Flower Arrangement

Lesson 04 : Basic Elements of Art in Flower Arrangement

Colour

Color is probably the single most important element of flo­ral design. An arrangement can be designed beautifully, but if the colors are not pleasing, the arrangement won't appeal to a customer. Fortunately, it is only necessary to understand a few basic principles to make effective use of color.

The Colour Wheel
The color wheel is a tool that may help you understand the use of color. If you hold a prism up to the sunlight, colors of the rainbow will appear. These colors make up the colors of clear light that can be seen by the eye. This is known as the visible light spectrum and includes red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. When you look at a rainbow, these colors always appear in this order. A simple color wheel can be constructed by placing them in a circle.
The traditional color wheel is made up of twelve colors. The six colors that comprise the visible light spectrum are called primary and secondary colors

The other six intermediate, or tertiary, colors are created when primary colors are mixed in equal amounts with an adjacent secondary color. These colors are also called hues. All originate from three primary colors-red, yellow and blue, which cannot be made by mixing any other combina­tions of colors.

When one mixes two primary colors, secondary colors are created. Red combined with yellow produces secondary orange. Yellow plus blue yields secondary green. Blue added to red produces secondary violet (see color insert).

Other color characteristics important to the designer are chroma and value. Chroma is a measure of brightness or dullness and is determined by the amount of pigment in a flower. Pigments are minerals or other chemicals that reflect light in specific ways so that we see color. They absorb cer­tain colors and reflect others which the eye detects. A yellow marigold contains yellow pigment, so it absorbs all other color and reflects yellow.

Value:
Value is how light or dark a color is. Colors are light­ened by the addition of white, muted by gray, and darkened by adding black. Add white to a color and create a tint. Add gray for a tone, and black to create a shade. By altering the value, a designer controls the emotional im­pact of a design.

There are rules for applying color theory. For example, lighter tints and tones should be used in greater amounts than darker ones. The "rule of thumb" suggests that in an arrangement containing three colors, 65 percent of the flow­ers should be of the lightest value, 25 percent the mid-range, and 10 percent the darkest. Use the lightest colors predomi­nantly on the edges, and the middle values next nearest the center. Blend the darkest value into the focal area. This does not suggest that you create layers of color in an arrange­ment. The colors should be interspread in such a manner that a sense of unity is achieved.

Emotional Responses to Colour
Colors create an emotional response that is different for each person. The study of how individuals react to color is called the psychology of color. This reaction can usually be traced to one's educational background, personality, and geographical location. For ex­ample, what colors do you associate with Christmas? Your immediate response was probably red and green. Red and green are colors that we have been taught through associa­tion to relate to Christmas. This may not be true in other geographic areas.

Colors may appear to advance (toward) or receede (from the viewer). This is illustrated in the colors we use to paint a room. A large room may be painted in warm, advancing col­ors to make it appear smaller and cozier. A small room might be painted in cool, receding colors such as blue or green so the room appears larger. This response to colors is important when selecting colors for arrangements. If an arrangement is to be viewed from a distance as might be the case in a large building, such as a church, select flowers in warm, advanc­ing colors such as yellow. Flowers of a cool hue tend to fade out and cannot be seen from a long distance.

Colors can also create moods, such as excitement or re­laxation. In general, outgoing people are attracted to warm colors: red, orange, and yellow. Private people are usually at­tracted to cool colors: green, blue, and violet. Additionally, each of the colors in flowers or foliage conveys a symbolic message to the viewer which can, in turn, create a theme or emotional response to an arrangement. Some of these are listed below.

• Yellow-happy, cheerful, bright, symbolic of friendship and the spring season.
• Red-stimulating, exciting, warm, joyful, expresses love.
• Blue-quiet, cool and retiring, dignity and formality.
• Orange-warmth, autumn color, pumpkins and Halloween.
• Green-restful, symbolic of living things and St. Patrick's Day.
• Violet-restful denotes royalty and elegance.
• White-purity and innocence, weddings, snow.

Colour Harmonies Color harmonies are combinations of col­ors that are pleasing to the eye. The designer creates these by grouping different hues or combining tints, tones, and shades of a single hue.

A monochromatic color scheme consists of a single hue and its variations in tint, tone, and shade (Figure 4.1). One value should dominate for interest. A monochromatic design will become monotonous unless the materials have interesting form and texture. Color values must also be selected with care. Different flowers of the same value would be harmonious but lack interest. Add a flower of darker or lighter value and the arrangement develops greater appeal.
An analogous harmony is achieved by using three or more hues which occur next to each other on the color wheel (Figure 4.2). One of these should be a primary color, which should predominate over the others.

A complementary color harmony is a combination of any two colors opposite each other on the color wheel (Figure 4.3). This combination produces a strong contrast of cool and warm colors. Cool colors, grouped on one side of the color wheel, include violet, blue, green, and their intermediate colors. Warm colors are grouped on the other side and include yellow, orange, and red, and their in¬termediate hues. Use complementary colors to dominate the arrangement and create an emphasis. Use tints and shades of the complementary color to accent the design.

A split-complementary color scheme uses any color with the two colors on each side of its complement (Figure 4.4). The color contrast is not as great for this harmony as in the complementary color scheme. Select a single color for emphasis. A triadic color harmony is found by using any three col¬ors that are equally spaced on the color wheel (Figure 4.5). Allow one color to provide emphasis. A polychromatic color harmony uses three or more un¬related colors (Figure 4.6). When using this color scheme, select tints and shades that are pleasing together. Again, allow one color to dominate.