Colors in the Cracks

Color Wheel

We've been talking about basic colors. But anyone can tell you, that's not all there is. When we look at a color wheel, especially one colored by computer, we know there are a lot of colors that are not being shown there.




It's really easy at that point to glaze over and ask, "Why do we use a color wheel if it doesn't show us everything? What good is that?"
People forget that the color wheel isn't science. Or really just on it's own, art. It's a theory. It has points where it works and points where, as a theory it falls apart. But it does show us a lot of information about the relationships between colors.If we can get past the fact that it's not perfect, it becomes a perfectly useful tool.

When we see a range of colors, we need to imagine not just those colors but all the colors in the cracks between.
The Tertiary colors are the colors in between. If you're using cheap crayons, you can always tell, because they have 2 color names.
 Each secondary and primary color have a color to either side that's a mix between them.

 So orange has red orange, yellow orange,and orange.What do the colors in between give us? Incredibly rich colors that slide into each other.

Orange Explains it All

Here's some quilts that slide between yellow orange, orange, and red orange.

Modern Quilt Guild Block

This free block from the Modern Quilt Guild, We Love Quilts takes us all the way through that range.

Snake Charmer by Denyse Schmidt

Start thinking about the colors in between the cracks. They're rich, ripe and lovely!