Tuscany... with some green!

So I thought I'd share that Tuscany palette, with green! What do you think?

Tuscany... then let's tweak it a bit.

Trying to think of some creative color choices for a friend's kitchen, I was inspired by Tuscany. She loves bright orange and deep blue and the beautiful contrast of dark and white. So I began with a photo of Tuscany, but brought out deeper hues and added in the white. I think this could be inspirational place to prepare a meal and share wine with friends! (hint, hint...)

Soothing Butterfly

This image is modern, bold, and awe-inspiring. The shimmer is an important feature in this image which is difficult to describe in color. Using monotones brings the story of this palette to something soothing, relaxing... in many ways does not bring that same impact as the photo does. In order to make this palette bring the same feeling as the photograph, the designer would have to ensure multiple textures and to bring one color into focus. Or use a pattern that is made up of all the colors, but to the eye seems like one bold color. I am liking this... I am usually drawn to the greens and browns of nature. This blue palette is beautiful!

National Geographic

Not What You Would Expect

Not what you'd expect ... these colors are pulled from a modern, Scandinavian room design. Though the room is bright and clean, I chose the colors that existed in the floor, furniture, and art. The color palette alone cannot represent the feeling of space within the room. Color can be everything, though it seems, not in this case.
Scandinavian Design

Is it too early to think about fall? You decide.

This color palette is inspired by summer... I am trying to hold on to it as long as possible! I used this palette to recolor a couple of damask patterns I made a few months ago and I think I got some good results! If you'd like to see the other patterns, check out: http://www.spoonflower.com/collections/8847

So, if you've noticed, I have not produced a palette everyday, but I am working at it. Working at it, working at it. Thanks for following.

Dark Frustration

I am so close to completing my Lion logo for my Color Theory class... I am aggravated, frustrated, and tired. It's dark and almost midnight. I am fueled to create a dark palette, with a little hint of confused "does it really go?" color at the end. A little light at the end of the tunnel, if you will.

Greek Salad

Inspired by my lunch, I created a color palette of the Greek islands. I started with the actual colors of the tomatoes, chicken, pasta, artichokes, red onions, and black olives. I tweeked the color shades and hues a bit until I found something pleasing. I took out the purple from the red onions because the color just didn't work in this palette. I also tried adding a blue to represent the blue ocean in Greece, but I didn't like the outcome of that either. Taking out the fifth color was the key to making this cohesive color story!

Las Vegas Lions

This is the color palette for my reinvention of the Detroit Lions moving to Las Vegas! Interestingly, the colors are so different pulled from Kuler than they look in Illustrator. And then I looked at these colors in Illustrator on my other computer and they look even more different. Not happy! I hope as I move through this project these colors will be able to work in the logos and uniforms. Yikes. GO LIONS!

HR in Pattern

This is the pattern with the first palette (my HR color palette). Again, I have only used 4 colors... it seems much more cohesive. In order not to go too crazy (I would still have 2 more palettes to create in this pattern) I will stop for tonight and just update my new palettes starting tomorrow. I hope you enjoy the colors and I look forward to creating a new pattern to play around with in the days to come! Night.

Pattern with Mountain Love

I have tried all sorts of ways with this palette, and I have decided the pink just doesn't work! It is too vivid, too saturated and causes too much contrast (and pain) to look at it with the other colors. So I am learning after all!

Pattern with Exterior Dream

I have made a pattern to play with my color palette ideas. I had a difficult time getting all 5 colors in... so here is one with all but the brown color. Likey?

Colors of the Sky

This is a description of the blue sky. Blue, blue, blue... Take each square of color and imagine what the color would look like in your sky. Is it dark, or pale morning? Storm coming? Or the bluest blue you've ever seen.

Exterior Dream Palette

This palette was designed with my house in mind. The brown is close to the existing color of the siding. I would like to use the gray/purple to paint the brick of my home, which faces the front, to ground it (and cover up the ugly brick.) The white has a little cool tone to it and I would use this to beef up the molding. The sage is the color of the accents: cushions on the furniture, pots, lights, etc. And the green, of course, represents the plants.

Wouldn't it be cool if I can get a photo of the house on tomorrow with my color palette? Hope to make that happen with my new photoshop skills!

Smooth it Out

I made this palette yesterday, I promise. Seems I forgot to post it! I was playing with the analgous color theme on Kuler and this buttery, neutral set of colors came into being. Enjoy!

Mountain Love

This palette is taken from this lovely photo of my daughter and husband out in the Rocky Mountain National Park. We were taking a break on our hike and isn't this photo lovely?

I have this palette, "HUNGRY," from my recent Color Theory project pulling color from a photograph. I used a photograph of a beautiful cake inspired by the Hungry Caterpiller book that is a favorite of so many children (and Mommies!) I love the deep shades of this colorway and I can see this combination of colors in so many applications. Love.

COLOR everyday!

As I get started on a new class, Color Theory, I realize that I have not begun my next 30 day project. Hmm. Let me think... what could I do? How about color palettes? :@)

So, though I may feel like it's cheating a bit, I will post a new color palette everyday, possibly using some of my homework assignments to give me inspiration. I hope that I will gain a little perspective on all of the things that can inspire color choices. I will use photographs, words, emotions, magazines... pretty much anything I can find that will give me great ideas on color. I will be bringing my camera with me when I do errands, hang out with the kids... you never know when I might be inspired!

I hope to use Kuler (an adobe program/community ALL ABOUT COLOR) to share with my designer friends and post my discoveries on my blog to share with all my other fabulous followers. If you have suggestions on color inspiration, please don't hesitate to share!

Here we go!!

COOL TROPICS & Peachy Sunrise
-- color palette for my personal brand, including HR graphic/surface design & HeatherRothStyle (my etsy site all-about fabric!)

Thoughts of Next Project

I have been super duper busy the past few weeks, and it has been a remarkable miracle that my Pattern Everyday project was last month and not this month. As summer is in full swing, I find myself with those things we try desperately to enjoy while we can: sitting in the sun and taking naps. I feel having that dedication to something can help me focus and learn quite a bit in a short bit of time, so I am tempted to do it again. I'm thinking of something a little less labor intensive (which is okay because I am not getting graded on it by a third-party this time.) Ideas: texture everyday, HR sketch logo everyday, color palette everyday, photoshop tutorial everyday.
I do not possess any piece of original art to post today, so I'll give you a picture of a palm tree where I was learning the fascinations of the alpha-channel in photoshop. I can see this was inspired by my recent trip to OC.... ahh the joys of Southern Cali.

Pattern Everyday Collection

Damask 7

My last pattern for Pattern Everyday! It has been such a fun endeavor and I have learned so much! I really like this last pattern, though I realize Damask 6 was my most realistic damask pattern. This one is more simple and fresh, but I really like the sweet yellow shades. I designed this one all on my own sketching... building and adding details inside the main shape.
Thank you to all who have been looking at my patterns as I go along. I hope to keep posting what I am working on as my classes change and I continue on my graphic design quest. Have a beautiful Memorial Day Weekend... whew, I am done!

Damask 6

I know I am getting farther away from damask here, but I really liked the stripe and diagonal that I came up with. Using damask-esque (work with me!) motifs, I joined some into this floral inspired design. I used a dark ground with yellow motif to really allow the pattern to stand out. Very elegant and modern.

Damask 5

There is going to be a big push for me to finish 7 total damask patterns before Saturday... my project is due Saturday night (so I can't do a pattern on Sunday...) and my sister is getting married on Saturday. So needless to say... I have do do 2 today and 2 tomorrow to finish!!

This pattern I have increased the size and complexity of the central motif. It is starting to look more like a traditional damask. I did some experimentation and I am really excited about the last one that appears as a diamond. I love the green texture and would love to see this on curtains!

This took approximately 30 minutes in Ai.

Damask 4

For today I have made a black and white damask based on a sketch that I scanned into Ai. I wanted to give it a hand-painted look so I used some brush strokes in Ai to loosen up the image. I like the black and white pattern... but here I have shown you the pattern with a blue background. There are many options with this one and I think it turned out really pretty! This took me about 40 minutes. Thanks for looking!

Damask 3

This pattern is my first experiment in damask with my own drawing. I sketched an image (albeit simple) and scanned it into Ai. I traced in pen tool and did a half-drop repeat. It is not very elaborate, but it has a prettiness and elegance to it. I played around with a few colors before deciding on the warm peach and yellow. I really like the way the pattern lends itself to graphic bold color as well as pastel textures.

Damask 2

I am really enjoying myself, I have to admit. Damasks are beautiful and I am having so much fun learning how to craft them! I am still using the templates to trace in Ai, but today I used those templates, reshaped and merged them into shapes more original and more me. I also went for a stripe in this for a modern touch. I also added the white outline in different stroke sizes for interest. I spent about 30 minutes in Ai for this pattern.

Damask 1

Welcome to my last week of Pattern Everyday! I am so excited to do the patterns this week because I have always wanted to learn how to do a damask pattern and I've never had the guts to try them. They can be very complicated and the pattern seems really difficult to pull off. I have started the week using some damask motif templates to practice getting the shapes right. I used the pen tool to trace some motifs in Ai, and then I arranged these 3 separate motifs into the pattern. I feel the pattern worked pretty well, although figuring out the math of the repeat was difficult, so I really did it by feel instead of math (so you can see some slight discrepancies in space and line.) I'm off to a good start and can only improve from here! This pattern took 60 minutes.

Patterned Ground 7: Semi Circle Graphic

This is a stretch for a nature theme, but hey. For my last patterned ground design I used a semi-circle (loosely inspired by waves) and added some white circles on top to give it a modern, fresh feel. I decided for this day to do several different colors instead of adding new pattern ideas. I think they are pretty and would be useful in many applications. I used Ai and it took about 60 minutes. Now let's get ready for week 4.

Patterned Ground 6: Deep Floral

Trying to increase my complexity again!! Flowers on top of flowers. Playing with opacity and color to build a textured pattern... I was hoping to get a more masculine/feminine mixture of color, still using my love of floral design. I used Ai and it took about 35 minutes to finish this pattern.

Patterned Ground 5: Grass

I have taken today to work on a texture background in Ps! Yay, me. I brought in a grass photo and did an offset filter to repeat the grass texture without a seam. In order to make it a patterned ground, however, I had to have another image on top. I used another pattern from a previous day to save some time because my goal was the texture repeat. It took about 50 minutes. I would love to practice this more and I hope to do leaves and more complicated shapes in repeat.

Patterned Ground 4: Allover Floral

Trying a little more complexity (without spending hours and hours) in this patterned ground tonight. I am becoming more efficient in the repeat and the technical placement of the pattern, and still trying to play around with color and new shape. I want to get back to having a sketch before I begin, and I hope I'll be able to have time to do that in the coming week.
I spent about an hour on this one... Ai. A modified ogee pattern in the back of some floral and leaf images I quickly sketched with the pen tool. Thanks for looking!

Patterned Ground 3: Orange Border

Today I am playing around with a gingham of sorts. I was trying to go for a basket weave, but I didn't quite make it there. I used Ai again (I know I may have let you down) but what can I say! It took 60 minutes to produce these repeats... I had to play around with it a bit to get it exactly right. I like the brightness of this pattern and can see it on some pretty summer napkins. To be honest, I am trying to go in a different color direction than I usually use in order to experiment and go out of my safety zone. I most wanted grey and pink or green, but I went the other way. I produced two different patterns from this idea. What do you think??