I’ve been trying to get my act together to redo a lot of my photos for listings – I just don’t feel like they’re eye-catching enough to be competitive on Etsy. Some of the pieces that I have waiting to list are monochromatic so I wanted to really accentuate the colors and make them pop; I’ve been looking into color theory – not in depth, but enough to be able to coordinate the backgrounds of my photos with the pieces to make them stand out. In my readings, I came across this awesome site called ColourLovers.com – and it’s basically what the name implies. The site is dedicated to those who love colors and creating interesting color palettes and patterns. In looking at a lot of the color palettes that the users have put together I’ve come to a few realizations about a few hues, along with a few examples…
- Red – I think red is a very hard color to get along with. Red is a color you either love or hate; it can be eye pleasing, or it can be obnoxious. I also hate that red is always associated with love or lust, and you can’t really look at red without thinking of those things. It bugs me that you can’t have red in a color scheme without it looking like Valentine’s Day threw up.
- Purple – Coincidental that it’s a member of the red family? Perhaps. I am not a fan of purple, but I think it can be pretty when combined with other colors. Think of the vineyard colors – mossy greens, chocolate browns, maybe paired with a wine-ish color. But I don’t like purple on it’s own, and you’ll tend to notice I don’t use it a lot in my work.
- Pinks, mauves, etc. – I love pink, I really do. Give me a hot pink accessory like socks or a scarf and I’ll wear it until it falls apart. But I don’t like baby pinks, mauves, etc. almost as much as I don’t like purple. I’m not sure why – maybe it’s because at one point in time I had a bedroom painted mauve and it almost glowed even when the lights were off. Hmm.
- Gray, black – I love these darker shades. I love black – the unknown aspects of it; I love dark gray and how it wants to be mysterious like black, but can’t fully let itself go and hangs on to white. I like how it’s a mix of traditional good vs evil, hope vs doom; but I think black in and of itself can be hopeful – it’s like a long rest and that darkness you see behind your eyelids right before you wake up.
