Working with Monochromatic Colors Schemes

Working in a monochromatic color way is a great way to learn more about how to use color. Here on a standard color wheel, we see all 12 colors that are available to us. In each one we get to see lots of different varieties in the values of those colors. As we choose fabrics, we want to include lots of different values also. Having a color tool such as this one, which shows us the tones, tints, shades and pure hues of a color is very helpful.

Here we've chosen different varieties of both yellow green and orange. We have yellow green in very very light all the way to very dark with the pure hue here in the middle. In orange we have very light and very dark with the pure hue in the middle also. We want to make sure when we're choosing our fabrics that we also have very interesting visual textures. So we have lots of different things printed on the surface of the fabrics.

This will make our quilts more interesting. So let's look at a few quilts that are monochromatic. Our first one is blue. It's a traditional style table runner, and it's made from squares. But each of the fabrics in the squares has a different visual texture on it.

So that it adds a lot of interest to the piece. The value is very similar, and all of the blues that are included are shades of blue. That means there's been black added. But we have a nice neutral setting it off, and great visual textures in different sizes and different styles to make it interesting. The next quilt is red.

It's sitting on a black, or a neutral background, and it's painted fabric. There are lots of different varieties of red. When I painted this, I used about 22 different versions of red to get all the subtlety in here. And we have some deep dark red, almost all the way to black, as well as some medium, and medium lights with a little bit of gold in there. And that mixture gives us a very very complex look, and makes it much more interesting than it would've been if I had just used one or two reds.

Finally we have yellow orange. And this quilt has lots and lots of different varieties of yellow orange. Yellow orange is a tertiary color, whereas the blue and the red were primary colors. Tertiary colors have a lot more variety in them, because yellow orange, which is mixed from yellow and orange can have yellow with just a little bit of orange in it, or orange with a little bit of yellow in it, or anywhere in between. So this quilt shows you lots of different varieties of that color.

We have very light yellow oranges, very dark yellow oranges, very orange yellow oranges, and then very yellow yellow oranges. Working with monochromatics will really help you understand the color scale and value, and really hit home all the importance of visual texture. I hope you enjoy working with a monochromatic color scheme.