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One of the greatest minds of our century passed away on March 19, 2008.
Sir Arthur Charles Clark is forever memorialized as the author of a short story which eventually became the movie ”2001: A Space Oddessy”. In his honor, please take a moment to enjoy these beautiful and serene colors from the constellation of Orion.
Arthur C. Clark 1917 - 2008
Michael Maggs is a professional photographer who has donated some very beautiful images to Wikimedia Commons. Several have received top honors. Visit his gallery of work.
Expect to see this colorful image as the January 1, 2008 “Picture of The Day” for Wikimedia Commons. It is also used on Wikipedia as the main image for the “Color” category.
What a clever way to present the color wheel. View the full sized image and the Creative Commons license that goes with it. Michael releases most of his photographs under Creative Commons licenses. A few are in the public domain.
Thank you Michael for your contribution to Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. Your work is very pleasant to look at. Most of all, thank you for making this image available for use on my blog.
©2007 colorserenity.wordpress.com
Today I am turning the spotlight on fromoldbooks.org. It is a wonderful website where you can find tons of old illustrations and other fragments from long forgotten books of the past.
“From Old Books” is run by a gentleman named Liam Quin. He has been collecting old books for years. At some point Liam decided to share some beautiful illustrations with the online audience. Out of that grew his current website. What a treat for the rest of us, right? It works for me!
Most images are in the public domain and ready for your use. The image below entitled “Star of Bethlehem” is one example of what you will find there.
Expect to be delighted with pages of text, hand drawn lettering, old book plates, black and white drawings and much more.
When it comes to color, you will find some truly beautiful antique images like this one. Images that would have remained inside their dusty book jackets were it not for the vision and generosity of one man.
They don’t make books like this any more with the old inks that are so colorful and vibrant. Most of the images at From Old Books are not in color, but you will still find a few very nice ones.
If you don’t want to labor at exploring the site, there is a random generator on the first page. Use it and just about any part from an old book will pop up. Now what could be easier than that?
One last thing. Apparently this project has proven quite an undertaking. If you would like to help defray costs with your PayPal account, you may use one of the “make a donation” buttons.
Thank you Liam for the wonderful work you are doing. And thank you for bringing us color from the past so that we might get a chance to view books the way they used to be.
©2007 colorserenity.wordpress.com
You want to redesign a space in your home but you don’t want to hire a professional. One place to start is with color. A good trick that professional designers use is to build sample themes based on an existing piece of artwork or fabric. Why agonize over colors when someone else has done the hard work for you?
But where do you start? I am not an interior designer. But as an artist I can offer one idea of how you might choose a color theme for your project. If your inspiration is from a well defined digital image like the one below, use your computer to get started.
This is a Japanese wood block print. A beautiful work of art created somewhere between 120 and 250 years ago. I prefer such images as they are from a time when colors for inks and dyes were limited to natural pigments. I believe such colors probably do work best for interior design.
I also prefer oriental artwork. Usually it is straightforward with good balance and well defined colors.
Since color calibration varies from monitor to monitor it is impossible to match color from a computer screen to paint and other items. You can’t take an image file to a paint store for example. It will look different on their computer than yours. But you can narrow your preferences from nothing to something and go on from there. If you are working with tangible objects like fabric you will have an easier go of it.
For now let’s investigate our inspiration image. Notice how it has a predominantly “cool” color theme. The underlying color is blue not orange. There is a very slight yellow cast to the cream colored background. That is likely due to the age of the artwork. My guess is that the original background was white. But this cream color still works very well for our purposes.
When using an image I suggest you go with a fine work of art or a professionally created photograph. The reason is because a good image can suggest how to effectively design your living space. Professional artists and photographers know how to balance a composition. A well balanced composition is a great starting point. And part of that balance is color ratio, which is the size ratio of one color to the other.
In our sample image black and cream are the largest areas of expression. You would probably want to reflect that in your room. There is nothing to say you can’t rotate the colors within the ratios. Be aware that rotating does not always yield good results. Be sure to change all of the colors to proportional sizes. And unless you really know what you are doing, be careful when designating large areas of color to something like a neon orange or electric blue.
As for utilizing the color ratio in this image, I would consider the possibility of a living room with a black sofa and easy chair. And I would never use pure black. I would use a very dark gray because pure black tends to look rather severe. If you do go with gray it is important to figure out if it is a cool or warm gray as gray often has other color mixed in with it. Sometimes a room looks odd with something gray in it because it has a clashing undertone. Or that same room can look very attractive with the right undertone.
I would also make the walls a cream color. I prefer a hardwood floor instead of carpeting, but if there had to be carpet I would chose a light to medium taupe. True taupe is nicely adaptable.
How about elegant drapes in muted forest green? (Keep it blue green, not yellow green.) This red is peculiar. It is a dark tomato or brick color. It prevents this image from looking cold and washed out. So you would definitely want it somewhere in the room. I think a small to medium sized red lacquer coffee table or hutch in this hue would add a needed punch of color. See how I am keeping proportion in mind while building my room?
A large framed print with some of this grayish lavender would really look great. Perhaps a Monet or a nice watercolor.
One final consideration is what to do with that highly defined buttery yellow in her hair and in the object she is holding. A pair of ceramic or enamel floor vases would be nice. Put white flowers in those vases. Or you could use a light colored hardwood chair. Position whatever you use near the couch where the dark color will make it stand out.
Couch pillows and other small items could do for some of these remaining colors like cream and /or melon pink. And add small doses of the larger colors too. If you study your inspiration image a lot of small ideas will probably come to you.
See how using artwork (or even a swatch of fabric) can create a pathway for your project? Look for an image that reflects what you want to convey. Is it warmth, humor, tranquility? Is it for a nursery, a family room or spare bedroom? Is it for a kitchen or bath? A nursery will need soft baby colors whereas a kitchen probably would not. Thinking those things through will also help you.
Above is a very quick pallet I grabbed from our photograph. It shows a variety of colors and tones. It helps you visualize what your room could look like, but what good is it when planning how much color to use? Instead of working from a color pallet like this, I recommend you find your well proportioned inspiration image and print it onto good quality photo paper. If you are happy with the color results take it to your local paint and fabric store and narrow down color choices for your project.
At the paint store, find paint chips that mirror your photo and work well together. That is a great way to figure out your final color scheme. Use your image to plan color proportions for your room when you shop for furnishings and accessories. If you want additional assistance, you will probably need to hire a professional designer.
Like I said, I am not an interior designer. But I do have one good tip that my mother told me. If your room faces south, decorate in cool colors. If it faces north, use warm colors. East or west can go either way. That will keep your rooms more comfortable feeling in summer and winter. I think her idea has merit. But, of course, the decision on how to decorate is entirely your own.
Thanks. I hope this is useful information you can tuck away for a day when you might really need it.
The image used is in the public domain. It is from the Library of Congress online. I have adapted it for my own use. Not all images from the LOC are in the public domain. Only select collections, so one ought to do good research prior to using images from the LOC website.
©2007 colorserenity.wordpress.comAs an artist I love how freeing artistic expression can be, and whenever possible I suggest people “go artistic”. On-line color scheming is a really great place to discover your talent. Color scheming is not only for artists and designers. It is for everybody, and after a hard day’s work it is a great way to relax.
The site of choice for me is http://colourlovers.com. Not only because it is manned by a nice guy who is a good caretaker, but because the tools are outstanding and the people are so great.
At Colour Lovers you can express yourself freely in two ways. With the pallet maker or the pattern maker. And you don’t have to be a professional artist to create a pattern like this:
You only have to be willing to try the pattern maker. It is a fun tool that is free and easy to use. How great is that?
Upon publication your work goes to a gallery where it is judged by fellow colour lovers. It may be given a rating of up to five hearts. If you don’t get the ratings you want, keep practicing. Study the work of others, which is pretty easy because everyone can see everyone else’s work at least once as it goes through the gallery. And everyone has a chance to comment on it.
Sometimes I have been discouraged when nobody voted on my work. But I also know that maybe a person who would have really liked it just wasn’t around. No need to ever worry. There are many built in ways that keep pallets rotating around “out there” for others to stumble across. Besides, it’s a two way process. Other colour lovers need your feedback as much as you need theirs. Giving your love keeps things rolling.
And if all that isn’t enough for you there is always the efficient communication between members with “love notes”. There are the groups you can join and forums where you make comments and show off your work. Communication and fun is the true spirit of Colour Lovers.
There is another way to test your color skills. Aside from creating patterns, you may also create a five color pallet. The pattern maker is a recent addition. The pallet maker has been part of Colour Lovers from the start.
If you try the pallet maker and you don’t feel very good about your work, don’t give up. Have fun and just go for it. Read the CL blog articles for good information about what is new in the world of color. And be sure to try both tools, the pattern maker and the pallet maker. Over time you will get better and enjoy yourself a lot.
I hope you give Colour Lovers a try. It will broaden your artistic skills. You will learn much by reading the blog and talking with others. The courage to try it may even propel you towards an artistic career you didn’t know was possible.
©2007 colorserenity.wordpress.com
The last lesson was about obtaining a good surface for harvesting consistent looking color samples. This will be particularly helpful if you are not familiar with the process of creating color pallets. Using an on-line color schemer will make more sense if you practice a bit like this first. I recommend colourlovers.com for creating on-line pallets, although there are several other options available on the net.
I will now show you how to blur and pixelate images for even more control over your color choices. Here I used a beautiful piece of clip art from antiqueclipart.com.
In the examples above the second image is a copy of the first one, but it has been pixelated using a special filter in Photoshop. This makes harvesting colors easier because the pixelation allows you to plainly see color choices. Since the original image was not blurred before pixelation, the color areas are more rigidly defined. This works well for finding a color scheme with more variation in tone as shown in the pallet sample.
Now we have the same image with a Gaussian blur applied. Notice how the pixelations are slightly more pale than the pixelations in the first example.
These colors are creamier, giving you a less severe overall pallet. That is because blurring the colors tends to even out the underlying gray scale. Every color has an underlying gray scale except for white and colors that are pure hue. I will explain that in a later lesson.
Now we come to the final examples. As seen below, I blurred the original with a heavy Gaussian blur. I used a larger pixel size. This provides the least complex surface from which to choose colors. But it limits you in variety of choice. This final color pallet sample is the palest and creamiest of all the pallets.
With the right tools it is easy to create a harmonious family of color choices for your color scheming projects. The more you blur and the larger your pixelation, the more commonality you will create.
Here are the pallet samples stacked on top of each other so you can see the variation.
The tools used for these images are Photoshop and the ICP color picker. The post entitled, “Bluring the Blue Shell” contains information about how/where you may obtain free tools for these tasks. I am not entirely sure about the pixelations options in Inkscape. The paint.net tool does beautiful pixelations and I think that is the best way to go. It is free and you can find the link in my “Tools” category on the right side of the page. Thank you for reading my tutorial. I hope it has been of help to you. 
©2007 colorserenity.wordpress.com
If hope you enjoy creating digital color pallets because I am thrilled to share a revolutionary method I devised for obtaining great colors. It involves smoothing an image by blurring it. From that blurred image it is possible to harvest a coordinated “family” of hues.
The first sea shell has a lot of color variation. The contrasts between the dark veins, the medium blues and the light colors is well delineated. But there is too much difference in “key” or contrast of light and dark. This makes it difficult to obtain colors with a creamy look as shown in the color pallet below.
The second thumbnail image has been treated with a “Gaussian” blur in Photoshop. Blurring the image blends the underlying gray scales just enough to lessen the severity of the original photo. The colors run together and even out the key, softening the differences. Colors “puddle” into areas as shown in the second image - the image I obtained my pallet from. Once you find the smoothness you like, start taking samples of color. With practice you will learn how to map out areas which work well together.
If you don’t use Photoshop try FotoFlexer. It’s a free membership. The Style FX tab and “soften” option will blur your images.
To create pallets like the one shown above you must purchase the ICP color picker for around $20.00. It can store far more than 5 colors as shown. The link is in my right sidebar under “Tools”.
For a free color picker try color cop. The link is also in my side bar. The shell photo is courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net.
Update: I forgot to mention there are two 100% free open source image editors that will do a variety of tasks for you, including Gaussian blurs. If you don’t mind loading another piece of software, look into Paint.net. The link is in my “Tools” category on the right side of the screen. Paint.net is the name of the software. Not the site address. And it is by far the easiest software for this kind of work.
Then there is Inkscape. It is also a free tool, but more for vector drawing. I am a newbie to Inkscape, but I look forward to seeing what it can do. Check out some screen shots here from the Inkscape website. Thanks!
©2007 colorserenity.wordpress.com
Red Tulips courtesy of trulyfreestock.com
Why do the reds and greens in this image command a lot of attention? Because they are complimentary colors. Red and green are opposite each other on the color wheel.
Yes, but I would not wear red and green together. So, why do they look so interesting and attractive in this particular photo?
If you will notice, this photograph has secondary areas of pale green, gray and white. The pale green and dusty white on the leaves really help to break up the intensity of the colors. So do the white and gray in the background. Along with red and green, the yellow areas in the photo create a triad of color mass. Such balances are perceived by the human mind as being aesthetic on a very deep subconscious level. Also, the ratio of red to green in the tulips (the main subject of the photo) is about 1/3 to 2/3. If it were half and half, this photo would be far less interesting. The “golden ratio” of thirds is another preference of the human mind.
The lesson here is that when using bright color, be sure and insert enough light versions of the main color and a good neutral like a gray to give the eye a rest. Also, it is nice to use a 1/3 to 2/3 proportion when you are dealing with complimentary hues.
©2007 colorserenity.wordpress.com
Image of straws from trulyfreestock.com
This image is perfect for creating a muted color pallet. The shadow over the straws is just enough to offer up some calming tones. Using my ICP color picker I was able to come up with this pallet. I tested the pallet on kuler.adobe.com first to see if it looked good. The orange is slightly more vibrant than the other colors.
©2007 colorserenity.wordpress.com
