can't get into a big city to look at a few exhibitions, look up on the internet where exhibitions are showing in the big cities like New York, London or Paris. What's subject matter or the theme of these shares? If it's an artist checkout their works online. You will have a field for their work and the colors they use, perhaps there's an exhibition about Youth Culture Movement that you can get color inspiration from. If you are interested in flowers and plant life, perhaps there's a gardens on show. Kew Gardens in London is a fantastic place to visit or the Chelsea Flower Show. A wonderful place to look for color and inspiration has had that design element that comes from the competition designer gardens on show. Trade shows are also a good source of color inspiration and you can approach them in the same way. Last year, the National Stationary Show in New York City, my nature as a display with a beautiful green teal background. This had palpating flowers hand painted on top. I found this combination of two colors really refreshing, inspiring because it seemed old-school, a little vintage, but something I hadn't seen in a while. I made sure I documented it in my color journal. Since then, green hues have appeared more and more just about everywhere. Once you start to document it, you memorize also your observation somewhat. I then started to see this combination popping up everywhere, in interior magazines, in blog posts about color, and more recently on illustration work. This is a great example of a trend forward color combination, but it's still going forward at the time of writing is called class. Which leads me, of course, to Pinterest. This is another great source of inspiration for colors and you can find many ready-made color palettes here to inspire you. But what would be really great is that you can use them to add to your color work in your journal, rather than using them as readymades because they represent someone else's vision well than your own. Try being inspired by already made color palettes, but then re-working them from your own point of view. Color exploration is about personal taste and if your color palettes bring something special to a final project, it is everyone else who will be following you. Pinterest is also a great place to expand your color journal process because you can create rules to complement your color journal. Feel free to check out my Pinterest board about color. I update it regularly with color inspiration I'm drawn to or find unusual and interesting. You could start your own board to inspire others, or use as a source of reference to complement your color journal.
4. Materials: You'll need a sketch but which is easy to use. This is my college journal. I like to use an A5 size notepad with clear whitepaper inside. I also like the addition of the elastic to fairly close the book as it means that pages get less tattered and dawning handbag. This size fits well in my handbag and I can go traveling with it. I can note down anything I see whilst I known about. You may prefer to use something smaller like this. This is an A6 size. I wouldn't use anything bigger than this, I don't think. As you're doing this at home, of course, then perhaps you may like to use an A4 size, but I wouldn't go any bigger than that. These are good sizes to fit in your hand back. These roofs are great, portable water color pallets which he can buy. They are great, because you can take them along with you wherever you go to make quick notes about the colors that you see around you. I also have this wonderful portable brush, which allows you to paint wherever you all because you have this water reservoir and a handle. So you didn't have to take any water pots or kitchen sinks along with you. Then to make it colored journal, all you will need is some scissors, perhaps a scalpel, to cut out quickly from the magazines and some good old glue stick and, of course, your phone to use as the camera went out and about.
5. Getting Started and Building Colour Palettes: Let's get started. Here I'm just flicking through some magazines I have at home and I stumbled across this beautiful natural palette that appeals to me because it makes these unusual times together. Had this wonderful cool gray working alongside this wonderful party color, and a straw on roughier tones, and you've also got some of these beautiful, sludgy natural tones which had some variety into the mix. Look at this lovely retro green, I really like it because it mixes here that you wouldn't naturally see together. Look at this dirty overlooking tone, this yellow faded off white, teamed with this cool gray, much colder and fresher in tone. I find it really interesting and novel. Turn little hints of metallic thrown in there too, a very graphic black and white, which always adds a modern edge. This is a great way to look at new neutrals coming together and perfect to use for documentation in your color journal. Look at this, it's beautiful photo, but look at the translucent greens with a natural wooden tones and white. It is very clean, but it's also soft because of the warmer tones mixed in. There is an effect of light with the pale blue and pinky tones and then is buff color there, really wonderful color palette that is to work from. I'll take this out and keep it from my color journal. Look at the picture below. There's a faded emerald color from that book. What a wonderful way to bring green into neutral color palette. Keep looking through. There may be things that jump out at you and appeal to you that I'm not picking up on but that's because we're talking about personal taste here. The same point when designing to have a personal opinion about things and color is no different. This is interesting, a beautiful natural wood tone set off by this wonderful turquoise. You see there's many, many things you can gain from looking just through magazines and just cut out and keep and stick them in your color journal and always add them later if you find other things which are similar, I can develop the color palettes that you've been looking at. Here we have a beautiful pastel range reminiscent of 1950's pastels, but there are some new novel color additions. This is worth cutting out gaping. Not necessarily because she loved the script, the colors, but to remind you that pastels are important and are going forward. These pastels are documented in the latest magazines. Look how they've tied in interior objects with color seen on the calm walk, is worth keep it to remind yourself to keep an eye on how this goes forward. What I find really interesting here is that these pastels are the addition of the purple tone, something we haven't seen in a while, I'm starting to see purple show its face and I think it's something that we will carry on. So keep an eye on it. What you also see is here bright acidity yellow with the pastels, which is something quite new in the yellow has been important for long time now. This would make a wonderful palette for a Spring time or projects, or maybe for Easter prints and patterns. In the same way, look at this wonderful Paul Smith rug. The colors make for a beautiful Winter color palette, very sophisticated. It can just be small things that may inspire you, that catches your eye. Look again, pink and that green, fabulous. We've seen red and green going forward recently. Keep your eye on it. Look at this, this is so interesting. Here you have this wonderful turquoise color going through with green, a little hint of salmon pink. But look, that mode shade is really new in this kind of situation. It's reiterating what we've noticed about purple, no, it's different purple but this pale moves sitting with greener turquoise is something we haven't seen before, it reminds me of the mothers costumes in bewitched theories. It is really retro and gaudy and kitsch and I love it. I've got to take that out and keep it for sure. So here's what I've collected image wise from magazines and now I'm going to put onto my color journal. I'm really interested by this color palette. Let's start by jumping into a format that fits, trim it up and then stick it in. Now first larger maybe thing, what is she talking about? Just watch how it will all come together on the page. I also find interesting is inclusion of these palette greens, these warmer greens to sit alongside the aquatabs. Very translucent, glossy Saladin green and I'm just cutting and sticking bits of colored that I find work together. I love this too, the deep ceramic in Hebrew greens. It's really about what you find in string together on the page color wise. Loved this very pale green. We must have two different boards here. These two colors reiterate the party and green tones together that I like so much and when you start to collect things color wise, you'll notice also that certain color wise will be repeated throughout different magazines and this will happen to confirm your ideas and build your color palette ideas. You are visually analyzing color. As you can see here, when we cut out this image, you can see this idea is very similar to how different color palettes working here. Look at that. I should move this one onto another double spread. Yes, let's take that house as we can concentrate on our green and neutral color way first, we can stick the other on the next page. Sometimes it's good idea to work on one side of your double page and then leave a page blank so that when you find more ideas or confirmation of your ideas, you can add to them in the empty page space. If you're not too sure where color idea was going, leave a blank page to come back to later. Let's get back to this color idea. We know about the importance of green alignment, and this is just a wonderful way to incorporate green into a neutral range. Look on what a wonderful color palette this has given us. What I like to do so is to leave a small space somewhere to be able to pinpoint colors, either through watercolor paint ink or collage paper or color samples that you collect from the hardware store paint samples. By doing this, it makes visual notes about your color ideas. Example 1, cutting out color from magazines to pinpoint important colors here. Let's pinpoint some more colors. Here's that translucent, aqua green color. Obviously these are ideas just going down in your journal if you want to take an idea further and develop it into a column mood board for recollection, you can get more precise about color. Maps and color codes here, which I collect in order to use, here is that off-white, very pale green and white and then of course that pinky party color has to be in there. A lot this pale emerald that we're seeing on the book cover it's a washed out emerald green. I get these color charts from the paint shops. Already, we're starting to see the building up of the color palette. Here is that beautiful inking blue-green, the darker teal, the aquifers, pale off-white with greeny tones, blues and party or buff. What makes it novel an interesting? To my mind, it is the color green time sitting alongside the warmer, dirty greens. That is something that will make it color group interesting because it offer us a surprise. Now let's get back to our other color idea. I'm going to stick this on the next page and start a new pallet. Say refreshing, I find it really inspiring and a new way of bringing color together. Now on to our other color idea, I'm going to stick this on the next page, just to add a new palette. This is so refreshing and a new way of color coming together. I find this so interesting because it's quite cute and it reminds me of the colors you see in the work of Jeff Koons or somebody like that. Let's try to pinpoint some of the key colors here. I've just got these bits of colors from magazines. I love this purple moby color, it is really something we haven't seen in a long time. I suppose it's because color that we often associate with old ladies hairdos or nylon sheets from the 70s. But I find it so interesting, is gorgeous team with salmon pink and gold touches. It's very Californian retro kitsch. I love it. There's a golden yellow in there too, which is lovely team with the move. I want to look for one's not a hint of gray. Look at these beautiful turquoise colors coming into, attend to try to pinpoint and about 46 colors on a page. It's good to work on two tones around the same color to give yourself options. When you're illustrating, if you weren't with a darker color on top of a light color of the same tone, this allows you to have a turn on tone look and hands to make your color purple. This method also gives you background choices and if you use the palettes towns as backgrounds, you will see your darker, stronger colors when you don't talk, it really stand out. Let's have a look at this green. It's really a deep dark Apple color, or beautiful color palette for voltage prince, tongue-in-cheek tropicana prints and of course, let's not forget the inclusion of black, which used sparingly will give a heavier, more sophisticated edge. Gold touches will high the kitsch value, of course.
6. Documenting Colour from an Era: If in Harrison time also represent different colors to different people, take a look at my pinterest board, about 1940s color inspiration. Here I've collected fashion paint, color pallets from the era, historical photos, fabric and jewelry images, home interior photos from the era and poster art to hopefully get a feel for this era. The colors we see here are very interesting because the whole decade was very transitional for the whole world. The colors shown here are representative of historical era when we were in the middle of the Second World War, rationing was the order of the day and optimism was replaced by anxiety and fear. The first part of the decade recycled colors from the masculine art deco influenced of 1930s and made do with leftover army surplus threads and fabrics. Old curtains were recycled for some addresses and land army uniforms in utility ware influenced a heavy green and camo presence. But once the war was over at the middle of the 1940s, the second half of the decade starts to brighten up with much lighter times moving towards the much more fun pass-through shapes that we know of the 1950s. As postwar optimism grows, as does the color chart. The 1950s gave way to a era when people could allow start to think about spending their money. Employment was on the up after the war and for the first time in a long time, people started to buy clothes, items for their home and redecorate, and so service design flourished again. Modern new art inspired motifs were printed onto a whole host of products, fabric, melamine, ceramics, and of course, colors were happy, fresh, optimistic. Which is why we associate beautiful pastels with this era. For us Brits, we also saw the influence of American diners and pop culture making its way across the Atlantic. Certain eras are more color focus than others. Look at my Pinterest board about the seventies, for example. Here we see just how swinging sixties leads us to embrace the more primary colors and the brighter hues of the secondaries. Orange, purple, yellow, and brown will always be synonymous with this era. But look again, there are dark greens, teal green, golden ocher, plam, and bright blues in there too. Much softer, yet still as strong, echoing the 1920s and 1930s. One brand that did this really well was the famous Bieber shop in London. Of course, depending on the country you grew up in, the associations you make about an era will be different from person to person. This is why I say to you that color has to be a personal thing. You can only interpret color that you see and offer your own opinion about it through the colors you use in your own design work. Your job as a creative is to offer an interesting, thought-provoking, unusual, exciting color mix and this can only be done through confidence, knowledge and experimentation. This is why keeping your color general is such an important practice to us creatives, no matter what stage of the game that we are at.
7. Documenting Colour from a Location: Travel is a wonderful way to discover new colors. When you go into new lands or cities, take your color journal with you and your camera. What colors represent the location you are in. Look at the flora and fauna, the geographical location. Are you by the sea? The architecture, what colors are the buildings? Scribble down notes, take photos to remind you, and better still take some watercolors with you to mix up the pallets that you see there. In new cities check out also the shop windows. Is there a trend color going on? Are there colors that seem to please this new nation more than others? What are people wearing colorwise? Sit on a cafe terrace with a drink for a while and watch the colors that walk by. In the same way as I spoke about documenting color from different eras, you can use Pinterest to document color from different locations. Take a look at my Pinterest board I compiled after visiting places, Morocco and Venice. I went to Venice first on a trip and then to Morocco a year later but I was amazed by the similarities in architecture, decoration, and color so much so I decided to create a board mixing the two locations. This is a wonderful way to see color and work on it from a less obvious point of view. By mixing the two, I'm creating a new opinion, a new representation of these locations.
8. Documenting Colour inspired by Art/Artists: Contemporary art, or indeed historical art works by famous artists can also be an inspiring place to look for color. I'm a fan of the poolside series of paintings by British artist David Hockney, and as his work was showcased recently in London in an exhibition, I'm sure the color hues seen here will start to trickle into many design pallets over the next year or so. I love the pinky peached hues teamed with the summery blues, and I've made a focus of this artwork piece in my color journal, seaming it up with other colors and associations to develop a new personal color palette. Here's the image in question or the painting in question. I'm just going to stick this in here into my color journal, and then I'm going to team it up with some more Hockney paintings, and then add color imagery that I found from magazines to build up color palette. We've got the translucent glassy colors found on these glass garden pictures. This is a way of seeing colors, which allows your mind to focus on possible materials also for your chosen colors. I love this translucent pink, because it's so modern yet retro. Again, here we are building up new associations for color. Just keep building up as you go with your collected imagery. You may like to add some color from your water color palette to focus your mind. Let's add the very bright turquoise, and try to capture the translucent effect. I love it mixed with a peachy color of the architecture. This is of course, a case of trial and error, and you may not get the right tone first-time, but in this way, you may find some nice surprises. This is how you start to build up a color palette. You build up your own color references. Look at that yellow too. Fits in wonderfully here. This is visual note-taking, which is a wonderful tool for us creatives. Look at these beauties, and how well they fit in too. The great thing about this is that you can do this over an evening in front of the tele. Just look through some magazines, and rip out color imagery that you may associate with a particular artist's work, and just keep adding and building up the color on the page. What a beautiful summer color palette. If you were to do an illustration around a pool, for perhaps, a holiday article or travel magazine, what a beautiful color palette to start work from, or, to develop and take further. Moving on from the work of David Hockney, the pool side hues, the lovely pink peach tones of holiday architecture, that Miami feel, I want to also show you how you can tie in the work of other artists in your color journal. Here's a piece of art by Xavier Defonseka. I love this artist's work, because the subject matter is similar to Hockney's poolside paintings, but it introduces these more shabatty hues. Still we see the peachy pink tones, but these get more interesting as they are now mixed with more subdued, sludgy cocky greens, dark greens, and petrel blue. This for me is really modern, and at the same time, it echoes what is going on with the neon colors that we have seen cropping up everywhere in the recent past. This could be a super softer way to take those neons forward by softening them in lighter shades, shabbaty shades, and mixing them with soft warm greens. This would be fantastic color study for tropical theme, a summer color palette. Let's take the idea. You can also develop your color pages in your journal into inspiration pages for projects or motifs. By making association like the one I have just done with a tropical theme, you can then build up other images on the page to work alongside a theme subject area. This will combine your color ideas with motifs, and it will give you inspiration for all kinds of Proteas. Other like a mood board. I also loved this art piece by Leah Bartholomew. The Proteas I love, they continue the tropical theme. These are very dear to my own artwork. I use Proteas a lot in my own work. But they make all right links. What a beautiful color board to start project from. I could work from this in a whole collection of work. It's a fresh pallet developing on from the Hockney work, but it is very soft, feminine, and muted tones combine with soft brights. It hones in on color development, and this is really an important practice for an artist, because if your color choices in a project are not working, you can refer back to your color journal, to look again at these moments of color magic. You can refer back, maybe you'll say to yourself, "Well, actually, yes. I start with my Hockney palette, but actually now I've done my artwork, is missing something." So you can go through a few pages, and see what other color conclusions you came to. Wow, yes. Maybe I could make that pink flash a little bit more, or add in a greeny gray, maybe that will make the page come alive more. It just gives you other color options for your art work. Now, another way to focus on your color, is to again add color samples to your color journal. I'm going to do this with paints again this time. I've added neon, pink, and greeny gray, and now orange. Here, I'm using watercolors and inks. Inks are fantastic, because the color hues you get from them are very rich and pure. This is a viridian green ink that I have. Wow, that's lovely, but that orange isn't right. Let's add something brighter. I love also this pink here. It's a blusher color. Actually, it's quite a makeup, cosmetic palette. What is important to point out here, is that you can take inspiration from other artists' work, and develop your own color card. Of course, there is a massive difference between copying. That's something an artist should never do. I'm being inspired. By developing your own experiments with color, you will know that your color work will always be original to you. Be inspired, but change the color palette you see to something which is your own. You can combine art work with other things or images that you've spotted, and from that, you can create a totally new color story for yourself. Something that is unique to you. It's about your opinion on color, and that is the way you bring color into your own work in a very original and stylized way. This is very important if you want to build a brand through your art work, and in order to do this, you will need to be rigorous with the color pallets you use, and make them very personal to you or to your brand. Moving on again, and looking more at Xavier Defonseka's work, I'm noticing this brighter pink, fusion in fact, coming in with more blue tones, reiterating slightly Hockney's work, but more cooler in tone, rather like it was night time in the same. Let's develop further. This will give me more options when designing. As a designer, it's very important to look at art, because contemporary artists are part of the contemporary scene. People in the past have asked me if this is not a bit highbrow when designing for more commercial ranges. But you have to look higher than what you see in the shops to be able to pick up on trends before they happen. Everything will eventually trickle down. But you need to be looking in the places where color trends are starting, in order to catch them in time, and get them in your portfolio before others do. On the catwalks, the colors and looks we see will also eventually trickle down to the High Street, and as designers and illustrators, we all need to be on top of this. If we want to sell our work to retailers, manufacturers, in all areas from gift wrap through to textiles, whether it be in interiors or in fashion, we need practice this. You need to be aware of this, and then you will produce trend forward pallets. What I like here is that very dark green has been used to replace black. This is how I get my color inspiration. I start here with these images, based around a tropical feel in these colors, and then I move it along by tying in other color images. I can tie altogether by spotting the similarities between my color journal pages, for example, this pink is tying it all together, and then I can develop here, and move the same color palette on a totally different level. You may hate this, but I loved bright deep color. But colored journaling is about making it personal to you. I learnt how to do this right at the beginning of my career when I used to work in trends and develop color ranges for trade fairs. It's one of the best practices to learn as a designer, because the associations you'll make through color, opens your mind so creatively. Actually, when we look back over our pages, I'm very inspired by these colors for beach wear. It's all very summery. It's about holidays. Translucent color is very graphical. It's about flat color. It can lend itself so well to beach wear. Really see these colors on towels, Perrier wraps, bikinis, all sorts for the beach.
9. Documenting colour from a season: You can build ideas about color from a trend or theme-based inspiration too, or from a seasonal point of view. As an artist, I'm often asked for autumn designs or Christmas designs. So these are constant sources of challenge to try to find new colors stories. Of course, you need to stick with the same colors that are synonymous with certain seasons. Orange turns resolvable for autumn, and red and green for the festive season. We have to bring novelty into these color palettes in order to make your work pop and stand out. An original take on a traditional color scheme shows creativity to an art director. A good starting point would be to look at Pinterest. What do I find interesting here, that would be a little different for autumn palette? I loved this from Dutch based blog My Art Take, as although traditional, we see the addition of a very pale and warm pink in here for autumn, and that brings novelty and softness to the palate. It also gives you options for more neutral background colors. Here, I love the addition of this dull teal green with more traditional burnt oranges of autumn from the Fab Mood blog because it makes everything so dramatic. It takes autumn to a new level, and reminds me of a Pre-Raphaelite era. Turquoise could be thrown in here too to brighten and add even more depth to the palette. I have made a Pinterest poodle about Christmas inspiration and I often refer to it for the beginnings of color palette ideas. Just look at the way some of the most successful visual artists use color for Christmas designs in many new ways.
10. Neutral Colour Palettes: Neutral tones are really interesting to study from time to time because the boundaries of what is considered neutral have changed so much over recent years. Thanks to interior design, we now see much braver colors on walls and some rather unusual colors have been adopted as a kind of new neutral because they are on trend and a great backdrop to showcase other more vivid or more modern colors alongside. Overtime, this new neutrals will probably change and develop, but they are important to consider and keep an eye on. Let's look at gray, for example. Gray has worked its way back into our lives over the last couple of years in all aspects of design from clothes through to interiors with the presence of metallic materials, the list of products is endless. But gray is also a wonderful neutral which works in with so many colors. It has almost become more versatile than black and white. Take a look at these next few color boards that I have made for you to use, depicting the many uses of gray and the many ways it can be used to self set different colors stories. Take a look here at how great end sit alongside each other for a very soft muted effect, from dark gray through to light, the gray's used here or warm gray's or slightly dirtied for a softer look, teamed with understated pinks and a delicate odeneal color. This way of using gray creates associations with luxury products, handmade items, silk textures and soft hand woven or velvets. Cashmere softness comes to mind and the luxury of natural fibers. What associations does this color palette brings to mind for you. These associations will give you a wonderful insight into which kinds of end uses, any products may have in these kind of colors and it is always useful to bear this in mind when you're creating your own color palettes to work from. Take a look here how we've seen gray color combination, stretch across all design areas. Here we've seen a resurrection of '80s lemon and gray, right across the spectrum, in homes or fashion, in accessories, in ceramics. This is a good example to show how neutral color palettes have evolved. One can no longer sit around looking at a group of natural tones of equal value in tonality sitting alongside each other, because those color palettes are boring and create boring design and art. This lemon and gray mixture shows how we have to experiment with the neutrals, sitting them alongside bowled trendy colors or combinations, so that our creative guys like you have something balanced to work with. Neutral groups of colors should not be balanced in Hughes, They should be brought alive by one or two key accent colors. Yellow has been massive for quite some time now, and it's still going forward as an important accent color, but also in its own right as a standalone color, keep an eye on it. Look at the way gray is being used here in this color [inaudible] that I have prepared for you. I love this because it has a very relaxed modern feel to it. Sludgy colors lend themselves well to natural fibers again, but also to perhaps modern sporty or technological products. Has a retro feel, but it also has enough fresh colors in the palette to offer a lift. It has a graphical element with addition of black. Don't be put off because there are so many colors to choose from. These colors gives you options as an artist to set one color off against another by using them next to each other. A lager options of colors gives you place to play around, will force your creativity. I did this on purpose here to show you the options work. Pick the ones that you're drawn to and start there, then chop and change. Try to add in a bit of black or dark tone or offset colors with the lighter gray. Don't get hung up by color boards that you may see. Many people wonder if they can use the same color combinations across different product categories. My answer would be yes, of course, don't be scared to use your color combinations. For example, say, on print for textiles and then on a placement for stationary or the paper market, if it's happening in textiles, chances are, that it's probably happening everywhere in its own way. So go ahead and use your color combinations right across the board. Don't forget that through your colored journal, you have studied what is going on colorwise, so you should have the confidence to know that if you think that it is important stick with it. Art directors and buyers of artworks have an idea of what they are looking for when they look for new pieces, but your artwork and the colors you have chosen maybe the icing on the cake that they needed to see to complete their collection in their minds. Likewise, they are able to adapt colors in their collection by jiggling product combinations. So do not be panicked by the color combinations that you offer to any potential clients. Keep an eye also on how metallic tone develop and with which colors they team up with. We have seen the arrival of coppery rose gold Hughes in recent times, not only in interiors, but also in watch design, jewelry, and in shoe design. These coppery gold and metallic work best with our favorite neutrals décor, dark blue or gray. But as I mentioned before, what we call a neutral nowadays has changed. Moving on from gray, let's take a look at deep, dark, beautiful blue, Blues is really what you'd associate with being a neutral. But it is worth keeping an eye on. On the cutworks dark blue is seen as the new black. Then an interior magazines. Dark blue walls appeared to kind of push gray walls to one side, so it's worth watching. It's been used in interior as recently as a backdrop for beautiful cooperate metallic Hughes, teamed alongside inky gray's and wooden tones. You will also see this beautiful blue teamed with '50s pastels. This all makes for beautifully sophisticated and modern color pallets with retro winks. Not a typical neutral color combination, but nevertheless, important to show you how a trend forward color can be adopted as a new neutral base color to build upon, with other colors associations, rather like everyone is done with gray. How might this color move forward? Keep a lookout for deep, dark [inaudible] greens or rich chocolate tones, which sit wonderfully with copper tones or rose gold's to replace this deep, dark, beautiful blue going forward.
11. Colour palettes Going Forward: I want to share with you two color balls I have been working on recently because they are born from the points that I've made previously. The first is a development going forward from the dark blue base color. As you can see here, I've substituted it for dark tale green and teamed with rich chocolate brown. The palette tale and salad and green give lift to a more middle range group of colors to work alongside the deeper hues, but it is the pale warm pink that softens the whole look. It's a very 1940s inspired color palette, but put together in a modern way. Considering the development in the darker tones, and the rows metallic influences are a continuation of gray. Although here, you may have noticed that the grays have a slightly greener assigned to them. I like this color combination because it works on so many levels for so many areas. I can imagine this for interiors, for fashion, the beautiful leafy prints, indulge stripes. I gross the CDs for illustration on book covers in stationary and are more sophisticated paper products teamed with gold. Have a look at another color story that I'm working on. This folk is on chocolate once again, but alongside purple turns with salmon pink, ocher and wash dye coral. Why this combination? Let me talk you through it. While it's an informed choice, I'm intrigue by purple because we haven't seen it in a while. But for me it could really continue this trend for dark or neutral or base colors as chocolate goes photo site. Yellow has been important recently, so the ocher continues on from that. The Salmon pink, monster coltons continue the fascination we have seen for brighter coltons and neon peachy tens. I have added a cold indigo in here with a hot chocolate powder gray, because gray has to be in there. These colors for me are inspiring because they move current color stories forward. They lend themselves to both retro and vintage themes, but the combination is modern. These color stories, luxurious about softwood materials rich velvets, linen mixes and translucent colored glass. It works well as a palette for prints, for fashion or interiors, for geometrics, through to rich foliage prints. Imagine trying a deep detail green and lighter salad ingredient that makes there somewhere. Imagine how this can transform a traditional Christmas color palette. I really believe in these two color going forward. I sorted the trade fail a year ago as I told you before, and I've been spotting ever since. When you start to create a document color in your journal, the same thing will happen to you. When you notice color, it starts to jump Mircea, and you start to notice the important color stories everywhere you go. Don't be alarmed or confused by the different representations of any one color. Just observe and focus or use the one that appeals to you the most. Your colored journal will lead you to your right interpretation of these colors, which is fantastic because it will be personal and it would be representative of your own style. But it will also be relevant to what is going on in color around us, and therefore tell its own story at the right time. When you pitch to an art director, your color choices will be relevant and well-timed.
12. Class Project and Final Thoughts: The class project. Please present one color combination idea that you have developed from one of the pages in your colored journal. Illustrate your color inspiration through an image or images, and define the colors you find interesting together. Your project could be based around the nearing time, a season, or a theme. You may just want to represent two colors that you find new and novel together. Please tell us a little about your thinking behind the color work you present. Perhaps why you find your chairs and colors so inspiring, why they are personal to you or how you came to this color conclusion. Please post your project in the project section. Please feel free to share your work on social media. But if posting to Instagram, please remember to tag me in so I can see and comment on your work and to credit my class. In addition, please share with us all in the community section an few pages from color journal. Please if you are stuck at all in any way, let us all try to help. I saw the community section so that we can all make suggestions as to way who go from here. Please feel free also to use the color balls I've created for you here for your own personal use. Please do not however reproduce or publish these publicly in any way. I hope you've enjoyed this class and that through your color journaling, you'll feel inspired to use new color combinations, and have the confidence to try new ways of seeing color. You'll find a list of further links in the community section of the Skillshare page, links to other artists and designers interior blogs who focus on color, artists and designers who have a spectacular vision of color. I hope I've helped you to enjoy the fascinating process of looking at color enough for you to feel confident and to no longer feel baffled by it all. I've given you the confidence to have a go and try it out in your own art and design. As I said before, you don't have to follow traditional color art theory. I never have. You just got to go with what feels right for you and your personal preference. I also heard that colored journey will go on to become a practice and that you'll enjoy as an artist designer on your creative journey. Thanks.
Claire Picard, Illustrator
