color studies

Another method to my madness is how I do color studies. I like to do my color studies by flipping through magazines and pulling out the colors I like and then I glue them in a hodge podge mess and throw them in a sketch book. It looks like controlled chaos but I like doing them this way because I can open a few pages and look at a lot of my personal color picks and see how they interact together at a glance. I do need to focus on doing some more specific color boards right now, specifically a fall color board filled with oranges and reds. I tend toward the cool side so I am going to conciously focus on warm tones. The second color study spread is the one I used for the current Shimmer Studio line of stationery.

inspirations

I'm lucky to live in a city like Chicago that has some very inspiring architectural details. Above are a few that have caught my eye this winter. I took them with my iPhone so they are not my best photos. I hope to take my camera out many times this summer and focus on more architectural details around the city.

color Inspiration

I love gladiolas. I buy them at the Farmer's markets in the summer. Usually I like to get dark rich colors like purple and red but I find this color combination so refreshing and tranquil right now. It reminds me of summertime and I look forward to spring and summer coming. I love the green with the pink.

walkabout

It is such a beautiful day today that I decided to take my camera for a little walk. Above are some of the things I saw today that inspire me and are just beautiful. I absolutely love sculptures and one of the great things about Chicago is that they sometimes just appear randomly although the two sculptures I photographed today have been around for a little while. My new favorite sculpture is the one of the woman on the left side (I call her the faerie) and her lower section is a trellis for the vines to grow up. She is by Congress and Michigan Avenue. I absolutely love this sculpture. I have not been able to find any information on her on the internet but I will keep looking. The other sculpture in the collage is at the Art Institute and is titled "Large Interior Form" by Henry Moore. The photo directly below the Henry Moore sculpture is a close-up macro shot of the one of the Lions in front of the Art Institute. The Lions are Bronze and the aged patina is a beautiful color. It is so interesting to see humans artistic mark on the world alongside nature. Then the sculpture almost becomes a part of nature because it is then subjected to the natural world and will age on her terms.

I love all types of sculptures. Maybe it's because I don't think in 3D — I think and visualize in 2D. My most successful attempt at sculpture was eaten by my dog in High School (it had a milk patina and my doggie loved milk so there you go... don't soak artwork in your dog's favorite treat). The flowers are from Millennium Park and along Michigan Avenue. I love the colors in the flowers — purple, pink and orange. It was a great day to be outside and take a little walk.

inspirations

inspirations