Episode 131: Learning to See Hue

In this episode, Sasha explores the difference between "blue" and "blue-green" and the relationship between different hues. 

You can find the script for this episode HERE.

You can comment on and discuss this episode here in The Flock, Sheepspot’s free online community for inquisitive spinners.

Here's the link to the Podcast search page and playlists. 

Click here to see the images of the hues. 

Episode Transcript

(01:21):
What's the difference between blue and blue-green?
Hello there, darling Sheepspotter. Welcome to episode 131 of the Sheepspot Podcast.
I'm Sasha, and my job is to help you make more yarns that you love. In today's ep- Bleh.

(01:44):
In today's episode, I want to share three exercises that will help you learn
about hue and get really comfortable with the color wheel.
So a couple of episodes ago, I shared how useful working with the color wheel
has been for me as I've learned about how to combine colors and work with color in my hand spun yarns.

(02:10):
Not only did the color wheel help me understand the relationships between different
hues, it also gave me a set of categories into which I could slot different
colors as I encountered them in the world.
Before I get into the exercises, I want to say a little bit about the kind of

(02:30):
color wheel I use first and also how I'm using the words color and hue in this episode.
They're not exactly interchangeable with one another.
So let's talk about the color wheel first. If you Google color wheel.
You are going to find tons of
different versions of them with different numbers of colors represented.

(02:54):
I like to use a color wheel that has 12 hues.
The primaries of magenta, cyan, and yellow, which correspond to the red,
blue, and yellow we all learned about in elementary school.
The secondaries that one gets by mixing two primaries together.

(03:14):
So these are green, orange, and violet.
And my particular favorites, the tertiary hues, which are mixes of primaries and secondaries.
So you put this all together, you've got 12 hues.
And so the typical artist color wheel that you might pick up at an art store.

(03:35):
We'll have in order red, red orange,
orange, yellow orange, yellow, yellow green, green, blue green,
blue, blue violet, violet, and red violet.
So those are what I'm calling hues. So think of hues as addresses on the color wheel.

(04:01):
Now, within each of those addresses, they're like big apartment complexes,
there are lots of colors.
There's the hue blue, and then there are colors like royal blue,
which has its apartment, and navy blue, which has its own apartment.

(04:24):
That's blue mixed with black. That's how you get navy.
Sky blue, blue mixed with white. and all the other colors that we can produce
by adding black, white, or gray to blue.
There are also all the desaturated, duller blues, and I'm going to put an image
of a desaturated blue in the show notes.

(04:47):
It's a little color dollop from the Benjamin Moore website, which I spent a
lot of time on as I was writing this episode, and it was fascinating.
So if you need to know what a desaturated blue looks like, there's one in the show notes.
But the question is, where exactly is the line between blue and blue-green on

(05:11):
the one hand and blue and blue-violet on the other?
It's really in the eye of the beholder. Each of us is going to draw those lines
in slightly different places.
And as an example of how it's in the eye of the beholder,
if you go to the Benjamin Moore website and you look at the 499 colors that they classify as blue,

(05:39):
you'll find that for Benjamin Moore, the category of blue includes many colors
that I would call blue-green.
And just a few that I would call blue-violet. Benjamin Moore classifies most
of the blue violets it makes in the purple section.

(06:00):
So it's all, all these categories are very individual, and you kind of have
to find them for yourself, and that's what the exercises are about.
So if you really want to get the most from a color wheel, and if you really
want to be able to describe color, you need to learn to see the subtle differences

(06:22):
between, say, a blue and a blue-violet.
And I've got three exercises to help you learn to see hue.
I've also put pictures of a blue-green and a blue-violet into the show notes
so that you can check those out.

(06:42):
The first exercise is to
get yourself some dyed fiber in magenta cyan
and yellow and cyan think of printer
primaries so think of the um if
you have a color inkjet printer think of the color of the blue ink um that's

(07:04):
called cyan so you want some magenta some cyan and some yellow and the exercise
is just to blend yourself a color wheel using hand cards or hand combs.
And it's best to use hand tools if you can and not a drum carter because this
exercise is all about figuring out where the lines are between the hues.

(07:26):
So you need to do your mixing kind of slowly and incrementally.
I taught this exercise at my retreat this year, and it really is a great way
to get a kind of hands-on feel for the different hues.
So I highly recommend that one. The second exercise, you can also do this with dye.

(07:52):
Again, you're going to need some magenta, cyan, and yellow dye.
You can use food coloring for a quick and food-safe way to do this experiment
if you don't want to, you know, set up a whole dye studio.
Just use food coloring. And using small amounts of dye, mix the different hues.

(08:14):
So you might start with a drop of cyan and a drop of yellow for green,
and then see what two drops of cyan and one drop of yellow looks like,
and it probably gives you something like a blue-green.
And then also try two drops of yellow and one of cyan, and see if that gives you a yellow-green.

(08:37):
You can test your formulas on coffee filters if you don't want to do any actual
dyeing, And you may be surprised by what you find.
Some colors are much stronger in mixtures than others.
So your 50-50 mixture of cyan and yellow may actually yield a yellow green or a blue green.

(09:00):
It doesn't necessarily work that the 50-50 blend is right smack in the middle.
So play around with that and once
you've either blended or dyed yourself a color wheel you
can continue to practice seeing hue out in
the world eventually you'll be able to figure out the hue of even very desaturated

(09:26):
complex colors like benjamin moore's tawny port i'm gonna leave a picture of
that in the show notes that color as well um and i would love to know what you think.
Is it a red? Is it a red-orange? Or is it a red-violet?
There is a dedicated discussion thread in The Flock where you can comment on

(09:49):
this episode and discuss it with me and other listeners.
The link is in the show notes for this episode, which you will find right inside your podcast app.
So just open up the description for this episode, click the link,
and you will be taken right to the thread.
If you haven't joined The Flock, you should join The Flock. Just go to theflock.sheepspot.com

(10:14):
to sign up. It's completely free.
And there are lots of useful freebies and our Friday afternoon spinning check-in
and all sorts of good stuff.
So, darling sheepspotter, that is it for me this week. Thank you so much for listening.
I will be back next week with some tips on working with value.

(10:38):
And if you hate barber poling or if you love barber poling, you definitely don't
want to miss this one because barber poling is all about value.
So until then, while you're waiting for the episode about working with value, spin something.

(11:00):
I have a sneaking suspicion it will do you good.