Using a Painted Warp: Understanding Value
One of my favorite parts of working with a painted warp are coming up with ways to use it on a loom. I have lots of ideas floating around in my head always. However, my children are young, and I haven't had much opportunity to weave with the warps I paint since I started this business. I will get the chance eventually, but for now, here are some ideas and considerations for working with your painted warp.
First and foremost, pay attention to VALUE.
The lightness or darkness of a color or hue is called it’s VALUE.
The lighter the color, the higher the value. For example, Yellow has a higher value than Purple. You change the value of a hue by adding white, grey or black.
About using your phone to find value: some people will use the black and white filters on their phone cameras to find value. This can be helpful, but it can also be deceiving. Phones have color filters to enhance photo quality, that may produce results that are inaccurate to the actual values.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
I like bright colors, and the dark value makes the vibrant colors pop more than white. Midnight, Deep Sea, Amethyst, and Auburn are my current go-to colors for dark values.
Swirling Snowflakes twill pattern, with Amethyst weft as a dark contrast.
Turned Taqueté pattern, with Black in the warp and Deep Sea in the weft as the dark contrast.
Log cabin pattern, which is a color effect using light and dark colors to create the illusion of a pattern. In the warp, the light color is Mardi Gras and the dark color is Black/Midnight. In the weft, the light color is Sea Breeze and the dark color is Black/Midnight. The Sea Breeze color does tone down the Mardi Gras colors a bit, but is similar enough in value. White would have washed out the Mardi Gras colors more.
 |
 |
 |
 |