Orange

 

Do we even know where our influences come from for our art work? I think this intense sky last week imprinted on my memory because today when I was selecting some of my hand painted fabrics, I found myself drawn to working with warm colours, particularly orange.

 

Auditioning orange printed fabrics with the poppy fabric. Below is the process I go through in choosing colours to accompany my hand painted fabrics. You may have your own way of choosing fabrics which allows for everyone's unique style in quilting.

 

A variety of orange prints seems appropriate but there are is not much contrast between them.

What if a white print were introduced? No I think it detracts from the painting.

What about a triad of the secondary colours: orange, green and purple? If there was purple in the painting, I think this would be a yes but without it in the painting, the purple looks out of place.

Auditioning greens

The brightest green wins. I liked the dark green too but with the oranges to the darker tones, the piece may become too dark for what I was trying to achieve. I may move the oranges a bit but I like the colour combination.



Since I've have the those coloured strips out, I thought to try them with some other painted pieces. I think this would work.

Adding a red to the oranges does not do much as the value of the red strip is the same as the two darker oranges on the right.

No this won't work together.

The free motion stitched fox is not complete but he looks good with the oranges, I think.

What would the addition of a complementary blue strip do? I think it draws more attention to the blue sky in the painting and is  a good contrast to all the red orange. The strip perhaps would look a bit better narrower so that the amount of blue in the strip and the painting are not equal.

 What process do you use in choosing coloured fabrics for your projects? Although I didn't need to use it today, I can highly recommend Joen Wolfrom's 3 in 1 Color Tool.  http://joenwolfrom.com/color-design-tools/.