Hi and welcome back to the Chrissie Murphy Designs Blog. This week’s Magnified Fragment is B11. So without further ado, let’s get into it, have a look at the enhancer we’ll be using. I’ve also included links to some resources you might find helpful for this week.
This Week’s Magnified Fragment is B11
Here’s a quick sketch of what the fragment looks like as a reference for you.
This week’s Magnified Fragment Enhancer is to focus on Low Contrast
This week’s enhancer idea is a little more of an advanced technique, but we’re going to give it a go. We are going to create a tile that focuses on low contrast elements only.
In order to do so, it’s important for us to understand what contrast is. Contrast can be described as:
Where you compare something in order to show unlikeness or differences.
So if we’re trying to create a tile that focuses on low contrast, the differences we focus on will be as low or as minimal as possible.
I will be using pastel colours (they are all different, BUT because they are so softly toned, they have a low contrast when used together). I will also only be using grid based patterns. This is so there is a strong similarity to how my tile is structured to lower the contrast.
I have some ideas and links to good examples for you in our resources this week. Please read on.
Some resources to help you with this week’s Magnified Fragment
Here’s some ideas of how you can focus on low contrast in your tile this week;
- Use similar colours – Any colouring that you apply should be from neighbouring colours on the colour wheel. For example, blue and orange are high contrast colours because they sit opposite each other on the colour wheel, but blue and light blue sit next to each other on the wheel and are lower in contrast.
- Use similar structured tangles – Flukes and Mooka are higher contrast tangles as their differences are much more noticeable. One uses only straight lines, the other is full of curvy lines. But using Flukes and Cubine is lower in contrast as their structure is very similar.
- Use similar coloured inks – This is the same principle as using colour above.
Here’s a couple of great examples I have found online to highlight the principle for us.
Julee Laur, CZT (@Momdoesart on Instagram) has a great example of low contrast colouring and low contrast structured tangles. You can see in her image above that the colour tones she used are very similar to each other. The patterns she has used also have many similar elements. Notice the same kind of widths to the aura-ing, that’s happening between the two patterns. Both feature gentle curvy lines.
There is a little higher contrast in the inks, but overall, this is a great example of a low contrast tile.
Here’s another couple. These tiles are by Sophia Lu (@Sophialu0819 on Instagram). I am in love with Sophia’s work! In these examples, you can see how Sophia has treated the tiles with different colours, but in each tile they are very similarly toned.
She has also used very similar tangle structures. one features seed shaped tangles that morph well with orbs, the other uses curved lines which also morphs well with orbs.
Her use of white ink has been very clever here too. Because it’s been applied over the browns, it’s toned down slightly and contrasts less against the black ink. These are two great examples of Low Contrast tiles.
Hopefully this gives you a good idea of what we’re focusing on this week.
Don’t forget
If you have any ideas for an enhancer in Part 2 of the Project, leave me a comment and we’ll feature them in upcoming fragments.
Now is the perfect time to join us, the more the merrier. Just tag your tile with #MagnifiedFragments and I’ll see it, share it and add it to our gallery.
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Until next time, listen to your heart and sharpen your coloured pencils. A masterpiece awaits!
Bless you my friend
Chrissie xx
