Something You Should Know About Color

Dark Yellow Is Olive Green

Painters mix colors. Quilters choose fabrics.  But quilters need to know about the nature of color in order to pick the right fabrics.

Today I want to show you what happens when you add black to a color. Then consider how that can affect your color choices as a quilter.

Add black to green and you get dark green.

Add black to blue and you get dark blue.

Add black to purple and you get dark purple.




Now it starts to get interesting.

 Add black to red and you get red browns.

 Add black to orange and you get orange browns.




                     It gets even more interesting.

Add black to yellow and you get olive greens.





Because of this, dark yellow fabrics are hard to find. Yellow is basically a light color. But there are times when you need, or want, a dark yellow fabric. Where do you look to find it?

Add red to yellow and you get oranges.

There are a whole series of orange yellows and yellow oranges that you can use as dark yellows. You probably already think of them as dark yellows. And that's fine.

However, there are times when it is important to know that your dark yellow is actually an orange yellow. If, for example, you are trying to match a yellow with its complimentary purple, then you need to realize that the more orange your yellow is the more blue your purple needs to be.

Forgetting design considerations for a minute, it's just plain fascinating to know that olive green is really a yellow.