Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Colors: The Basics

Putting together an outfit, making a painting, designing your blog or website, painting the house, putting together the interiors of our house, one of the common link between all these activities is picking up the color or coordinating other things around one color. Sometimes we keep scratching our heads but the things do not really come together the way we had imagined. And the worse situation is when you have to describe the color you have imagined to a third party. How many times has it happened that we are picturing a color in our mind but are not able to explain it ??? or we want to use multiple colors together but have no clue how to pair them up????

Her I am outlining a basic guide to color selection but then first we need to start from the basics.


The Color Wheel


Developed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666, is the basic tool to depict the main hues/colors from which the other colors are derived.
Now color can be divided into 3 categories: Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Colors.

Primary Colors: The ones which can not be made by mixing any other colors.
Red, Blue Yellow

Secondary Colors: These are in between the primary colors and are made by mixing 2 primary colors.
Orange = Red + Yellow
Green = Yellow + Blue
Violet = Red + Blue

Tertiary Colors: These are formed by mixing a primary and a secondary color


 There lies a full spectrum of colors between the each primary and secondary color as shown below:



Color Terminologies: Hue, Tints, Shades and Tones



Hue: Hue is what we talk about when describing a color or color family like red, blue or green. It is the 
"pure" color. 


                                                    



Tint: Add white to a Hue and you get a tint. So "tinting" a color maenad adding white to it. Like Pink is a tint of the hue red














Shade: Its a result of adding black to the hue. Like garnet is a shade of red.



Tones: Adding both black and white to a hue gives a tone, i.e we are aging grey to the hue. It is done to reduce the intensity of the hue.




So this is how a hue looks on a color wheel with its tints and shades:





Color Harmony


Color Harmony in the simplest way is to pair up 2 or more colors and to make sure that they look good together. Many a times we are in a fix when we want to work with more then one color, e.g You want that your living room should have 3 colors with blue being the main color, but you do not know how to pick up the other 2 colors, or, you want to color block your outfit and you have picked up a pink skirt as the main element of your outfit and now you have to decide whether to pair the pink with 2 or 3 colors and how to choose these colors. To make sure that the colors chosen are in perfect harmony, we need to follow a color scheme. There pre-defined color schemes form the basis of all the color combinations we make. What I have explained further is true for all the hues including their respective tints, tomes and shades.

Let us understand the concepts of core and accent colors in a color scheme, followed on by how to pick a particular color scheme:

Core Color: Its the main/dominant color of the color scheme. Its the main color of the outfit, room, or painting
Accent Colors: These can be 2, 3 or more and can be chosen in the following formats:



Analogous:
Colors which are next to each other on the color wheel. 2, 3 or more colors can be chosen for perfect harmony.
Complimentary:
Colors which are directly opposite each other on the color wheel. This color scheme represents the most dramatic contrast and it should be used in light doses until and unless the impact desired is very loud.
Split-Complimentary:
Choose a color and then choose the 2 colors on either side of its compliment. This again has a great contrast but a little less intensity then the complimentary color scheme.
Triadic:
3 colors which are equidistant from each other and make an equilateral triangle. To use this color scheme, for best results, let one color to dominate and other two be the accents.
Tetradic / Rectangle:
Two pairs of complimentary colors which form a rectangle. Again let one color be the core color.







Square :
Similar to rectangle color scheme except that all the four colors are equally spaced forming an equilateral square











Warm and Cool Colors:
Warm Colors are red, yellow and orange
Cool colors are blue, green and violet
Two warm colors with one cool color or two cool colors with one warm color creates a dynamic harmony.



Some other schemes:

Monochromatic Colors : Same color but used with own tint, tone or shade
Achromatic Colors : Neutral colors like White, Black, Grey or Beige


P.S : I hope this post will be beneficial to all in one way or the other. Do let me know if you want more such posts with Color as the main subject

Thursday, January 26, 2012

63rd Republic Day

Disclaimer: This post will not be of interest to the non Indian readers, so you can let this one pass :) :)

I wan not planning to do a post today but then this conversation happened in the morning :a

Husband: Just after getting up says, its Republic Day, switch on the television, they must be telecasting the Republic Day parade.
Me: What are you saying??? I used to watch the R Day parade when i was a small kid. Grown ups don't watch this stuff, its for kids.

Anyways,  I switched on the TV and started watching the parade and realized how stupid and wrong and ridiculously ignorant I am or lets say I was.
I felt proud and happy watching the parade.

It began with the arrival of the Prime minister Manmohan Singh who laid a wreath on the Amar Jawaan Jyoti.


Then was the President's arrival flanked by the President's Bodyguards on the mounts. Did you know that President's Bodyguards are the oldest and most senior regiment of the Indian army. A section of pesident’s army also serves in Siachen.
Those immaculately dressed bodyguards looked like a perfect combination of man and mount. The President was accompanied by Thailand's Prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was the chief guest for this years Republic Day Parade. She is the youngest and first women Prime Minister of Thailand with an extensive experience in the corporate world.

The President then hoisted the Indian tricolor at the rajpath followed by the National Anthem and the awarding of Ashok Chakra to Lieutenant Navdeep Singh, posthumously.

The Parade then was commenced by the flight of 4 M16 helicopters carrying the Indian flag and the 3 service flags of Indian Army, Air Force and Navy.






Then came various Marching Contingents, Music Bands of various forces across India, and the Mechanized Cavalry displaying the Military might of India. The President of India who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Armed Forces, took the salute from the marching contingents.








Did you know????
  • 61 Cavalry is the only horse cavalry regiment in the world
  • 11 Gorkha Rifles regiment is the only gorkha regiment to be re-raised after independence
  • BSF has the only camel mounted music band in the world and also features in the Guinness World Records.
  • Delhi police marching contingent's members are all atleast 6 feet tall and they have been participating in the Republic day parade ever since India became a republic




You all should see how these regiments and bands march. Its a sight, the amazing sync and discipline that is showcased.
Also I loved BSF's Camel march regiment. The riders were wearing the traditional peela safa (yellow turban), achkans, a Kalgi ( ornament for the turban) and the camels were also decorate






Also shown were the DRDO equipment columns which consisted of: 

  • Agni 4 Missile: Range 3000km and ability to be launched from a mobile launcher 
  • Prahaar missile: A tactical battlefield missile, its navigation system leading to high accuracy
  • Rustum 1: An unmanned aerial vehicle 
(Read More here)

23 Tableau were shown of various states and ministries. Diversity, creativity and color took center stage. It was a true depiction of complete unity in diversity. Each tableau had a distinctive theme from education to peace to tourism, culture, architecture, dances, traditions, handicrafts, agriculture importance of steel, importance of voting , importance of Information technology.

The best piece of information was from the Tableau of Bihar. A small village Dharhara of Bhagalpur district in Bihar has the tradition of planting 10 fruit bearing trees to celebrate the birth of every girl born. They say that girls and trees are both required and the world can not go on without them. How thoughtful is this? Did you knew about this?

Then came the children chosen for their bravery on decorated jeeps. 24 children have been chosen this year for their brave and heroic acts.

Now was the time for some Cultural / dance performances by 1200 children showcasing the following dances:

  • Importance of Education
  • Pondicherry’s traditional dance
  • Orissa's tribal dance
  • Maharashtrian folk dance depicting joy of the fishermen 
  • Madhya Pradesh's folk dance 

Then came the heroic acts of BSF's Motorcycle Riders. They showcased skills like standing on the bike, side riding formation while drinking tea,  yoga on a bike, ladder double formaton reading newspaper, Pyramid formation: 8 on a bike, Floral formation with a bumble bee on top, 6 bikes and 40 riders and lastly 9 bikes and 41 riders. It was a sheer spectacle of balance, control, discipline and years of practice.



Lastly came the Indian Air Force's Flypast. Magnificent men in their magnificent machines showed some brilliant formations. My favorite being the Arrowhead formation by the 5 Jaguar Aircrafts and the Vertical Charlie


The flypast was the  high note to the conclusion of celebrations.
National anthem was played to conclude the parade and lastly was the symbolic unleashing of our aspirations as the tricolor balloons were released.

I had seen The Republic Day Parade after ages and it was an enriching experience. Never again will I say that its for kids.

Happy Republic Day!!!!!




P.S: Its Okay if you have skipped the long post. I had to document this experience for my sake and hence I have kept it detailed. Thanks for bearing with me :) :)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Its all about ME: Part 1

The Message:




The Disclaimer:

These following facts are what I have experienced, realized, thought, felt, observed over a past couple of years, months, weeks and days. Some of these are related to the Blog world and some to my personal life. There is no co relation between one and another. Basically this is a random post about random things in my head that keep coming back to me on a regular basis :) :) Any resemblance to any person living or dead is definitely possible but is purely coincidental :P :P.
Your opinions and comments are most welcome.

So here we go:

  • I can not become friends with a group of people who have already being friends or at least move in the same group. If those people do not make genuine efforts to make me comfortable, I simply feel as if I am intruding. One faces such situations when either you are newly married (this is still a tolerable situation)  or when you move to a new country where you get introduced by a friend to his or her's friend circle and not all are so welcoming...
  • I can talk endlessly on any topic under the sun but then you will have to start the conversation. I am a total waste as far as starting a conversation is concerned. This is the reason why I fear meeting fellow bloggers or any new person.
  • I am thinking to un follow some of the bloggers because they seem to be think like me too such an extent that it creeps me out to see the similarities.
  • These days I have been thinking about training myself in one of the paper craft formats that I picked up a long time ago but haven't explored fully.
  • Some of the  girls/women that I meet are too judgmental about me. They do not like my thoughts, my beliefs, my way of living, my dressing and somehow they always try to find faults with what I do. I guess know they are threatened by me :P :)
  • Also after 2 years of MBA and my interactions with people I also realized that I am quite likable and I am fun to be around and this thought of mine is based on the fact that people have come up to me and said so :) :) and they were genuine comments.
  • When I joined MBA, and told people that I was married, their jaws dropped to the floor, really, they were like: How? Why? When? married for 2 years? Will stay away from your husband for 2 years?....... I was a married girl, with not extra baggages that girls tend to carry after marriages, I was (I still am:)) fun, happy, cheerful and very unorthodox, and I think that hit the right cord. 

I have previously written 7 random facts about me here. I think I will make this a regular feature on my blog. What do you have to say about that ??????


Saturday, January 21, 2012

The Arabesque Collection Poll

So now that I have unveiled all the 5 paintings of my latest collection, I would like to know what you think about each one of them in comparison to the other. So I have set up this poll for you to vote for the painting that you liked the best and if possible, then do tell me the reasons for your preference. This will help me put things in perspective while I go on designing more of the Art Work.









The Arabesque Collection Part 4 and 5

This painting is clearly inspired from the traditional Henna designs, full with swirls, flowers and leaves.
The classic combination of dark and light blue with white is very Mediterranean in its feel.  I have colored this painting with acrylics only, so no coffee in this one. I had earlier showed this painting in the very first post for 2012, here.






Following has been the biggest work I have done so far. Its based on the intricately carved doors of the Royal Palaces. Just like the very first painting of this collection that you saw here, this one also has been colored entirely with coffee and also has the 1 layer of texture in form of Henna designs.







A poll coming up next, so stay tuned :)

Friday, January 20, 2012

The Arabesque Collection Part 3 and A Relaxed Weekend

As mentioned here, my 2 day long weekend starts today. I have woken up to a nice and cool morning and for the first time in a couple of weeks me and my husband have decided to sit back home and relax and I am loving it so far :) :)  So we plan to be couch potatoes watching one movie after another and eating some home cooked comfort food :) :)

I am so very much looking forward to doing more or less nothing :) :)

Do you like such weekends?? What is our idea of a perfect weekend at home?????

And here is the 3rd painting of the Arabesque Collection first mentioned here. This one again is colored with coffee and even in the red and oranges acrylic colors, I have mixed coffee to make these colors more earthy.

All of you have been surprised with the use of coffee for coloring. Its actually fairly simple to do so. All you need is a good old coffee that we use at our homes and mix it with water and then get going. Nothing major to be done there :) :)

There are 2 more to go after this, so stay tuned :) :)
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And yes, I am loving all the appreciation you guys are showering on me, so keep it coming :) :)