My Study of Colour. Fall Edition

 I have created a master palette of various colours I studied in leaves that I collected on a nature walk around my neighbour hood. I carefully selected multiple leaves and studied their various unique colours. 

As I studied the leaves I began to create swatches of each colour I could see. Some leave palettes contain many various colours and shades while other leave palettes only contain two or three. 

Once I finished discovering the colours in the leaves I created a swatch page and laid like leave colours with like. From there is developed colour swatches using only the three primaries, yellow, blue, and red. I also used white and black to light and darken the colours.  I would then swatch test each colour next to the leaves and create a well curated palette matching the leaves. Once I decided on the perfect colour swatch for that leaf I would create a large palette swatch that would end up eventually in the final colour palette. 

The final colour palette count comes to 85 different colours. 

(Please scroll to the bottom to see the books process.)

I am very happy with this book. I worked incredibly hard to make a piece I can continue to use throughout my career as an artist. This project also really helped me to learn where and how to look for colours. I have also learned to be more patient with my work; I have a tough time going slow but I am beginning to see if I go slow and really plan my works I can execute well developed pieces that really have an impact on my learning and skill. 

Here is the book standing. The pages are beige to add a more calming effect to the colour swatches. 

Here is the interior back cover. 

The green I choose to bound with green thread as I ran out of beige thread. 

Here you can see how each swatch is bound to the page. 

As you can see each colour swatch page goes with a specific leaf. I would have liked to put the leaves in as well, however they began to fall apart near the end. I still have them in a box though. Each colour swatch is also hand bound onto the page. I choose to bind them in as I found glue compromised the look and colour of my swatches. I also had a square template I cut every swatch too. This allowed a more uniform look to become apparent. 

Here is the back cover of the green swatches 

Here you can see how tightly bound the book is. I also glued the binding together. 

Here is the final bound book 

Here are the leaves I selected all together 

Here is a the cover for my book being made. I used glue and Modgepodge 

Here is a brown and burgundy leaf adding a nice transition in my book. 

Here the flower rolled up very aggressively. However I still managed to create a colour composite.   

Another purple 

Here is a finished purple palette along with the leaf that helped bring the colours to life. 

Here are my greens and some orange and burgundy 

Here are my burgundies, pinks, purples and reds. 

Here we have the finished swatch palettes drying. These will later be used for my books cover. 

A close up of some of the green leaves 

Here is the beginning of my green palette 

Here is my brown colour swatches and testing page. These colours were all very carefully curated. 

My colour mixing area. I used a glass palette as it creates a more smooth finish. 

Continued Colour Swatch testing 

 

Continued Colour Swatches

Here is the beginning of my swatch testing. 

Here is all the leaves laid out and ironed

Once I found every leaf I proceeded to Iron them so i could see them on a more 2D basis. This allowed for more accurate colour swatches to be tested. 

This is Maggie she joined me on my nature walk!