{"id":796,"date":"2009-09-05T12:43:19","date_gmt":"2009-09-05T05:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maggiemaggio.com\/color\/?p=796"},"modified":"2011-06-18T04:09:04","modified_gmt":"2011-06-17T21:09:04","slug":"exercise1-testing-package-colors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maggiemaggio.com\/color\/2009\/09\/exercise1-testing-package-colors\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercise#1: Testing Package Colors"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A New Color Diagram<\/strong><\/p>\n

After playing with many versions of triangular and circular color\u00a0diagrams, \u00a0I decided to design a\u00a0hybrid Color Sorter specifically for the book.\u00a0I called the\u00a0primaries Yellow, Blue and Magenta and divided them each into two variations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I have argued for years that Cyan should replace Blue as a primary, but I did not include the color Cyan on the new sorter for two reasons:\u00a0#1.\u00a0During my many\u00a0years of teaching color workshops, I found that hardly anyone – even the most computer savvy students – could accurately pick out Cyan from a pile of swatches, and #2. Since all full saturation\u00a0blues\u00a0will mix with a magenta color\u00a0to get\u00a0clear purples and\u00a0the\u00a0same blues will mix with yellows to make\u00a0greens, its just not that important to find the perfect blue primary.\u00a0\u00a0(Sacrilege, I know!)<\/p>\n

On the other hand, unlike blues, your choice of\u00a0 a “red” primary is critical when mixing colors. I wanted to show that Magenta colors – like Fuchsia and Cherry Red –\u00a0are primaries and that\u00a0orange reds (we named them Tomato Reds) – \u00a0like Scarlets and Cadmium Reds – are secondaries that come from mixing Magentas and Yellows.\u00a0 If you use\u00a0a\u00a0tomato red you will never get a clear\u00a0purple no matter which blue you use.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you have ever taken a workshop\u00a0with me, you know how much I love mud colors.\u00a0\u00a0I think its important to understand that mud colors can be sorted depending on\u00a0which of the\u00a0primary color families\u00a0they come from.\u00a0 Ochres come from\u00a0colors with lots of yellow in them, grays\u00a0from colors with lots of blue, and browns have a high proportion of magenta.<\/p>\n

Weekend Extra Exercises<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Look at the sorter on page 138 and sort all your “reds” into either the Tomato Red or the Magenta section.\u00a0 Mix\u00a0a\u00a0\u00a0“tomato red” clay half and half with\u00a0a\u00a0blue clay and then mix a “magenta” clay half and half with the same color of blue clay\u00a0and see what you get.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0One of the reasons to do test mixing with white\u00a0is to see the “bias” of the package color. Pick one of the hue families that you have many different variations of package colors and make test mixes of each one. Take some time to compare the tinted version with the out-of-the-package colors.<\/p>\n

3. Make an\u00a0enlarged\u00a0copy\u00a0of\u00a0each of the Color Sorters on page 133 and 134\u00a0and laminate them.\u00a0\u00a0As you are\u00a0making your package color test samples, sort the clay\u00a0into one of the\u00a0 color sorter sections. Most of the package colors will usually fall on the Classic Sorter and the tinted versions will usually fall on the Pastel Sorter. (Studio by Sculpey colors are the exception. Many of their package colors are pastels.) If you are not sure about a color just put it between the sections that seem closest to the color. \u00a0<\/p>\n

4. As you are sorting your samples, note your instinctive reactions to the color names\u00a0that Lindly and\u00a0I\u00a0gave to each section. Do you agree or disagree with our choices? Everyone has different reactions to color names. Feel free to\u00a0rename the sections whatever pops into your head.\u00a0 I am very curious about what names you would change –\u00a0\u00a0especially if you\u00a0have a strong negative reaction to our names – and encourage you to send\u00a0in your preferred names in the comment section.<\/p>\n

TIPS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"P1000287_edited-1\"<\/a>Label an\u00a0index card with all the package colors you plan to test before<\/span> you start mixing and then\u00a0bake the finished samples on the card.<\/p>\n

If you want to put magnets on your samples, sheet the clay at the middle setting instead of the thickest setting so that the test mixes will weigh less.<\/p>\n

Sheet a large sheet of white if you plan to make lots of test mixes.<\/p>\n

Put your package colors into three piles as you finish each test mix with white. Make one pile the “Wimps” for the colors that turned very pastel. Make another pile the “Bullies” for colors that did not shift very much when mixed with the white.\u00a0In between put all the other colors. Remember which are the wimps and which are the bullies when you mix colors from now on!<\/p>\n

FAQ’s<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Why do we use cutters?\u00a0 Using the cutters\u00a0on\u00a0sheets of clay run at the same thickness in the pasta machine is as close as you can get to mixing\u00a0 exactly equal parts.<\/p>\n

2. What should I do if I don’t have a\u00a03\/4″ square cutter?\u00a0 You can make your\u00a0test samples with any cutters you have on hand – \u00a0just make the\u00a0out-of -the-package\u00a0sample piece large enough to hold\u00a0the tinted version\u00a0of the package color mixed half to half with white. Experiment with your cutters to see what\u00a0sizes work\u00a0best for you.<\/p>\n

3. Can I use any brand of white clay? No. Since some of the clays now have very different baking temperatures, be sure to only use a white clay with a baking temperature that is the same as the clay you are testing.<\/p>\n

4. What did you use to stamp the initials of the brand of clay into the test mix samples?\u00a0 I made\u00a0“chops”.\u00a0 I\u00a0incised the initials into a sheet of raw clay, baked it and then used it as a plate\u00a0to make the reverse initials.\u00a0 I cut out the reverse initials after\u00a0baking\u00a0and glued them to the end of pieces of scrap clay.<\/p>\n

\"P1000283_edited-1\"<\/p>\n

There’s\u00a0quite a bit\u00a0to absorb in the first few chapters.\u00a0 Just have fun playing with the exercises and don’t worry about doing them “right.”\u00a0\u00a0 No matter how much you know about color, picking up the clay and doing some test mixes will teach you something new!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 A New Color Diagram After playing with many versions of triangular and circular color\u00a0diagrams, \u00a0I decided to design a\u00a0hybrid Color Sorter specifically for the book.\u00a0I called the\u00a0primaries Yellow, Blue and Magenta and divided them each into two variations.\u00a0\u00a0 I have argued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maggiemaggio.com\/color\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maggiemaggio.com\/color\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maggiemaggio.com\/color\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maggiemaggio.com\/color\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maggiemaggio.com\/color\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maggiemaggio.com\/color\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maggiemaggio.com\/color\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maggiemaggio.com\/color\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maggiemaggio.com\/color\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maggiemaggio.com\/color\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}