I've never been particularly confident about colour within the context of surface design/pattern. Although in theory I knew that one should look in magazines and shop windows for inspiration I had never practiced it in great depth.

However with Claire's class I have given myself permission to explore. I've had a subscription to Living.etc for a few years but never took the time to properly look until today. In only a morning I was able to put together several colour stories ( or the beginnings of one) of palette that appealed to me.

I liked mixing up the fine art side of things from my Royal Academy of Arts magazine, with the interiors which made for an interesting contrast.

Although I started adding colour chips I decided it would be more helpful and engaging for me to try and reproduce the key colours in watercolour. As I went about doing this I learnt far more about the subtleties when trying to produce certain colours 

I will most likely go back and fill in some of the blank spaces with other magazine reference over the next few weeks and solid colour chips too.

There was one palette story that I was quite keen on exploring as I'd bought myself a new (watercolour) pan of magenta which I realised by mixing with ochre and white would be very similar to what I had in my journal. Added to that was tha very dark bakground to make the floral pop.

I can see how this colour journal will inform me in future when picking wise palette choices for all sorts of projects.