Attempts at Transparency

 For the third meeting, our small group decided to try an exercise inspiration from a very different book, This book is beautifully produced, the exercises are illustrated with different media used and it's just an overall fun experience reading through the very rational, yet still fun approach to learning about using color in any type of artwork.  The subtitle of the book is: 50 graphic experiments for exploring color design principles, and I love that they are titled experiments as opposed to lessons or exercises. Experiments means that extra element of fun and unexpected results.  Understanding how and why color works is vitally important, and something that I think I'll be interested in learning and working on for the rest of my life.  It's a pretty much endless topic.
This first experiment was about achieving the illusion of transparency.  First I made a design I liked out of overlapping shapes of colored tissue paper glued onto white paper.

Then I translated it into a fabric approximation.  I actually did not have the correct greens or yellows so there was a little color experimenting going on.  I knew I was weak in the yellow department, but I was surprised that I did not have the right greens.

Lastly I made a second fabric version that switched out the overlapping parts of the shapes and tried to interpret those color changes correctly.  I was close, but not 100% due to lack of fabric choices (I know hilarious given the size of my fabric stash).  Good thing it was just an experiment right?  In general I really liked how this turned out, and the challenge of finding the right yellows and greens to use was definitely worth trying.

Now onto the next experiment!