Hello fellow sewist!
Do you dare mix and match colors or stick with monochromatic shades when choosing your fabrics for a project? Or maybe youā€™re not sure where to begin.
If you've always wanted to play with fabric color and aren't sure where to start,
let's talk about color theory basics!
First, letā€™s bring out the color wheel. Itā€™s a tool that dates back to the 1700s, invented by Sir Isaac Newton. He wrote one of the first books about color and light theory called ā€œOpticks.ā€ 

You may have seen the modernized version of it, and many professionals look to the color wheel for inspiration. Fashion and costume designers, artists, decorators, filmmakers, florists, and even sewists utilize this tool.
Image from https://www.color-meanings.com/
We all know about the primary colors - red, yellow, and blue. Iā€™m sure in your kindergarten days, youā€™ve come across a color theory that, if you mix:

Red and yellow, you get orange.
Yellow and blue, you get green.
Blue and red, you get purple.

Viewing these colors in a wheel will better understand analogous, complementary, triadic, and tetrad color combinations.


Letā€™s explore.
Image from https://www.interaction-design.org/

Analogous colors are two or more colors that are side-by-side in the color wheel, creating a rich, monochromatic look. Depending on the hues (another word for ā€˜colorā€™), it can create a warm or cold feeling.

Complementary colors are two colors directly opposite one another on the color wheel. Some say they clash, and others say they complete one another, but these two combinations will mainly form an intense, vibrant look that creates depth and interest.

Thereā€™s also the split complementary where you select one color from the wheel, and the two secondary colors are on either side of the firstā€™s opposite.

Triadic colors are three colors evenly spaced around the color wheel. The most popular triadic palettes are red, blue, and yellow, the primary colors, and orange, purple, and green are the secondary colors. Triadic colors create a playful and vibrant feel when used together.

Tetradic colors are simply two sets of complementary colors. This combination combines four colors evenly spaced from each other around the color wheel. Using all four evenly can overwhelm the eyes - I like to select one dominant color and have the other three colors as accents. You can do the same with other color combinations too. The color distribution does not need to be even, and itā€™s up to the artist (thatā€™s you) to decide what looks best and is preferred.
Image from https://www.hgtv.com/
Each hue or color can come in various shades, tints, and tones. What are the differences?

A shade is often mixed with black, which is low in saturation or vibrancy and will appear darker in value.

A tint is mixed with white, showing a lower saturation or vibrancy but appearing lighter in value. Most tinted colors are considered pastels.

A tone is mixed with gray will also appear less saturated, and it can appear lighter or darker in value depending on how much white is added to the gray tone.

Lastly, value is the measure of lightness or darkness of a color, regardless of the hue. In a color wheel, yellow appears as a hue with the lightest value, and violet appears as the hue with the darkest value. 

It can be helpful to know the value of the fabrics you are working with, especially when making a quilt that calls for a mix of light, medium and dark hues. When determining the value of your fabrics, try taking a photo of your fabrics and changing the filter of the image to black and white, and you will better understand whether your fabrics are of different values.

I hope this extra color theory knowledge will help you decide on your following sewing project colors and start giving some thought to the colors around you. Understanding the color wheel is a great way to explore your color preferences.

Until next time, happy sewing!

Carla
Have you heard of Roy G. Biv? Heā€™s a big deal in the color world, but who is Roy G. Biv, or rather, what is it? The name abbreviates the color spectrum: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
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