APPLYING COLOURS TO DESIGNS

MAKING COLOUR SCHEMES (Inspired by Helen Cowans)

My first entry is about extracting colours from a photo which can be used as inspiration for design work.

Open a new document, I have gone for A4 size. Resolution 200

Click on the Rectangular Marquee Tool on the tool bar, left click and drag out a square on the document in the bottom left corner.  Mine is about half an inch from the bottom, half an inch from the side, and is about an inch square.

Click the Bucket Tool and fill the box with any colour.  Click Ctrl D (Cmd on a Mac)to remove the marching ants.  

Go to Layer - Duplicate Layer.  Hold down the Right Arrow on the Keyboard (bottom right), and the duplicated square should move to the right.  Move it along a little way to separate it, then go to Layer - Duplicate Layer again.  Repeat the process until you have five squares.

To even up the row of squares, go to the Layers Panel, hold down the shift key and click each layer until they are all highlighted or Select - Select All Layers. Left click the corner of one of the boxes (the little green arrow appears).  Now you can left click and drag all five squares where you want them.  (or you can use the arrows on the keyboard)Click the green arrow when done.  SAVE the document as Colour Template ( or something similar) and leave it open.

Open a colourful photo. Go to Image - Resize - Image Size and change the resolution 200.  I have cropped my image to similar proportions as the Template document (8 x 11 inches) so it is more in proportion.  (Image - Crop, and set the measurements on the Crop Tool Bar).   

Click Ctrl A to select the photo image and Ctrl C to copy it.  Click on the Template document and Ctrl V should transfer the photo over.  Drag the corners of the image to a suitable size and position.  Delete the original photo.

Now the fun bit!  Select the layer of the square you want to change. To extract colours from photo, click the Eyedropper Tool on the toolbar.  Click on the colour you want to extract.  You will see the selected colour reflected in foreground colour square (below the tool bar).   Now you can fill the chosen square with the Paint Bucket Tool.

When you have your collection of colours, SAVE AS A DIFFERENT NAME Like ‘Colour Scheme 1’

Now you can use the template with other photos and build up a good collection of colour schemes.

Have fun!

                                APPLYING COLOURS TO A DESIGN

I’ve been playing with pile of vegetable peelings.   As you can see, there are loads of different colours in there!  I have chosen just five and have had fun applying them to my designs.

The first example is just a simple gradient background using the two luscious reds. I have used this as a background for one of my drawings which I have converted from black to white.

The next example uses four of the colours.  This is a design that I plan to make into a cushion.  The white drawing at the back is a larger version of the red image at the front. 

To colour each element separately, click on the colour you want from your colour scheme using the EYEDROPPER TOOL (to choose the foreground colour), then select the area of the design that you want to fill using the MAGIC WAND TOOL.  Go to EDIT - FILL SELECTION.  

I have added a gradient background to this design.