Jun
19
Soft Morning, Late May, View of Creede, by Stephen Quiller
I’ve chosen the first book I’m going to use for my color theory studies: Color Choices: Making Color Sense Out of Color Theory
by Stephen Quiller. He’s an artist working and living in Creede, Colorado, a town that is near and dear to my heart. If there was ever an inspiring place, this is it! The views are almost so striking they’re hard to believe. Family photos are okay, but they never do the region justice. Stephen Quiller’s paintings, however, do. I’ve visited since I was little, and I’ve loved going to his Creede gallery for as long as I can remember. I have one of his etchings, but I don’t have one of his paintings. Someday! 
(I *love* collecting art by other artists!) His most recent work is some of my favorite. His colors are bright and clear without being harsh, and his mastery of color selection really stands out.
I picked this book because of my admiration of Stephen Quiller. My goal is to read and review one chapter per week, although I know life will generally do its best to push out this schedule. I have a lot of calligraphy work coming up, and we just have a lot going on with a toddler! So, as I do the exercises, I’ll post them, even if it takes a little longer than a week, I’ll review the chapter, and as works dry, I’ll list them out on my ketartstudio etsy store.
Affiliate link warning
Yep, those are Amazon Associate links to the book I’ve chosen. This falls under the business side of becoming an artist. I’m only going to recommend products that I’ve actually used, and that I actually believe have value for you. My goal is to help you by weeding through the over-abundance of products available out there! Again, you’ll only see them linked when I think they’re worth buying.
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Posted in Artists I Admire, Color Theory artist Color Theory Stephen Quiller
Jun
04
I do! And so that’s going to be my goal. I’ve always felt that I had some color instincts, and I know some basics, but I’d really like to be an expert.
One of my favorite artists, Wolf Kahn
I have no idea where the following theory originated, but I’d read it on countless blogs, and even hear Dave Ramsey declare it. (Want financial advice? — look him up!)
Read three books on a subject and you’ll become an expert!
So, I’m going to read at least three color theory books and do ALL the exercises, even the “make your own color wheel” exercise, that one that’s in every art class ever. My thinking is to pick three very different books – the wider the perspectives, the better. When I’m learning something new, I want to learn all opinions before forming my own – the conservative, the traditional, the trendy, the avant garde. The truth for me is usually somewhere in the middle of all of those.
Any recommendations on color theory books to choose?
After working through three books, will I become an expert? Don’t know. But, I will have more color knowledge that I do now. Plus, this gives me a frame work for painting more. I do well with a project. My plan is to make a path and document my progress so that if you want to become a color theory expert, you can follow along. I’ll post the books, and some of the main points, some exercises, and my results. So, join in and become a color expert with me!
Secretly, I love that “build your own color wheel” exercise.
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Posted in Artists I Admire, Color Theory artist Color Theory wolf kahn
May
26
I owe the new look of this blog to Amanda Hawkins of Ahhh Design. I had all these grand plans to design my own blog theme (and spruce up my main page and calligraphy page, both TBD). And, I still do! I’ve been a web developer in the past, and it really would be fun for me to learn how to build a theme. However, my time is so limited lately, all my extra goes to my projects.
So, I went searching for a theme. I wanted a combination of professional and artistic. Not too boring, but not too artistic either – meaning, not too much of someone else’s artwork. Oh, I also needed free. I’m trying to save costs here. I really do want to come out on the plus side at the end of the year, and sadly, paying for a design isn’t in my budget yet.
On the WordPress site, I found a great looking theme called “Sail Away”. It was the style I was looking for, but it wasn’t quite right. I didn’t want a sail boat on my site. But, I downloaded it anyway because it was so close.
Next, I searched for a theme that was an open notebook or sketchbook. I sifted through tons of great theme designs, but never found a sketchbook one (so that’s what I want to make!). What I did find was a theme called “Paper.7″ and installed it. I love it! And, I loved the designer’s blog and related sites. Even better, when I looked at her themes site, Bird Themes, I was happily surprised to find that Amanda Hawkins had designed both “Sail Away” and “Paper.7″!
Anyway, she had lots of great tutorials and downloads. Full of great ideas. Check out her beautiful planner pages. In the past, I’ve resorted to making planner pages for myself to get just what I wanted, but I never thought of sharing them with others. They were usually poor production pages made on the office copier. But…Amanda has inspired me to make some pages that I use and put them up on my site for download.
Thanks Amanda, your designs inspire me to work on my own projects!
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Posted in Artists I Admire, business, inspiration Amanda Hawkins artist inspiration
