Your personal color palette

Many people think drawing and coloring are the same thing. "You're an artist - make art!" Well, I believe that drawing and coloring are two completely different skills. It took me until my late 20s to start understanding color. So, it's something I focus on heavily with my students at Hollins University.
      The first exercise is identifying your "personal color palette." These are the colors you come back to again and again without even thinking about it. It shows up in your clothes, your decorating, but especially in your art. They are your default colors and they're different for everybody.
      I talked about it several years ago at this post when I had first redecorated my office. (It's nowhere near this clean anymore.)
     
You can see my color palette in the pencils to the right and in my office: lime green, teal, orange, and soft yellow. The chair in the foreground is aqua (it turned out lighter than I intended, but it's still in that same teal family). The bookshelves are orange, as is the lamp. The credenza is lime green (although it's hard to tell in this light) and a matching green filing cabinet now sits at the end of my desk. And the walls are "cornbread yellow."
     Want to know what your personal color palette is? A great way to nail this down is to lay all your artwork out before you, squint, and see which three or four colors appear more than the others. Another, easier way to figure this out is with colored pencils.
      Here's Rhonda's palette (and yes, this really does look like her and what I always see her in.) And then here's Michelle's. What a lovely palette! (And again, this really does look like her - especially the pinks. I've often noticed her lipstick, nails, purse, and cell phone case are the same shade of pink.
     So if you're starting a new project and you're stumped about color, try to employ your personal color palette or elements from it. Work consciously with color instead of simply off the cuff. Once you understand the default patterns you fall into anyway, it can be much easier to then use those patterns to create a direction, style, and intent as you go forward.
     So what is your personal color palette?

Personal Color Palettes at Hollins

I've written about this before. It's a test I run my students through each year, to discover their personal color palettes, and it's spooky how well it works. We figure it out through two primary approaches. First, students identify books that use their fave colors. They pull th epalette out with painted or color penciled swatches. Here's Deanne's work-in-progress. Once they've done this, we move to the colored pencils themselves. I ask them to choose 3 to 5 pencils that they think are their favorite colors. And then 3 to 5 that represent the colors they wear most often (or surround themselves with in their decorating choices). And finally, we pare it down to the colors that show up in their artwork most frequently.
      This consistently works to help students come up with about 3 to 5 colors that define their personal color palette. And it usually freaks them out to see colors that have so dominated their lives on a subconscious level, brought to a conscious level, where they can use them consciously to help define their personal illustrative styles.
     Here's how it worked for my students. Here is what Deanne came up with.     Caitlin pulled together several book covers to narrow down her color palette. It becomes obvious when you see all the covers together.     Andrea found her exact color palette in swatch form in a book she's using as a mentor book (one that is helping to inspire and inform her final work).     It's my favorite activity to do with my students as it always works, and is such a revelation that can really make a strong difference in a creator's process.
     Curious about MY color palette? I wrote all about this process and my own colors year ago at https://dulemba.blogspot.com/2008/06/office-redo.html.

How Your Personal Color Palette Can Change Your Life

Recently, Stan and I went to a friend's new flat for lunch and to take pictures to help her advertise it on AirBnB. Olga purchased the flat just a few months ago and there were already some very cool features in place - orange shades, orange radiators (!!!), and some lovely tile and wooden floors. While we ate lunch, I set my artist's eye to pick out items that would go together to help stage the photos. My thinking was completely based on the lectures I give at Hollins University about Personal Color Palettes.
     As I looked around, I began to see particular colours repeated again and again in her favorite keepsakes. For instance, this poster by Daniel Richter.This funny deep orange tin.She'd also bought this fantastic fabric she'd had made into a bed coverlette.We decluttered and then rebuilt the rooms, and as we did so, we decided which personal items would stay and go. For instance, out went the (very nice) flowered bed linens. They were busy and didn't fit in her color palette. Out went asundry items and in came some calming plants from the bedroom. I asked her to empty a wonderful big basket that picked up on the grey of the couch to go on the dining table - carrying the charcoal around the room.Of course, the star was the orange. Olga had extra fabric from the bed throw. We wrapped a pillow in it (she's going to have official pillow covers made from it after our visit) to carry the orange through the flat from the shades, to the couch.And into the kitchen where that funny orangey tin played a big role.The whole idea of a personal color palette was a revelation to Olga (it's a revelation to everybody I share this with), and she grabbed her favorite dress to show me. It had orange and pink stripes, like the shades and the shirt she was wearing. I quickly pulled together some of her items to show her what I meant.These are the colors that pull out:What a groovy palette! The black and charcoal act as bases - colors for ground pieces like the couch and the dining chairs, which we swapped out from the larger wooden chairs as that black helped pull the color around the room. In fact, she had been thinking about painting the wooden chairs black and after our visit, is confident it will look great! The other colors will help her make purchases in the future. As long as she sticks to the same saturation level, these will always go together and give her flat a lively, colorful, cohesive look! She'd already been doing it subconsciously, now she can do it consciously! So, Olga's flat is now advertised on AirBnB for rentals when she's out of town (click the image above to learn more), and she has a fun new way of looking at and decorating her world! What a creative and fun afternoon!
     Flat Photos by Stan Dulemba

Hazel Dunn on color palettes

I am such a geek about color palettes and personal color palettes. I teach it to my design students and have them do exercises to find their own. So, it's lovely to find someone else as crazy about color palettes as I am - Hazel Dunn. During the PictureHooks workshop last week, she shared a collection of color palettes she put together. First, she takes an image she especially enjoys, then she breaks out the color palette from it, like this:You can see how she breaks out the colors in alignment with where they appear in the image.
She had about 15 of these, which she bound together in a booklet. At the back of the book was a collection of the colors she chose, creating a thorough and referencable personal color palette.For individual projects, she also did color studies, which she again collected in a little book. In this study, she placed colors on top of each other to make sure they worked together. It's also a great way to make sure the values aren't the same and none of the colors are vibrating as a result of fighting for dominance. More brilliant take-away ideas from this so-called beginner. I love it!

Office Redo

Before:

After:

     So I had another one of those pesky birthdays recently, but instead of jewelry or some such, I asked hubbie for bookshelves and some hard labor. I wanted to redo my office. It was starting to close in on me - with piles of books everywhere. I just knew storage could be handled more efficiently. But really the whole thing started with a shoebox. This fabulous lime green interior:

I propped it up on my old bookcase and stared at it for months wanting to pull that incredible lime into my office. And then I came across these awesome orange bookshelves from West Elm (the 3x4 set in Saffron!). Had to have 'em! Aren't they purty?

     So hubbie and I pulled everything out of my office and started over. We painted the walls a pale yellow, called "Cornbread." With the orange shelves, I wanted the shoebox lime and some teal as an accent - it happens to be my personal color palette.
     What? Don't you know what your personal color palette is? I've found most people have one - especially illustrators. And it really helps to identify what that palette is and play up on the strengths of that knowledge. If you look at my website, you can see it in my main design. And here it is in swatches: The pale yellow is my neutral, the main colors are Orange, Lime and Teal.
     To find your own palette - lay a bunch of your art on the floor and stare at it. Are there certain colors you seem to use again and again? See if you can narrow it down to three.

     The hardest things to paint turned out to be my filing cabinet and stereo cabinet, four coats of paint later they were a lovely shoebox lime - a perfect match. The cool thing was the stereo cabinet ended up fitting perfectly underneath a parsons table I dug out of my parents basement. It was my grandfather's, and I couldn't get it out of my head when I first saw it. I loved its clean sqare lines and modern sensibility. Stylistically, it's a perfect match to my new orange shelves, and the color is a dead on match for the walls - sometimes I scare myself. By sliding the stereo cabinet underneath I ended up with an awesome credenza. And kismet - the orange magazine boxes slid into the album slots so perfectly, I couldn't have planned it any better. This kind of thing downright excites me:

To top it all off, I painted my old wooden chair aqua. It ended up lighter than I planned (teal), but it's growing on me.
     Now with my lovely orange shelves and the black bookshelf by the door, I finally have enough storage for all my books - yippee!! (Ooo, I wonder if hubbie noticed his shirt matched the shoebox?)
     The only thing missing now is my ego wall like in my old office. I think I'm going to reign it in just a tad (that was a lot of holes to spackle) and put two pin boards over my credenza. Maybe this weekend.
     Honestly, the biggest experiment in my new space was the removal of my drawing table. I've never been without one and I hemmed and hawed. But since I went digital, I was really only using it as a cutting surface and not often enough to warrant the enormous space it was taking up. We'll see if I miss it too much, but so far, so good.
     So, can I tell you what a good giftie this was? We purged, we scrubbed, we reorganized (and we're both still sore). But my soul just feels calm and content now when I sit down to work in my new space. Of course, that's when my men let me use it...


UPDATE! There's MORE! You gotta go see my new Danish stools!

Pimping Our Office Space at Hollins

So the last three days have been a whirlwind of unpacking, setting up classes, hooking up computers, and decorating. Or as Ashley Wolff likes to say "pimping our spaces."
     See, there's a props closet in our art studio and we went a little... nuts. I used my personal color palette of orange, teal and lime green to come up with my office space...



     Ashley decided her personal color palette was primaries, so she came up with this:

     Ruth Sanderson said she usually doesn't do anything special. But since she's working on a Boroque, Royal book, we asked her "How do you like pink?" (We were thinking glitzy boudoir.) Luckily she said she liked it, because it was about the only color left.
     Here's what Ashley and I did to Ruth's space. (She loves it!)

     Hollins University also gave us formal office space in another building, but that seemed boring in comparison. (And did you notice our VIEW!?) And this way we can listen in on each other's classes which are just a movable wall away.
     Let the inspiration begin!!!

SCBWI Carolinas Conference!

Last weekend I had the great pleasure to speak at the Carolinas chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI.org). It was hosted at the Hilton Charlotte Airport, where I had a lovely suite to call home for a weekend! Can you say "writer's retreat"? I sure did! But first, on Friday, I gave a talk about "Color: Identifying Your Personal Color Palette" - a topic I'm beginning to get known for and received compliments for all weekend. It had great attendance, and as so often happens, several people reported that knowing their personal color palette changed their lives! No kidding, it can be that significant! I also gave a portfolio review, which is always fun, although, is never enough time.
     I didn't take nearly enough pictures of the weekend, and the photos I did take are terrible, so my apologies on not providing better visuals for this post. But that just wasn't what this weekend was about for me.
     I did attend some wonderful talks. For instance, my friend Ashley Belote talked about using Procreate. And LeUyen Pham, illustrator of over 100 books, who was also a lovely and dynamic person, gave one of the best talks about perspective that I've ever seen!
     But truly, being able to attend a conference again, in person, was such a JOY, I spent most of my time connecting and having wonderful conversations with people like Maya and Matt Myers, Stacy McAnulty, LeUyen Pham, Jake Burnett, Ashley of course, and Cinda Williams Chima in particular, or just hanging out in the lobby writing. (I finished two projects!) I wasn't trying to get published, or connect with the editors/agents/publishers - I already knew them and we all got to say "hi!" I wasn't trying to push my work because I already have enough to keep me busy for a lifetime (mostly mine and Jane's). So, I just got to relax and really enjoy myself and all the brilliant people attending the conferences - including some of my friends from Southern Breeze, my old SCBWI chapter - it was so good to see them! I even made connections with some amazingly talented people who I hope to invite to speak to my students sometime soon, like Caldecott-winner Gordon C. James, who, it turns out, lives in Charlotte!
     Truly, the weekend was all about people, and writing, and I didn't want it to end. But of course, that's why I so look forward to these conferences... I had such a great time!

The new dining room

     Okay - I know this isn't exactly earth-shaking news, or even kids books related, but some of you expressed interest in seeing the "After" when I posted on facebook that I was trying to decide what color to paint our dining room walls. So, for a voyeuristic peek into my life I give you the before:

     It was dark and cavernous, not at all inviting, and frankly didn't set off our awesome new painting by James Dean one bit.
     So, I went with a suede below the chair rail (which picks up on some of the more subtle colors in the painting) and a buckskin above (that's yellow to all you non-artsy types) - which beautifully sets off the painting. (We moved the painting to the left wall where you can see the entire thing without obstruction the moment you walk in the door.) We painted the ceiling a subtle yellow-white too - like meringue. The white trim really 'pops' now. We also pulled the extra end chairs in from other rooms, bought new faux silk drapes in a soft yellow (thank you Target!), and bought a new buffet.
     Hubbie kind of got hoodwinked into that one - he didn't want to paint the kitchen over the holiday weekend and suggested a road trip to Madison, Georgia instead. They happen to have one of my all-time fave stores, In High Cotton, (he knew this) and I said it would cost him... ha! So here is the new buffet:

And... drum roll please... here is the new dining room:

     You should see it at night - it positively glows! Of course, I find it ironic that except for any teal in the room (although there's a bit in the painting), I have once again fallen in with my personal color palette (like in my office re-do). Can't seem to stay away from those colors! We may still add some more art to the walls - but some of it is away at the SCBWI Southern Breeze Illustrators' Gallery Show until next Sunday...
     So, last night we ordered Chinese delivery and ate in our new dining room - lovely!

Georgia Conference on Children's Literature

March 22-23 I was honored to provide a keynote speech and give a workshop at the 55th Georgia Conference on Children's Literature at my alma mater, the University of Georgia! This is a well attended annual event held for librarians and educators across Georgia. There were actually quite a few "keynotes": Me, David Bowles, Torrey Maldonado, Stacy Mcanulty, and Bob Shea. My novel, A Bird on Water Street was a finalist for the Georgia Book Award many years ago, so it was an honor to be able to return!
     I love getting to know fellow creators. Here we are with the program organizers. I gave a talk on "Maintaining Creativity Through Adversity" - something that has been on my mind of late for obvious reasons. And for my workshop, I talked about color theory and finding one's personal color palette.
     My parents actually drove up from Atlanta to attend - gratis. The organizers were so sweet and made them nametags and everyting. It was my mother's 80th birthday, so I asked the audience to give her a big "Happy Birthday!" She was tickled silly. That was happy.
     Also, Petros Panaou was one of the organizers and we ended up hanging out quite a bit in Bologna at the Book Fair there - small world!
     It was so good to be back in Athens again. A lot has changed, but much has remained the same. I have so many good memories there. It's so strange to see all the young adults, who rightly own the town now, creating magical memories of their own. Stan and I both went to the University of Georgia, so it seemed only fitting that I should leave a bit of him there too...right by the arches.
He'd like that.