Colour Breakthrough – Throwing Out the Wheel

June 10, 2015

colour dipticOne of our most unusual articles in the summer issue, the one we definitely spent the most time on getting just right for you all, is Tracy Holmes’ “Color Connections”. This is a color lesson and color mixing tutorial that throws out the color wheel and works with mixing and matching in three dimensions. The exercises are easy and fun, and you end up with a reusable and expandable color mixing cube. It will teach you the basics that will allow you to eventually move onto using Tracy’s soon-to-be-available color cards that will expand your potential palette to hundreds of easily mixed and matched colors.

The thing we didn’t have a lot of room for in the article was expanding on how to use it to choose colors, not just mix them. So here is a quick visual tutorial on how using this system works for creating color palettes.

Tracy’s partner, Dan Cormier, had made a ‘blurred lines’ blended veneer. He wanted to find an accent color, so he looked through Tracy’s cards, first to find colors that were in the blend, and then to find a complement color for one of those colors. He used the codes to find the yellow that was the exact opposite of the purple. Then he mixed clay to match that color and made a sheet to dieform through the hole in the baked blend veneer. The purple become another accent within the accent at the center of the bead.

Sounds easy, right? Well, it sounds like it could be easy if you understand the system. That’s what the article helps you understand—how colors are connected, not just by mapping them on a two-dimensional wheel, but through other colors as well, which is why understanding how color are truly related takes a three-dimensional model. Go ahead and go through the steps in the article for an easy first look at this idea, as well as getting a primer on a new way to look at color that can encompass our digital, printing and artistic color mixing worlds.

Tracy is not the only one out there promoting these new base color ideas, and you are likely to see this kind of color approach coming to you from a number of arenas. Right now Tracy’s Colour Cards are the only method I know of that will allow an artist to work with this newer approach to color mixing and matching in an easy and accessible way. To be one of the first to get the new cards when they arrive, sign up for Tracy’s newsletter, so you can get on the Kickstarter program, which will be your first and best chance to pre-order your own BreakThroughColour Colour Cards and Cubes. It’s not just exclusive to Kickstarter, but there are special ‘Project Backer’ prices for supporters.

Full details about limited edition packages and early bird deals will go out first to the new BreakThroughColour mailing list, so hop on over and take a second to sign up for the BreakThroughColour mailing list. And to get your Summer 2015 issue of The Polymer Arts, go to our website at www.thepolymerarts.com.

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.

     TPA_McGuire_blog ad    sfxpaad-diffuse

Colorful Fun

August 18, 2014

marie segal earringsThis is that one week every quarter where my brain just goes to mush. We are taking care of the last details as we get ready to release the fall issue of The Polymer Arts (if you haven’t renewed or pre-ordered your print copy, you will need to do so before the end of today in order to get on the mailing list for the first shipment out. Go here to order), so I have been working non-stop for a couple weeks now and a lack of sleep is catching up with me! I also have a little traveling to do in a few days, so it’s going to be a wacky week. We’ll see how that translates here, but I thought, since “play” (our fall issue theme)  is on my mind, I would add some fun stuff to the queue. These things have not quite fit into our other themes, so we will use this week to just have fun. I will post some pretties that offer you new ideas for you to play with in your studios.

Perhaps, you’ve seen some of these great earrings and flowers Marie Segal has been posting the last week or so on Facebook.  There are just gorgeous colors in her combinations of opaque and translucent canes and, in this case, it looks like a bit of Sutton slice, too. The colors are so juicy, and the disparate visual and tactile textures come together due to how sparely they are all used.

Marie, of course, is one of our pioneers. We owe a lot to her early exploration of the medium and her books. Most recently, she put out a great compendium of techniques called The Polymer Clay Artist’s Guide: A Directory of Mixes, Colors, Textures, Faux Finishes, and Surface Effects This is a great “jumpstart” book; something you can flip through when looking for new ideas that will change up what you’re presently working on or to get you going on your own clay play day.

You can also add a bit more fun to your Monday with a trip through time and Marie’s work on her website here.

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

14-P2 CoverFnl-blog   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-1   marble cane ad

Colour Breakthrough – Throwing Out the Wheel

June 10, 2015
Posted in

colour dipticOne of our most unusual articles in the summer issue, the one we definitely spent the most time on getting just right for you all, is Tracy Holmes’ “Color Connections”. This is a color lesson and color mixing tutorial that throws out the color wheel and works with mixing and matching in three dimensions. The exercises are easy and fun, and you end up with a reusable and expandable color mixing cube. It will teach you the basics that will allow you to eventually move onto using Tracy’s soon-to-be-available color cards that will expand your potential palette to hundreds of easily mixed and matched colors.

The thing we didn’t have a lot of room for in the article was expanding on how to use it to choose colors, not just mix them. So here is a quick visual tutorial on how using this system works for creating color palettes.

Tracy’s partner, Dan Cormier, had made a ‘blurred lines’ blended veneer. He wanted to find an accent color, so he looked through Tracy’s cards, first to find colors that were in the blend, and then to find a complement color for one of those colors. He used the codes to find the yellow that was the exact opposite of the purple. Then he mixed clay to match that color and made a sheet to dieform through the hole in the baked blend veneer. The purple become another accent within the accent at the center of the bead.

Sounds easy, right? Well, it sounds like it could be easy if you understand the system. That’s what the article helps you understand—how colors are connected, not just by mapping them on a two-dimensional wheel, but through other colors as well, which is why understanding how color are truly related takes a three-dimensional model. Go ahead and go through the steps in the article for an easy first look at this idea, as well as getting a primer on a new way to look at color that can encompass our digital, printing and artistic color mixing worlds.

Tracy is not the only one out there promoting these new base color ideas, and you are likely to see this kind of color approach coming to you from a number of arenas. Right now Tracy’s Colour Cards are the only method I know of that will allow an artist to work with this newer approach to color mixing and matching in an easy and accessible way. To be one of the first to get the new cards when they arrive, sign up for Tracy’s newsletter, so you can get on the Kickstarter program, which will be your first and best chance to pre-order your own BreakThroughColour Colour Cards and Cubes. It’s not just exclusive to Kickstarter, but there are special ‘Project Backer’ prices for supporters.

Full details about limited edition packages and early bird deals will go out first to the new BreakThroughColour mailing list, so hop on over and take a second to sign up for the BreakThroughColour mailing list. And to get your Summer 2015 issue of The Polymer Arts, go to our website at www.thepolymerarts.com.

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.

     TPA_McGuire_blog ad    sfxpaad-diffuse

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Colorful Fun

August 18, 2014
Posted in

marie segal earringsThis is that one week every quarter where my brain just goes to mush. We are taking care of the last details as we get ready to release the fall issue of The Polymer Arts (if you haven’t renewed or pre-ordered your print copy, you will need to do so before the end of today in order to get on the mailing list for the first shipment out. Go here to order), so I have been working non-stop for a couple weeks now and a lack of sleep is catching up with me! I also have a little traveling to do in a few days, so it’s going to be a wacky week. We’ll see how that translates here, but I thought, since “play” (our fall issue theme)  is on my mind, I would add some fun stuff to the queue. These things have not quite fit into our other themes, so we will use this week to just have fun. I will post some pretties that offer you new ideas for you to play with in your studios.

Perhaps, you’ve seen some of these great earrings and flowers Marie Segal has been posting the last week or so on Facebook.  There are just gorgeous colors in her combinations of opaque and translucent canes and, in this case, it looks like a bit of Sutton slice, too. The colors are so juicy, and the disparate visual and tactile textures come together due to how sparely they are all used.

Marie, of course, is one of our pioneers. We owe a lot to her early exploration of the medium and her books. Most recently, she put out a great compendium of techniques called The Polymer Clay Artist’s Guide: A Directory of Mixes, Colors, Textures, Faux Finishes, and Surface Effects This is a great “jumpstart” book; something you can flip through when looking for new ideas that will change up what you’re presently working on or to get you going on your own clay play day.

You can also add a bit more fun to your Monday with a trip through time and Marie’s work on her website here.

 

If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.

14-P2 CoverFnl-blog   Blog2 -2014-02Feb-1   marble cane ad

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