Playing With Colour

Early in the life of this blog, I was playing around with my freeware photoeditor (because I couldn't afford PhotoShop - and now I'm undecided anyway), and after pixellating a Saturday Sky photo with the "watercolour" function, was struck by the myriad of different colours that went into a "plain blue" sky.  It didn't take long to wonder what would happen if I pulled out some of those colours and rearranged them into a charted design... and Patterns in Nature was born.  The process of analyzing and playing with the colours in natural objects and phenomena turned out to be a remarkable way to delve into the subject. I find colour theory awfully dry, and the books always seem to present a fabulous finished product to illustrate a double-split-complementary-hexad (or whatever) without ever hinting at how to create a given effect, mood, or feeling from scratch.  I decided that I would take my camera and my own two eyes, and educate myself on my own terms.

I set a goal of creating and blogging a weekly pattern from photographs of my immediate natural environment (studiously resisting the urge to dip into the summer photo stash during the long grey months of mud and slush.) It can take several hours to create a design, depending on the complexity, and except for the fact that I am "colouring" on screen, it is by and large a very human, low-tech process.  I use no "knitting software," I hand pick my colours, and I fill in my charts square by square, click by click. 

It was only ever intended to be a personal challenge, a personal exploration.  Except when a number of kind readers responded to the effort, it started to feel transactional, as though I had something real to offer, which I suppose is the trap goal of blogging.  So today, when someone sent a pile of traffic to my most recent pattern entry solely to illustrate the results (supposedly) achievable with a "submit and click" palette generator, I felt hurt and invalidated   was intrigued.  Is it true?  Is all this analyzing and exploring and creative imagining just a transparently foolish waste of time, duplicable in nanoseconds by a snippet of software?

It was particularly interesting timing, because (partially in response to some reader queries) I was just about to embark on a weekly series of posts outlining my process in detail - tricks for using the photoeditor to explore the attributes and parameters of colour, the (largely human) process of condensing a complex picture into a few suggestive blocks, the specific tenets of FairIsle colour gradients, creating a knittable design from a real object (without resorting to intarsia) - and some liberally illustrated colour theory (it actually does contribute to understanding why one thing works better than another.)

I shall press on for my own academic interest, which is what I started with and is indubitably the soundest motivation, in any case.

(For interest's sake, a side by side (human choice on the left, computer on the right) comparison of the crocus palette may be found here.)

 

Comments

[Charity]

Oh, no, no, no! Ruth, I've been thrilled at the idea of hearing what goes on behind your creative process (because, of course, that's what it is, no matter what anyone else says... don't forget, some people think knitting is just a cute little hobby).

Everything you just mentioned that you were going to do is what I want to read. :0) I have found your "self-instruction" totally leaking over, and becoming my instruction as well. Thanks so much for sharing all these weeks of colour, and please, don't stop!

[Lee Ann]

The side-by-side says it all. Keep up YOUR good work. Good god, woman, that's like saying spell-checkers are better than an actual editor's eye. Whole companies have been felled for believing that load of crap.

You're an artist. Please keep sharing your process with us.

[Netter]

Okay so the online software can suggest a color palette, which doesn't compare to what you come up with, but it doesn't suggest the designs you come up with. Those are all beautiful. It's the interpretation you bring that is most important.

[Judy]

While I have prided myself on colour awareness, your colour posts have made me so much more aware of the variations in things I look at every day- the sky, even the dirty melting snow in front of my house. I am not a good photographer, I have trouble describing what it is that fills me with awe about colours in nature, and your posts help me to define my feelings (and validate them!). So, continue on your path of discovery, and know that by posting about it on your blog, you are contributing to the education of others. Thank you thank you.

[Keisha]

Ruth,

I have truly derived great pleasure from reading every one of your color-in-nature posts from the time I started reading your blog (And admit to browsing backwards for archives just to find them). You have an eye for color and for pattern combination that no software could duplicate.

The pallette-ify software is a fun toy. Your posts are art. Please do continue your plans to share your creative process - it is thought provoking and inspirational.

[naomi]

I second Lee Ann's comment.

I really enjoy seeing both your palettes (which can select the bits of the photo that you *want* to capture) and the designs you make with them. The palette generator is a shortcut, but it's shoddier as well as faster.

[not an artist]

I found your blog via January One's mention of your crocus colour palette post, and I have to say I am much, much more impressed with your colour palette selection than the computer generated version! The digital version doesn't filter out the out-of-focus background features the way the human eye naturally does, hence the relatively dull greys & browns and a complete lack of green. You choose not just the pleasing colour combinations but the ones we are all pre-disposed to see (and therefore in a way, generate a more accurate colour perception chart).

[Elinor]

I love your color palette idea! Brilliant!

[tiennie]

No, no! The work you put into it is not nothing. Those programs do not take the colors and create the beautiful charts that you do. I love seeing your work.

[Ronni]

What others have said goes for me too. I actually enjoy playing with the color palette generator because I don't even have a freeware photo-editor but to get anything I could use from it I'd have to crop digitally rather than as you do, using your artistic sense as a filter. And it is certainly no substitute for the level of effort you clearly put in.

I do hope you will go ahead and post about your process because I would love to learn more about it. I did just find your blog today, from a site I stumbled on today - possibly from the same place you mention, but I am glad I did. I look forward to reading your archives in coming days. I'm sure I can learn a lot.

[Michelle]

The problem with the computer-generated palette is that it lacks any judgment. For instance, it includes more than one shade derived entirely from the background in that photo. Depending on the photo, that might not be a bad thing, but you seemed to be more interested in the crocus in that picture--not the ground. You need a human touch for that.

Your artistic eye and the choices you make are what make your chosen palettes so vibrant--they really speak to the subject of your photos.

I, for one, would love to learn more about your process.

[Emilee]

I also heard about your blog from Cara's mention of your crocus picture, and I am so glad I did! Your explorations of color have been fascinating, and I really hope you continue sharing your thoughts with us.

[melanie]

I think it's been said already, but your human eye chose a palette that seems much more interesting to me than the computer's palette. For instance, the green adds a wonderful contrast, and the computer doesn't incorporate that in either set. I don't know much about what you've done in the past, but the crocus post definitely got my attention as a reader. I can't wait to see what's next.

[robin]

I'm here also via cara's blog but I'll certainly be back. I love color (always have a 128 box of Crayons handy) but your creativity and voice are amazing. thanks for sharing!