Understanding Colour Theory in Floral Design

Hi and welcome everyone. In this tutorial I wanted to talk to you about something that is so important in regards to design and floral design and that is colour and colour harmony. If you've watched a few of my tutorials now you'll know that I have this kind of weird obsession about colour. I talk about how certain colours talk to each other, all of those things because it's one of the just the premium element I think in your elements and principles of design that really has an emotional effect on people but also just in regards to the overall cohesiveness of your design and it's not just colour within the design itself and the way the flowers talk to each other but it's also acknowledging and understanding how that colour palette works within the space that you're in as well and the room and the overall aesthetic where this design is going. So lots to talk about here when I used to teach this at a certificate four level at in college and we would talk about colour for a whole term. So I'm attempting today to condense this into some short sharp little demonstrations and conversations around a very simple bouquet because I want you to see those colours actually in an arrangement albeit a very simple design. So let's get started. First of all I wanted to talk to you about monochromatic colour harmony. Now if you haven't got a colour wheel I highly recommend that you get one. As a designer you really need to understand the way colour works, the way it speaks to people and also how to use it well and how to be brave with your colour. It's important that you understand how colour works. So I highly recommend you get yourself a colour wheel. I have added design notes in this one, a very comprehensive document that you can download about colour and colour harmonies. So if you're not sure about anything that we talk about today make sure that you have a look at that as well. So first of all we're talking about a monochromatic colour harmony and mono meaning one. Now this can be in regards to you know pinks or blues or yellows or oranges, it doesn't matter what colour it is as long as you're moving from a pale to a dark tone of the same colour or of the same line on the colour wheel. But we also talk about that in regards to mono being say a white and green bouquets. Now not to confuse you but white actually isn't considered a colour on the colour wheel, it's a neutral. White, grey, black are all neutrals on the colour wheel which means that you can add white and grey and black to any colour harmony and it won't be incorrect or it won't be wrong. But to start with this conversation I wanted to show you a monochromatic bouquet of just whites and greens and I've just as I said just made it really really simple. We've got variations of that green into a really bright white but also you'll see there's a tiny little bit of yellow in these aquileges and that talks beautifully to the white poppies. So even though we're maybe dancing with breaking a rule I did want to just show you by bringing in another white essentially that has that little hint of yellow then that picks up the little bit of yellow in the aquilegia still means it's monochromatic and it still means that it is a you know one colour harmony bouquet. Okay so I wanted to also share with you a monochromatic in a colour now that I've showed you the monochromatic in the neutral. I wanted to make sure that you understand what monochromatic means and this personally this is the colour harmony that I gravitate towards the most. Once I have one particular flower it just could be one element and then it's just natural for my eye to move to a darker or a lighter shade and tone of that one colour. Now this obviously is pink and you'll find pink on the red quadrant of your colour wheel and you'll see that your red once you add white and you add a little bit more white a little bit more white you move into that pink and then if you add a little bit more black a little bit more black you move into that burgundy and those darker dusty pinky tones and that's essentially what this is here a monochromatic colour scheme in a pink tones and even bringing in this kangaroo paw you can see then I can also bring in this darker burgundy kangaroo paw and then that ties in really beautifully with the darker status. So as I said this this one probably appeals to me the most I would say out of every colour harmony it's just one that I just kind of I don't know my eyes like it I guess not necessarily pink but just that sense of moving with one colour but darker and lighter tones of that one colour. Now I'd like to share with you my thoughts on not necessarily a colour harmony but a rule that I think you should really consider when you're putting your bogeys together. Now within the realms of colour we have bright what we call hot colours and we also have pastels of that same tone so if you can imagine you know yellow yellow is a classic example I've got a hot bright yellow poppy here and then I've got almost buttery pastel yellow aqualegias you can see how soft they are. Now as a rule I think you should really consider that once you start you've made the decision to work with hot bright colours stay there. It doesn't mean that you have to have all yellow or all orange some of the most beautiful colour combinations are right here where you've got hot purple hot orange hot yellow hot pink you can see how dynamic that is and every flower is having its moment in the sun so to speak and every flower is shining no one is taking over anyone else they're all they're all fighting for your attention but they're doing it beautifully together and the same with your pastels you know when you've got these beautiful pastel tones together you can see how lovely and cohesive they are together you know think about mauve and pale pink and butter yellow and apricot all of those tones are beautiful together too. The mistake I see people making is once they go into this hot realm and then you try to add in you know these pastel tones you can see that they just grey out they just disappear they don't sing at all they just completely wash out whereas if you've got all your pastels together they all sing you've got all your hot colours together and they do as well. There's only one I guess area that we can break that rule and that's if we go down the monochromatic road and that's when say we were instance using yellows we can go yellow we've got that bright yellow we're going to move into that paler yellow and into you know this aqua legia then into say you know almost greeny whites and you can see that that can work beautifully together so pastels and brights only when you're in a monochromatic colour harmony every single colour if you want to stay in your hot realm and every colour if you want to stay in your pastel realm I hope that makes sense. Now we're looking at the analogous colour harmony so this one on the colour wheel is the three colours that are directly adjacent to each other on the wheel so it can it for this instance we're looking at orange to yellows to lime yellow into green and they're the three that run beside each other they can still be lighter and darker tones of those colours they don't all need to be hot but they you see that they're definite different colours down on the wheel so we've got orange in the ranunculus and the poppies moving into a darker yellow and then a pale yellow and then bringing in a little bit more of that limey green with the carnations and the columbines and another thing to consider too is that you can bring in your wrap and your to change that colour harmony so you might find that you've got a bouquet that's almost all orange but then when you wrap it with lemons and green and limey green you're actually creating a whole bouquet that's an analogous colour scheme so you know for me orange is actually one of my least favourite coloured flowers if I can say that but when I have it in a colour harmony like this where it's talking to these other elements and you can see you know those tones work together I think that just makes orange sing I just that like that bouquet I love um so yeah I hope you consider an analogous colour scheme the three colours that are adjacent to each other on the wheel with this colour harmony I wanted to share with you a complementary colour harmony so this is when we're looking at the colour wheel and we're looking at a colour that's directly opposite each other so for this instance we're going to be using purple and yellow now nature does this beautifully well you might think that's a little bit scary so we're really starting to delve into some interesting colour schemes here but but nature does this already if you can think of a a blue purple iris you'll see there's a yellow stripe in the centre another flower that that's iconically complementary is a bird of paradise and I mean how amazing are they and so striking and so intense in their colour and it works perfectly so really I just want you to think of these colour harmonies as a set of rules and guidelines to help you when you're designing whether you're designing for a certain space and a certain aesthetic or when you're you know putting together um just your own designs for your own home or for a client it's important that you have a clear understanding of colour so with this one you can see beautiful could be considered monochromatic right here and we're going to bring in these pops of yellow and you'll see that it just completely changes and morphs into something absolutely beautiful I think but a little bit surprising and with having that that set of those set of guidelines within understanding your colour wheel and understanding your colour harmonies it opens up a whole new world of design for you because you won't necessarily just get trapped into designing colours that you'd like all the time you know it's it's good to be able to stretch out and and do something completely different and you know I I love this together I think that really you know they complement each other that's why it's called a complementary colour scheme okay so complementary colour scheme looking at the colours on the wheel that are directly opposite each other and the final colour harmony that I wanted to talk to you about today is a split complementary and that's looking at three areas of the colour wheel that are almost in a direct triangle and a great representation of that is my design that you'll find much further up in the library and that is my spring harvest centrepiece design you'll see that we use a huge range of colours in that and basically a triadic or a split complementary colour harmony is is almost touching on every every colour on the wheel I guess it's it's the brightest combination that we can put together so let's add just one more element that I so I can show you how we can transform this complementary colour harmony bouquet into a split complementary and that's by bringing in these amazing peonies from Tasmania the first the first peonies of the season it's always such a delight to have them and you can see now how that just absolutely pops this bouquet um also the fact that I don't know if you can see the centre the centre is yellow so by bringing in these uh this gorgeous you know hot pink with yellow centre peony this transforms this bouquet now into a split complementary colour harmony okay that's beautiful don't those poppies uh peonies just pop in with all that other colour around them okay so I hope this has allowed you to feel brave uh by using colour it's important that you understand colour as a designer and you're not just throwing things together because you think they kind of look good I hear that so often that um that students just feel a little unsure and a little bit nervous about using certain colours together and they're not sure if it works that's what your colour harmonies are for that's what your colour wheel is for it's there to support you and to give you a guideline and ultimately we only have to use nature for inspiration because she always gets it right all right pop your comments in I'll add a very detailed design notes for this one because I know there's a lot of questions and there's a lot of crossover so I want to make sure that you're really clear and you're really um you know got some really quality education there in regards to colour it's important all right everyone see you later