I have been thinking about writing a guideline for people to use to create their own improv series. In a way, I want to share how working in a series with some color and design guidelines can be a liberating way to create art using your imagination and intuition. Since Spring of 2015, I have been creating a 6.5 inch daily square within the framework of a 25 day series. I pick a theme and title for the series and explore within that theme with each daily square for 25 days. Then I sew all the days together into a large square like a visual diary exploring the series theme from Day 1 through Day 25.
Last week, I started drafting a "How To" for making an improv series based on a selected color palette and design parameters. I realized how difficult it is to explain in words what I just do intuitively. But I continued to plug along after I realized photos could tell a lot more of the story. Now the guidelines include photos. The guidelines will be available next week.
These guidelines were written originally for people who sew, like me, using solid fabric and a sewing machine. However, I realized these series guidelines could work just as easily for painting, watercolors, collage, mixed media or colored pencils. The ideas and methodology are the same. Just the media is different. You start with an idea and develop this idea in different pieces over a set period of time. Feel free to contact me if you are interested in how this would work for these other media.
My goal is to create one of these improv series guidelines for each season. So I call this one the Winter Improv Series. Since I knew this was the Winter project, I immediately thought of the snow covered prairie in our backyard. This gave me a color palette, the neutrals, grays and tans. The whole design relies on the accent color. In my case, I picked three different shades of pink, magenta, and red. Accent colors could be any contrasting color you want. As you can imagine, a pale yellow may not give you the eye-popping contrast that you want. The design parameters are simple, two color vertical strips with one accent piece per 6.5" square. The Winter Improv Series guidelines have all the details you need to get from fabric color selection to a finished piece.
Four daily squares of my Compassion series
Looking at my Instagram feed, people could figure out my design parameters and obviously my color scheme. But I thought some people might be interested in more details. Hence, the guidelines. It really is a summary of what I do to approach my series. In fact, I am currently using this color palette and design parameters in my Compassion series.
I am offering these guidelines to people who sign up for my Studio Notes to be delivered directly to them each week in their email inbox. When the guidelines are complete, I will let people know through Instagram and Studio Notes how they can receive the guidelines.
If you are already a subscriber to my Studio Notes and get my Studio Notes sent directly to your email, no need to sign up twice. Just send me an email and I will send the Winter Improv Guidelines directly to you.