Principles of Design - Contrast

The Waverley Art Quilters are studying the book Connecting Design to Stitch by Sandra Meech. This is the third and final year that we will have studied the book as we will have finished the book by the end of the year. We have art quilters at all stages in our group from beginner to advanced, so this has been a great way for the beginners to learn about design and it never hurts for the more advanced quilters to have a refresher course.

Last month we were reading all about Contrast. Contrast is very important in design because it highlights the centre of interest and affects the rhythm, balance and unity of a quilt.

One of the most obvious ways to achieve contrast is by value; value is the amount of light or dark in a colour. One of the best ways to find out if you have enough value contrast is to change your quilt photo into black and white.
 Most people have smart phones these days and you don't even need to take and photo and convert it to black and white with the modern phones. You just click on the black and white button in the camera app and you see the image through the phone.

I have a photo of a little quilt I did years ago and at first glance you might think that it doesn't have enough value contrast.

Summer by Linda Steele

When you look at the photo in black and white you can clearly see the value contrast.

Another way to achieve contrast is by size, I put different size fish in my Life on the Reef quilt to add interest.

Life on the Reef detail

Just for interest I looked at my Life on the Reef quilt in Black and White and although there is some value contrast I think I could have improved the quilt with even more. The bottom section has a definite lack of contrast.

For my Art Quilters project I wanted to continue my practice with contemporary piecing and so made a quilt where I was thinking about winter ice. The contrast with this is obviously value contrast; it is only small about 16" x 12"

Winter Ice ©2017 Linda Steele

Bye for now,
Linda