Some color palettes

Experimenting with colors

I was inspired by "Snugbug" and her color portraits.

This is me, without make-up, with my natural hair color, some 15 years ago :-)  

My hair is dark ash blonde, honey blonde, caramel, light brown with a clear reddish tint in sunlight. And usually it has no color at all. It's pure grey. It's really interesting, actually :-D

Dishwater, mouse-y, dirt road color...

My skin has a grey tone too, I think. Certain pinkness... I think my skin is surprisingly light considering I'm a dark blonde with dark eyes and eyebrows, and also that I get olive green when I get tanned, not bronze-y, like most "Springs".  

My eyes are hazel, golden brown, amber (or topaz) in the middle and sage green on the edge.

 

   

I have tested this with fabrics and clothes of different colors myself when I was young (back at 80's, or when this thing came out :-D) and could only say one thing for certain. I'm warm, either "spring" or "autumn". I thought I was "autumn", because all the "springs" at that time were golden California blondes with blue or green eyes (or Irish strawberry blondes), and I don't look like that. My mother and sister do. 

Also, I love the "Spring" palette, and use those colors when I paint... I somehow thought that I couldn't possibly be "Spring", because I wanted to be "Spring" :-D Now I think that if I'm not "spring", I don't care, and use those colors anyway, because I love them :-D

Here's my Zyla colors (I'm a bit unhappy, because I came by this theory 20 years ago, I just didn't know it wasn't general knowledge... and now it's "Zyla colors".)

I am not OK with those hair colors, though... I think my hair is a bit different.

Seasonal color theory

This is the best test to find your colors:

The idea is simple. You like the colors best that fit you best. You like the style best that fits you best.

So - choose your favorite colors. You can pick as many of the colors you like. If you like all the burgundies, for example, pick all of them. In the end, you will have picked most colors from one column.
If you picked most colors from first column, you are a summer.
If you picked most colors from second column, you are a winter.
If you picked most colors from third column, you are a spring.
If you picked most colors from fourth column, you are an autumn.

You'll probably have quite a lot from another column, too, and less in the two others.

The column with most choices is your main season, the column with second most choices is your secondary season.

They say there are 4, 12 or 16 seasons, depending on how one sees thing.
First there were only four, and people were considered belonging 100% to one season. Now, all the colors of the season didn't work as well with all the people in the season, and this was noted already in the first version.
The second version counted three versions of each season; the main season was considered leaning to one of the others. Dark autumns were considered being autumn-winters; light and softer autumns were autumn-summers and the light and bright autumns were autumn-springs, and so on.
The third version is that there are actually some people who don't "lean" anywhere. They could actually use all the colors from their main palette equally well, and couldn't add colors from another season.

For example, me.

I hate purple. All shades of it. I know I look amazing in bright violet, but I don't like it. (I think they call it "grape")

I love burgundy. Especially, the rich, chocolate-y maroon-y burgundy. Some call it aubergine, some plum, some dark cherry... I call it the color of black flowers :-)

I also love blue-greens. Almost all shades of it. I don't like cyan and strong turquoise, but aqua is lovely.

I got most of my dots on Spring, about half as many on Autumn, and a few in Summer and Winter.

You can also do this differently.
Choose the colors you dislike most.

I don't like muted colors, murky, "dirty" colors, "dusty" colors, grey or bright, sharp colors, like "shocking", "electric" or neon.
If you look at these charts for Spring, those colors marked as "worst colors" ARE the worst colors I know. Old rose, lavender rose, pink lavender, English lavender, rosy brown, taupe, mauve, mauve taupe... yuk!

Bright aqua makes my skin look amazing.

Design seeds

Well... there's this site called "design seeds" where they make beautiful palettes of nice photos. They are not exactly my palettes, so I'll do some of my own...

And here's a idea board for a bedroom using these colors... I really need to learn to use shades :-D
But I'd love this room. I wonder if I'm Autumn (Color season theory) and not Spring...

colorscope and french braid

Paper source colorscope: how does it work? You choose the color(s) you like best. One or two. If you can't decide, take three, but not more.
I chose peacock and papaya.

Oh... On the other hand, I like the least colors like beet, fuchsia, black and paper bag, and those say about the same thing... so... Hmm...

What ever. What I found most interesting is that when I was choosing, I copied this picture on my PSP, and removed the colors I like least, and ended up with Spring colors (Spring as in "color me beautiful")... :-D
Now, that says more about me, I think. I love the spring colors.

I like this one: "your smile alone can brighten a day" :-)


1000 days of hair, day 2

Now, I won't post a picture of my french braid, but here's a tutorial on how to do it yourself. It's not as difficult as it seems... take your time and practice, and you'll see it's really easy.