Sunday, June 14, 2009

The Tenth Tute... on the Twelth: Colour Proportions

This month, let's look at colour proportions used in layouts. You may have heard of the idea of proportioning the colours of your layout so you have a predominant colour (usually, but not always the background), a moderate amount of another colour (such as for matting etc), and a highlighting colour (such as title and/or embellishments etc). I have heard this idea as “Gallon/Quart/Pint” but because this means nothing to me (give me litres!), I prefer to think of it in terms of “60/30/10”, that is 60% of a predominant colour, 30% of a moderate colour and 10% of a highlighting colour.

Let's look at some examples from some of our regulars...

In Lynette's “So Beautiful”

60% = White

30% = Red

10% = Black


In Maryanne's “1915”

60% = Pink

30% = Cream

10% = Brown


In Jodie's “Fun in the Sun”

60% = Green

30% = White

10% = Yellow


In Belinda's “Rory John”

60% = White

30% = Blue

10% = Red


This is not to say that you are restricted to only 3 colours. More colours may be used, just keep the proportions adding to roughly 60/30/10. Here are some examples:

In Mel's “Cleaning Nate Style”

60% = White

30% = Brown

10% = Green and Blue


In Dawn's “Our Doll”

60% = Pink

30% = Tan

10% = Blue and White


In Pamela's “All About Me”

60% = Cream

30% = Greens

10% = Red and Black


Hope this helps illustrate making the most of colour proportions! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

1 comment:

Mel said...

Gosh Ames, I keep forgetting to come to the Blog but that has so completely made sense to me, I guess I am just one of those people who need to see it before she understands it completely. 60 30 10 yeh I have been thru some of my layouts and the ones I absolutely love the most are those that I appear to have unintentionally used this little rule, I can so totally use this info when working out my colours thank you.