That's how I feel about our line project for the EB master class. No matter what color scheme I choose it does not seem to work. I lay out fabrics on my design wall and am not happy with anything I have tried.
I am tempted to go with a black and white color scheme. I am at school so I will have to show you what I am thinking in Photoshop instead of in fabric. You will have to forgive my Photoshop paint bucket filling. Sometimes it fills more than I want it to.
Of all the colors I tried I like this the best. Blue (royal blue?)/black/white-gray. But when I put this on the wall in fabric I am not sure. Of course in fabric I lay out the background and one stripe. Maybe I need to lay out the whole thing to see what it looks like. But I don't want to go through all of that work if I am not going to like it.
If I go with black/white/gray here are some ideas.
I even thought about making everything black except for the white lines outlining the tree shapes.
Or some combination of the white lines and some gray trees.
I am almost at the point of not wanting to do this at all. What do you think? Would you go vertical or horizontal with the layout? EB thought long vertical format was a stronger design. I am not sure.
Thanks for reading. Chris
My personal choice is the blue background layout. Mostly because it reminds me of white birches (your intention?). I love white birches. Remembering that I do not have the advantage of taking this course. She seems to be guiding you to vertical lines; why is that, other than the lines are stronger? Do you need/want them to be stronger? Do the lines have to be straight-ish or can they be more curved and run top corner to opposite bottom corner? Can they be even more abstract? Maybe just step back for a few days. BTW; no need to answer all my ?marks. My mind was having fun with the idea. LOL
ReplyDeleteAs Nancy said, you need to figure out what your theme is, what you are trying to convey. All of these are powerful in their own way -- perhaps a series? I do find that walking away from the work for a bit allows you to view it later with fresh eyes. :-)
ReplyDeleteYou sound way too much like me, Chris! From my own experience, I would say you are probably right that you are not getting an accurate reading by only putting up one strip against your fabric auditions, but I also understand not wanting to cut everything if you end up not using it. You'll have to decide. Auditioning in photoshop is a good idea, but then in the end, it's the real fabric that tells whether it is working.
ReplyDeleteEach version got more interesting (which is why people end up doing series!), which I know is not much help at all! Are you strictly thinking abstract, that this represents nothing but pure line or are you thinking trees still and caught up in too literal thinking when choosing colors? Do you find you want to change the orientation to get away from the tree reference? Again, I think either way works, but I'd vote for the vertical.
For some reason, I flashed on a strong red as background to your black and grey lines ore even making the lines red against the black background. Perhaps you need to just look at some art, any art, or maybe if you keep a scrapbook of such things, and see if you spot a particular palette repeating over and over. Or choose something totally radical and unexpected. But just do SOMETHING because remember, this is a learning exercise and not a life or death decision (she says in her best coaching voice...). Yes, you DO want to do this! ;-)
I liked the all black and white till I read Idaho Beauty's comment--a touch of red appeals to me. And I tried to like the horizontal,but couldn't. I really do like the vertical.
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