Working with Color
From quilting to painting, almost ever craft project you can do requires you to deal with colors in some way. Because color is so important to crafters, it is crucial to understand how colors work. Then, instead of constantly holding up pieces of paper or fabric next to one another, which can be a long process before you find something that looks good, you have a good knowledge base to start matching. Color isn’t as simple as picking red or blue. Learning about it will help you create the most beautiful crafts possible.
Why do we prefer certain colors when they are paired together? Why do we wear certain colors to bring out our sin tone or match our eyes? Why do some painted walls make a room seem bigger but others make it seem smaller? It has to do with how we perceive colors. Colors are nothing more than light waves, and we can arrange these waves in our mind using a color wheel. Color wheels make understanding colors very easy.
A color wheel first starts with pure blue, pure yellow, and pure red, equal distances apart from one another on a circle. These three colors are called primary colors and cannot be mixed with other paints. Therefore, if you only have craft funds for a limited number of paints, buy blue, red, yellow, black, and white.
When you mix two colors that are side by side, you get a new color. Yellow and blue make green, red and blue make purple, and yellow and red make orange. These colors are placed on the wheel between the two colors used to mix them. They are called secondary colors and complete your basic color wheel. Therefore, a color wheel starts with red and cycles around the circle, always in the same pattern-red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Most color wheels go a step farther, by again mixing two side-by-side colors together and placing the new color in the middle. This is how yellow-orange and blue-green are created, for example.
To create shades, add black to any color. To create tints, add white to any color. You have an infinite number of colors you can create this way. When you try to match colors, first look for colors that across from one another on the color wheel. These are called complimentary colors and generally look nice with one another. You can also look for colors that are beside one another on the color wheel. Create a project with “warm” colors, like red, yellow, and orange or create a project with “cool” colors like blue, green, and yellow. When you find colors that work well together, you’ll have the best results possible.
