Outside Inspiration: Drunk on Color
May 10, 2013
Inspirational Art
Today’s outside inspiration is quite different, not just for this blog but as a type of art work. What you see below is bourbon. No, that is not some indecipherable typo … the colors and visual texture is the result of photographing liquor under a microscope. How crazy and cool is that? These images are from BevShot, a company that photographs and sells images of favorite alcoholic beverages.
The liquor is “crystallized on a slide and shot under a polarized light microscope. As the light refracts through the beverage crystals, the resulting photos have naturally magnificent colors and composition.”
Yes, they do!
So what can we take away from this? Well, color inspiration for one, of course. Here’s nature again, being more stunning than we might imagine. You could create a dozen color palettes from the combinations here. The yellow, orange and magenta in the lower right, the yellow, magenta, purple in blue in the striations towards the top, the green, yellow and watermelon red in the center left portion … what great palettes!
There are two other things you can take from this art. One, look at the very microscopic world for some of the most amazing colors, textures and forms. Search for microscopic images and see what grabs you.
The other thing … look at this website. They have taken their beautiful imagery and transferred it onto all kinds of objects, not just wall art. As craft artists, most of us are used to creating functional items for sale but we tend to make the same kind of products. Why not stop and consider whether what you do with your jewelry can be applied to vases, boxes, swtichplates or other objects? Or what do you do with covered objects that you might be able to use to create wall art or jewelry. If you need to inject some fresh items into your line, looking at different forms using the same or adapted techniques might be just the thing.
Speaking of covered objects and wall art … the latest issue which includes extensive articles on both these subjects plus much more is off to the printer and will be getting mailed out directly from there end of next week. If you haven’t already subscribed, renewed or pre-ordered the new issue so you can get it in the first mailed batch, you can do so here at www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscribe.html The cut off date to get your orders in for the first print mailing will be end of day this Monday. The release date of the digital form of the Spring 2013 issue and the first day you might be able to expect the print issue to arrive at your door is May 22nd. So, soon. Very soon!
I found BevShot through Lindly Huanani’s website. Of course she’d have found this wonderful source of color.
Color Studies
May 6, 2013
Inspirational Art
I thought this week, we’d just look at color. Because who here doesn’t like that? For most of us it’s such a primary part of working with polymer. How can we resist with all those gorgeous colorful blocks enticing us to create something that honors our fascination with them?
And then we condition and roll, cut and punch, form and wrestle, combine and rearrange and eventually we have this finished piece that, somehow, doesn’t quite reflect what we were after. When it comes to color, even for those of us who can often combine them intuitively, study and practice is what will bring about success in taking the designs from inside our head onto our studio tables.
There are a number of ways to study color and that, I promise, are not at all dull times. What you learn can be immediately turned into beautiful creations. These pendants by Austria’s Carina are studies in complementary and tertiary colors. Now, tell me you would have not enjoyed creating something like these?
Your own personal exploration and study of color can begin (or continue) through a number of options we have available. For polymer specific color studies, there is nothing that comes close to the depth of Lindly Huanani and Maggie Maggio’s book Polymer Clay Color Inspirations. Honestly, if there was one book I’d expect to see on every serious polymer artist’s shelf, it’s this book. It doesn’t matter where you are in your journey as a polymer artist, you will learn something new and maybe even game changing for you.
If you want a quick brush up on terms and why these concepts are important (since we’ll be talking about them all week, it might be good to refamiliarize yourself with them) you can do so on websites like this one: http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory
I’ll also share one of my favorite color pages on all the web … this is a kind of shortcut to figuring out color combinations and it’s also a little addictive. You click on a color on the color wheel and then you can run through a range of possible color combination types. I get lost in the possibilities: http://colorschemedesigner.com/
So go play with color today, online at least if not in the studio. Getting lost in color sounds like a great way to start a week.
Today’s outside inspiration is quite different, not just for this blog but as a type of art work. What you see below is bourbon. No, that is not some indecipherable typo … the colors and visual texture is the result of photographing liquor under a microscope. How crazy and cool is that? These images are from BevShot, a company that photographs and sells images of favorite alcoholic beverages.
The liquor is “crystallized on a slide and shot under a polarized light microscope. As the light refracts through the beverage crystals, the resulting photos have naturally magnificent colors and composition.”
Yes, they do!
So what can we take away from this? Well, color inspiration for one, of course. Here’s nature again, being more stunning than we might imagine. You could create a dozen color palettes from the combinations here. The yellow, orange and magenta in the lower right, the yellow, magenta, purple in blue in the striations towards the top, the green, yellow and watermelon red in the center left portion … what great palettes!
There are two other things you can take from this art. One, look at the very microscopic world for some of the most amazing colors, textures and forms. Search for microscopic images and see what grabs you.
The other thing … look at this website. They have taken their beautiful imagery and transferred it onto all kinds of objects, not just wall art. As craft artists, most of us are used to creating functional items for sale but we tend to make the same kind of products. Why not stop and consider whether what you do with your jewelry can be applied to vases, boxes, swtichplates or other objects? Or what do you do with covered objects that you might be able to use to create wall art or jewelry. If you need to inject some fresh items into your line, looking at different forms using the same or adapted techniques might be just the thing.
Speaking of covered objects and wall art … the latest issue which includes extensive articles on both these subjects plus much more is off to the printer and will be getting mailed out directly from there end of next week. If you haven’t already subscribed, renewed or pre-ordered the new issue so you can get it in the first mailed batch, you can do so here at www.thepolymerarts.com/Subscribe.html The cut off date to get your orders in for the first print mailing will be end of day this Monday. The release date of the digital form of the Spring 2013 issue and the first day you might be able to expect the print issue to arrive at your door is May 22nd. So, soon. Very soon!
I found BevShot through Lindly Huanani’s website. Of course she’d have found this wonderful source of color.
Read MoreI thought this week, we’d just look at color. Because who here doesn’t like that? For most of us it’s such a primary part of working with polymer. How can we resist with all those gorgeous colorful blocks enticing us to create something that honors our fascination with them?
And then we condition and roll, cut and punch, form and wrestle, combine and rearrange and eventually we have this finished piece that, somehow, doesn’t quite reflect what we were after. When it comes to color, even for those of us who can often combine them intuitively, study and practice is what will bring about success in taking the designs from inside our head onto our studio tables.
There are a number of ways to study color and that, I promise, are not at all dull times. What you learn can be immediately turned into beautiful creations. These pendants by Austria’s Carina are studies in complementary and tertiary colors. Now, tell me you would have not enjoyed creating something like these?
Your own personal exploration and study of color can begin (or continue) through a number of options we have available. For polymer specific color studies, there is nothing that comes close to the depth of Lindly Huanani and Maggie Maggio’s book Polymer Clay Color Inspirations. Honestly, if there was one book I’d expect to see on every serious polymer artist’s shelf, it’s this book. It doesn’t matter where you are in your journey as a polymer artist, you will learn something new and maybe even game changing for you.
If you want a quick brush up on terms and why these concepts are important (since we’ll be talking about them all week, it might be good to refamiliarize yourself with them) you can do so on websites like this one: http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory
I’ll also share one of my favorite color pages on all the web … this is a kind of shortcut to figuring out color combinations and it’s also a little addictive. You click on a color on the color wheel and then you can run through a range of possible color combination types. I get lost in the possibilities: http://colorschemedesigner.com/
So go play with color today, online at least if not in the studio. Getting lost in color sounds like a great way to start a week.
Read More