color

After our layouts were approved, we moved on to the color stage. Our assignment was to create several different color comprehensive (comp) designs. A color comp is a small section of the layout that the designer paints and presents to the client for approval before the final design is created. The comp must contain enough of the layout so that one can visualize what the whole design will eventually look like. For instance, it would not have been enough of the design if I only showed one motif (flower). My color comps were about 5" square whereas my layout was 18"x20". We used existing fabric as reference for our color combinations which were chosen by our instructor/client. Below are the first 4 comps that I presented. In this first one I added little dots to the layout to make use of another color which is light green although it looks like they are the same blue as the flowers in these pictures. In this comp, I used the same colors as the first one but changed the motifs by allowing more of the backfround color to show through in between the petals and leaves. Although this one looks like it is black & white, it is actually black and cream.

Out of the above four comps this is the one that my instructor/client approved but she requested that I modify the leaves making them green.

One neat trick we learned at this stage was to use prepared acetate as a color overlay. Since the modification to my comp was simple, I was able to attach acetate to my comp and then paint the green color on it right over the leaves instead of making an entire new comp. All of the comps are hand painted so it is great to learn about time-saving measures like this.

With the addition of the green leaves, my comp was approved and I was able to move on to the final painting which you saw in this post. The shiny acetate made it difficult to photograph but you get an idea of what I'm talking about. That's it for this design. It took twelve weeks to complete! But that was because we were newbies. I have a feeling that things are going to speed up in January. Aside from this design, I took several day long workshops and I will post some of the work from them in the next few posts.