The Art of Choosing: Color Basics + Giveaway!

The Art of Choosing is a series discussing fabric, color, and the fabric selection process! For past posts, click here.

The Art of Choosing: Color Basics, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

This half of The Art of Choosing is going to be a little more focused on color, different color schemes, and inspiration. So, before we dive right in, I'd like to spend today to talk about absolute color basics. For some of you, this is going to be review, but I think it's important all the same! Now, I realize that some of what we'll be talking about doesn't exactly apply to fabric in the same way it does to other mediums (like paint), but I think colors basics are a good thing to be aware of no matter what you're doing! I'm no expert, and I honestly didn't even taken Color Theory in school, but I feel pretty comfortable around the color wheel. I hope you enjoy today's post! Let's get started!

The Color Wheel

The Art of Choosing: Color Basics, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

The basic color wheel is made up of twelve colors; three Primary colors, three Secondary colors, and six Tertiary colors. So, let's talk a little more about each color group!

Primary Colors

The Art of Choosing: Color Basics, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

The Primary colors are Red, Blue, and Yellow. Primary colors are called primary for a reason. These colors are mixed together in different amounts to create all the other colors in the color wheel. An important thing to notice about the primary colors as well as the other color groups, is that each of the three colors are equidistant from each other on the color wheel. All this means is that they are equally spaced apart. There are three other colors between each of the three primary colors.

Secondary Colors

The Art of Choosing: Color Basics, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

The Secondary colors are Orange, Purple and Green. Secondary colors are made by mixing together two primary colors. Orange = Red + Yellow, Green = Blue + Yellow and Purple = Blue + Red. You'll noticed on the color wheel, that the secondary colors are in the middle between two primary colors. In addition, they are also equidistant from each other on the color wheel, there are three other colors between each of them.

Tertiary Colors

The Art of Choosing: Color Basics, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

The Tertiary colors are Red-Orange, Red-Purple, Blue-Purple, Blue-Green, Yellow-Green, and Yellow-Orange. Like their names suggest, tertiary colors are made by mixing a primary color and a secondary color. So, they are sandwiched between a primary color and a secondary color on the color wheel. They are also equidistant from each other, with one other color between each tertiary color.

Those three color groups make up the color wheel! Now, I know that color in general and the color wheel can be a little intimidated, so to make it a little easier, I combed the Kona solid colors and put together a "Kona Color Wheel" using twelve Kona colors! Hopefully this will give a bit of a reference point when you're thinking about the color wheel.

The Kona Color Wheel

The Art of Choosing: Color Basics, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Red, Tangerine, Orange, Papaya, Corn Yellow, Chartreuse, Clover, Jade Green, Pacific, Purple, Mulberry, Cerise.

Rainbow of Geese, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

I want to expand a little more on this mini quilt that I made and showed here in September. I used the twelve Kona cotton solid colors that I mentioned above to create a Flying Geese color wheel! It finished at about 18" and I used this Circle of Geese tutorial (scaled up the pattern a bit!). It's a paper pieced block, which I was a little nervous about, but it came together really easily. I wanted to be able to showcase the colors in a color wheel type format, but in a slightly different way I like that you still get a color wheel sense, but it's flying geese instead!

The Art of Choosing: Color Basics, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

So now, it's time for a little homework! I challenge you to play around in your stashes, and see if you can pull your own color wheel. Try to find a fabric that matches (pretty close!), each of the twelve colors on the color wheel. Don't worry, you don't HAVE to do this, but if you'd like to play along, I hope you'll post a photo to the flickr group! :)

Above is my color wheel! I had a lot of fun looking through my stash for all these pretty fabrics! I'm not going to lie, I struggled with purple a little! I have a lot of true purple and red-purple but virtually no blue-purple! Shall have to add that color to my shopping list! For more information on these fabrics, click the photo to be taken over to flickr!

The Art of Choosing: Color Basics, a photo by jenib320 on Flickr.

Before we're done, a little giveaway is in order to get this series jump started. I have an extra Robert Kaufman Kona Color Card to give away to one lucky reader! These are an invaluable tool when choosing solids for your projects.

To enter, please leave one comment letting me know what your favorite color is! I'll let Ms. Random.org draw a number next Wednesday at 9pm CT. Make sure your email is visible or that you include it in your comment! I'll announce the winner in next week's post on color schemes!

Giveaway is now closed, winner will be posted tomorrow (11-10-11)!

Note: I created the color wheel graphics myself, so please don't borrow them without crediting me and linking back! Thanks! :)