This 'n That

Have been wanting to post a blog for several days but have just now found the time to sit down and do it.  Today I had planned on, with the help of my talented, handsome and strong grandson, moving some furniture out of storage. But, alas and hurrah, it is raining so that odious activity has been cancelled.  This leaves me at my daughters, in a quiet and peaceful atmosphere conducive to writing.

I have been home almost a week from a two week trip to SoCal where I visited my darling mom. We generally and thoroughly wore ourselves out doing important stuff and fun stuff! All that activity left me no time to write.

So now I have been home almost a week.  My bags are unpacked, but the laundry isn't done because it has been so cold the clothes don't get dry.  I have been hanging one load every day and a half in the house.  So the accumulation of the Big Guy's dirties and the few I brought home isn't going down very fast! Oh well, it isn't going anywhere, either!

Tuesday the Big Guy woke up in the early morning hours with a swollen knee. We spent the afternoon at the VA getting that looked at - pure torture for him as the Rheumatologist did a needle biopsy without anesthesia.  He held really still but bellowed like an R rated, gored bull.  I watched without passing out.  Diagnosis is pseudo-gout.  His second bout, the first one was four years ago and through misdiagnosis and lackadaisical care landed him in the hospital for nine weeks with MERSA.  So, we didn't wait this time.  Hopefully the outcome will be better.  He researched gout in his extensive medical book collection and is convinced cherries will cure him.  A trip to Trader Joe's for dried cherries is in order on the way home.  At least they won't hurt him!

I finally finished the top of William's food quilt and sent it off to my friend Judy to be quilted.  I'm hoping I get it back in time for his birthday the end of the month.  In the meantime I took out a repair I've had for several years and plan on finishing that.  It is an old quilt which belongs to our friend Hugh.  Hugh and his wife, Consuelo, live in Brentwood.  We are going to that area next month for the second of the Big Guy's Santa gigs and I would like to deliver the quilt then.  But in the meantime I also have to make a Santa jacket for the Big Guy.

On a final, and exciting (for me) note, one day last week I was poster child for the Munsell Color facebook page!  They saw my Sept. 19 blog post "Color Obsession Using Color Theory" and anointed me poster child.  Woo Hoo!

Color Obsession using color theory

 The other day I posted "Color Obsession and Movies" commenting that I used every color I had.  Then I challenged myself to do a second "Color Obsession" using some kind of color theory.  The above drawing is the result.  Once again I used the Munsell System, with red and aqua as complements (the closest I had to blue-green) and orange and violet as discords.  I also used a 'color trail' with the discords.  Color trails lead the eye of the viewer from the center of interest through the drawing and back to the center of interest.

In looking at the completed drawing here I can see that I need to add a little violet in the top aqua.  Which, because the drawing is done with markers, will be very easy to do!

 With the addition of some violet on the top of this drawing the viewer's eye is led around the center of interest which is the 'box-like' structure in the top third of the drawing.  In looking once again at the drawing on the screen I'm going to make one more change.

A totally different look to it!  This view is quite dramatic - I don't know, yet, which way will be right side up.

 

I've included here the original drawing.  I loved it when I finished it but now find it flat and dull.  The latest iteration I find bright and lively.

Comments, anyone?

The Munsell Color theory and the not lost dogs

As you may know,  I've come down to Santa Barbara to stay with my nephew while my SB daughter, his guardian,  works in Florida and the Bahamas.  Isn't he photogenic!

SB daughter also shares custody of three dogs with her ex.  You may have seen pictures of the granddogs in the 'Red Sketchbook' area of this blog.  We picked them up Thursday night in my truck.  It now smells like a dog house!  Good thing I like dogs.  Was sunny yesterday so I left the back open all day to air it out.  The sun was really nice.  We sat outside a lot.

Red and Cherry spooning doggy fashion

Red is the biggest and Cherry the smallest.  Nixon was still asleep when I took this photo earlier today.  Because of all the rain, caring for the dogs in a house with white carpeting has been a challenge.  I've found it easiest to dunk each paw in water, swish, and wipe.  I close off the kitchen and let them in, one at a time.  Washing towels twice a day!

While drawing the neutrals  chart, below, I realized a little info on warm and cool colors would be helpful. While looking at your color wheel, with red at the top, all the right hand colors down to teal (B-G) are warm.  All the left hand side through teal (B-G) are cool.  I know I know - I said teal is both warm and cool!  It is, and that depends on what colors it is next to and across from!  Another tough aspect of color theory.

Two Neutrals (center colors)

 Neutrals are hues (colors) achieved by mixing opposites (complements).  Neutrals calm and bring harmony to your design.  Neutrals allow high-contrast and intense colors to draw attention to the focal point. 

Using your preferred medium, make a complete neutrals chart (all ten colors on the Munsell color wheel).  You will have five lines of color because the warms will be on one side and their opposites, usually cools, will on the other side.  For clarity (not like I did above!) put the warm colors on the right and cool colors on the left to correspond to your color wheel.  Have fun!

More Munsell Color Theory

A version of the Munsell Color System Wheel

The Munsell Color System is quite complicated in its entirety.  Here I am presenting a simplified version - only what we as artists and quilters, knitters and weavers need to make lovely color choices.
The painting was done with gouache in an Aquabee 'Super Deluxe' sketchbook.
As I mentioned in my last post, with the Munsell System we have five 'principal colors' (the ones in the squares, above), five 'opposites' in the circles and 'discords'.  A successful composition contains a dominant color (may be a principal or an opposite), the complement of the dominant color and two discords (the third color away from the dominant on each side).  The majority of the composition is the dominant color.  A moderate amount of the complement (more if the color is grayed). And small, equal amounts of the discords.

A drawing using the Munsell System

The dominant color in this drawing is blue. 

Its complement is orange.

Green round, purple swirl - sorry it is fuzzy!

The discords are green and purple.

These drawings were done in a Moleskine sketchbook with a variety of color pencils.  It would be an interesting exercise to do them in the Aquabee sketchbook with gouache and do the color wheel in the Moleskine sketchbook.  Next post, perhaps?

Color theory - The Munsell System

This quilt was quite stunning but I wonder what the result would be if a little of red's opposite, teal and it's discords, yellow-green and blue-purple had been added......

Artquiltmaker and I went to the San Francisco Quilt Guild show on Saturday at the Concourse in San Francisco.  The venue was great as there was plenty of room and it did not feel overcrowded.  The quilts, for the most part, were really nice.  Lots of inspiration.  It was also the first show I've been to in forever.  We had a very good time.

This is a better example of the Munsell System.  Teal as dominant, red, its opposite and yellow and purple the discords.

But one of the things that always happens when we go look at quilts together is our differences in seeing color.  I, of course, am sure that my color vision is the correct one and Artquiltmaker feels the same way!  I have often discussed with her the Munsell System color theory. That is the system I use when I think about color for my quilts or drawings.  She suggested I discuss the theory here so those interested could learn the system and perhaps integrate it into their work.

I first learned about this system about ten years ago from the book "Harley Brown's eternal truths for every artist" (no caps after the name in the title!).  The Munsell System was developed between 1898 and 1905 by Professor Albert H. Munsell, an artist.  It is a 'rational' and 'scientific' approach to color. He updated and significantly improved his 1905 publication in 1929 and the system was  again updated by the Optical Society of America in the 1940s.  The system is still used today in forensics, dentistry and the brewing of beer as well as developing colors for fabric and yarn.  The Munsell system is used by the U.S. Bureau of Standards.

The difference between the Munsell System and the three primary system is in the relationship between colors.  The Munsell System uses five 'principal' colors (red, yellow, green, blue, and purple). As the principal colors are closer on the color wheel to each other and because there are more of them, it shifts the color complements. The Munsell System uses the term 'opposites' instead of complement.  In the Munsell System red and teal are opposites, yellow and purple-blue are opposites, green and violet are opposites, blue and orange are opposites and purple and yellow-green are opposites

 The theory continues with the color distribution of a composition, whether it is a quilt, painting or your choice of an outfit to wear to the races!  With the Munsell System every successful composition has a dominant value - making it either warm or cool.  The composition could be left monochromatic - only one color - but will be more interesting with the addition of a modest amount of the dominant color's opposite.

The last component of the Munsell System is the use of discords.  Discords are located on the Munsell System color wheel by skipping one color each side of that color's opposite.  For instance, if our principal color is red, the opposite is teal. To the right of teal is green - skip it - and go to yellow-green for the first discord.  To the immediate left of teal is blue - skip blue - and go to blue-purple for the second discord.   Use BOTH discords subtly and in EQUAL amounts, grouped near the center of interest, if possible.

To draw your own Munsell System color wheel, draw or trace a circle.  Put red at 12 o'clock, teal at six o'clock.  Place the other four warm colors, orange, yellow, yellow-green and green, spaced equally to the right of and between red and teal.  To the left place the remaining four cool colors, violet, purple, blue-purple and blue spaced equally between red and teal.

In summary, the Munsell System color wheel has ten colors.  The five principal colors are red, yellow, green, blue and purple. The five opposites of the principal colors are orange, yellow-green, teal, blue-purple, and violet.  In a Munsell System composition  one uses a dominant color, its complement and its two discords.  This is a very simplified description of the Munsell System but sufficient for use in quilting and drawing.  Once you learn it and it becomes intuitive, you will notice excellent results in your color choices.  More detailed accounts of this system are available by searching the web.

For an illustration of the Munsell System color wheel go to this link .