Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Itten's Harmonious Proportions

 
As usual when given the challenge of  'beginnings' I started with brainstorming, recording ideas and sketches. I immediately thought of my beginnings in quilting, beginnings of art quilting and also beginnings in color. Below are a few shots from my sketchbook as I worked through some ideas.

Looking back now I may have preferred the finished quilts of my first sketches but I settled on the last one, partly out of time constraints but I did know I wanted to make a quilt based on black and white blocks and this was a good opportunity to do it.
Then which color or colors to add? That was quickly decided with the three primaries as this is a 'beginnings' quilt. As you see from the sketch I hadn't decided to put Itten's theory to work yet, but as I glanced at my book shelf , that old book from Color Theory class junped out at me and I immediately knew I would be using Itten's theory of Harmonious Proportions.
I took those relationship ratios and put then into a relationship among the three primaries and came up with 6 to 8 to 3. I decided I wanted my widest strip to be 2" so the blue was cut 2", red 1.75" and yellow 7/8". As I started to cut fabric for the binding it hit me that I needed to use the same relationships there.
Here are a few shots of the piece.
Thanks Vicki for fun challenge! 

7 comments:

  1. Wow Gina, you put a lot of thought into this one. I have itten's book, too so it is very familiar to me. It is very clean and streamlined and I love the little extra detail of the binding in proportions, too. The stitching with the variegated thread is very effective and gives it great depth. Love it.

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  2. Gina, I love black and white with shots of color, and your piece has that and other elements I love. It is clean and streamlined, and I like the juxtaposition of the straight and curved lines. And I love the way you bound it!

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  3. Once again you have effectively used art principles in your work to good advantage. The contrasting colors make a bold graphic statement.

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  4. Oh Gina I love how you have managed to take simple piecing and through colour and proportion make a bold and complex statement. Someday I may understand your explanation behind proportions, but suffice it to say that I will always look to your piece as an excellent example of proportions.

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  5. Oh yes, Johannes Itten, my bible in Art School! You’ve made a well balanced and colourful composition and a great quilt!!

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  6. Gina, I love the boldness of this piece. I am not familiar with Itten... goes to show you how I entered the art world backwards, I guess. You really put a lot of thought into your work. I love the quilting!!!

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  7. I really like this! I'm not familiar with Itten, either, but you've created a wonderful piece. The black and white with the primary colours works so perfectly, and the binding is fabulous.

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