The colors have to "go" together!
Tue, March 22, 2011 at 07:12AM I used to think that the colors I chose for my art journaling pages had to "go" together. That put a damper on my color selection and slowed me down, since color coordination is not my strong point. So I want to share with you a trick from my earlier art journal pages when I just started to explore acrylics. Here are three pages I did using the trick I describe below.
in-process pages, using random colors, from an altered book (2008)
To get over that idea, that I had to put a lot of thought into color selection, I would sometimes close my eyes, reach into my box of fluid acrylics, and pick 3 colors. Those were the colors for the page. No negotiation. I could do what I wanted with them - lighten with gesso, make them more translucent with water (and now I know about mattte medium), mix them to create other colors. The 3-color-random-selection-process worked for me.
in-process pages, using random colors, from an altered book (2009)
finished pages, using random colors, from an altered book (2009)
Try it. It's freeing. It's fun.
Is this one of the rules that you follow? Let me know your rules at Art Journaling Without Rules!
And you will come up with pages that surprise you! If you try the random color selection trick, please let me know what it was like and whether it worked for you.
Reader Comments (6)
As I've started to art journal, I think that's one thing I really struggle with is the idea that things have to match or 'go together'. I will have to give it a try and just randomly grab colors and go with it.
this sounds like fun :)
I'm one of those people who likes to use as many colors as possible in a single spread. In the words of my husband, I have an eye for color - all of them. :)
My husband, who has no eye for color, swears by this website for making good color schemes: http://colorschemedesigner.com/
this really does sounds like fun. :)
This sounds really fun!!!! I'm gonna try it very soon!! Oh, and btw....guess who painted on canvas today?????
Yeppers, that would be ME!!!!
WOW! wonderful pages.
Loaded with inspiration, playful colors, and tons of creativity :]