Week 37

Custom Paint Swatches

BY ALMA DE LA MELENA COX | from Collage Fusion

Mixing fabric and paint can be tricky because of the variety of hues from which to combine and complement. This week's simple technique shows you how to create custom paints swatches to help you coordinate colors as you design a project. If you're a beginner, create custom swatches until you find a combination that sings to you. If you're a seasoned artist, challenge yourself with fabrics and colors you've never worked with before.

Materials

fat quarter fabric bundle

acrylic paints

paintbrush

paper

Paint swatches

Identify four to five colors that correspond to the fabric. Using a paint-brush and acrylic paints, paint a block of each color onto the paper. Use this paper as your reference while you design your piece. Then, combine your fabrics and paints into a unique piece using the Telamadera Fusion Technique.

Tip

Look to lesser-used colors in the fabric pattern when deciding which paints to use for the background. You can add white or black paint to the colors you choose to create more contrast.

For example, a fabric with some fuchsia in it might lead you to match a fuchsia paint color, but a better way would be to add white to make it pink, keeping it in the color family without overwhelming your piece.

Depending on the design, you can use as few as three paint colors or as many as you'd like to pair with the fabrics in the artwork.

From the Author…

Traditional quilt blocks like the one shown on page 98 are great for their inherent graphic design. Many are copyright-free, easy to trace and don't require much to create high impact on your wall.