Hating Certain Colours...

Hate is a pretty strong word, but many of us have certain colours that we really don’t like as much as others.  Mine has always been orange.  Orange crayons are always the pointiest ones in my box and I avoid wearing the colour at all costs.  It makes me look like Mr. Spock with the flu!  I think I’ve destroyed most of the photos from the summer where the only swimsuit in town that was long enough for my torso was black with big orange and red flowers on it. Total Yuck!

On Saturday, however, I noticed something odd.  Every second picture I took of fall colours were the really orange trees against the deep blue sky.  I know what the artists out there are thinking... “Of course you liked that image.  Orange and blue are complimentary colours and thus more dramatic!”  Blues and greens are my favourite colours to work with, but maybe I have been avoiding their complimentaries more than I need to.

So I decided to play around this week to see if I could be creative with colours that I didn’t like!

INHALE:  We humans tend to form opinions on things very quickly.  We call them gut reactions.  Spread out a bunch of coloured markers or papers on a table and ask people to choose their favourites.  Most people will find more than one or two colours that they instinctively gravitate towards.  There are many cool places on the web to read up about colour theory, but the Colour Matters site and Wet Canvas were two of the neatest I found.  Think about your favourite colours.  Do they change with the times or have they remained constant in your life.  How to your favourites make you feel?

EXHALE:  Today’s project is about taking baby steps with the colour that you dislike the most.  Find some pens or markers or coloured pencils in several shades of the colour you think you dislike the most.  Spread them out next to your sketchbook and look at the variety.  What objects can you think of that come in those colours? Are there any that you like?  I don’t like orange, but I do like fall leaves, pumpkins and oranges.  Scribble a patch of each colour then write what it make you think of next to it or draw things that come in those colours.  Write your name in that colour.  Write the word LOVE in that colour.  Doodle one of your favourite patterns in that colour, but basically fill the whole page with shades of the colour you think you dislike.

I expected to dislike the process more than I did.  It was actually kind of fun.  Maybe now my orange crayons won’t be the last ones with points.