Succulent Suavage, Kathleen Thoma, monotype, 8 x 10

Pushing the Limits of Color

It is fascinating to play with color while exploring new possibilities. There  seems to be no end to the different combinations that are available to us. I particularly enjoy using complementary colors next to each other, which creates drama and excitement by bringing out what is the most vivid in each color. I am always looking for the “edge” between chaos and harmony with my colors. I am pushing the limits of color combinations; yet still creating what to me, at least, seems beautiful or wonderful.

Succulent Savage, Kathleen Thoma, 11 x 14 monotype

Succulent Savage
Kathleen Thoma
monotype 11 x 14

I see these color combinations everywhere in life. One recent example is some flowers I saw a few weeks ago. I noticed the outrageous fuchsia and lime green next to each other, making their brilliance seem even more flamboyant. Right away, I took a photo to remind me of the colors to use on my next print. What works in nature doesn’t always work the plate, but the challenge is motivating.

As I worked in the print studio, I used the photo and some color notes I’d made in my sketch book to play with the colors on the plate. This is both creative work, and creative play at once. It is difficult to balance, and harder than it looks. Sometimes I can’t get it to work, but if I persist and stubbornly keep trying things, I can eventually end up with a print that I like.

In the finished print here, I found that to balance out all the intensity, I needed to use some darker and lighter values and some white to keep it from getting too intense. Yet it is still a fairly explosive combination of colors. I guess that’s my personality coming through.

Johannes Itten, 1888-1927, was one of the first people to define and identify color combinations and their effects. We used his books in my design classes years ago and they are really a lot of fun and very interesting to study.  One quote of his that I found is “Color is life”*, and I couldn’t agree more.

A very good site on the study of color is www.worqx.com*, Janet Ford Shallbetter has put together a huge amount of information about the study and use of color. She also has a really cool Hex color palett picker that is fun to play with.

 

 

38 thoughts on “Pushing the Limits of Color

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    1. Kathleen Post author

      Glad you like my blog/site. See artbiz.ca which has a school you can check out. It has very clear directions for preparing your images for quick upload. This is a word press site.

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      It would be OK if you link to my blog. I’d rather not allow for a copy of the entire post. I keep all copyrights except for short links to this.

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      I’m glad she found it imformative and enjoyed learning from it. I’m a teacher and enjoy making things easy to understand. So thank you.

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      This word press site uses the Akismet plug-in for security. I can’t say how good it is- as I am not a web-site designer. Seems to work…

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        Hi Kathleen
        Akismet controls the spam on your comments. Artbiz has a number of ways that we protect your site Akismet is one, Sucuri Scanner is another but we also have implement various other methods as well.

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      You can check out artbiz.ca for the web designer who does these word press sites. This is a new blog, I’m glad you find it easy to read. I thank Kim for that.

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      Thank you for checking out my blog. I don’t blog too often, as I am more of an artist than a “blog person”. Glad you liked it!

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  13. Kathleen Post author

    Thanks Kim! I must be so used to thinking backward that I don’t think of it as backward. But abstract subject matter makes that easier. If I use words or faces, it is more difficult working backward on the plate, so that it looks alright once it’s flipped onto the paper. But you learn tricks to visualize ahead for yourself.

    Reply
  14. kim Bruce

    Itten was our colour bible in interior design school too. You know I still have my copy. It’s tattered and torn and basically falling apart. I still pull it out once in a while for reference.

    I would think that it’s a challenge creating prints; having to think in reverse. But compositionally if it works one way it should work the other, right.

    Great print Kathleen, keep up the good work!

    Reply

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