Yellow is your friend!

I've posted on yellow before but wanted to add a little more because yellow is such fabulously friendly and cheerful color. It brightens any room and adds a bit of "happy"! I love yellow. When I was growing up, my mom was very generous about painting my room and letting me choose colors. We (she) must have painted my room a couple dozen times while I was between the ages of 8 and 18! Out of all those colors, yellow was my most favorite and the color I remember most. Yellow is great for just about any room and has enjoyed great popularity in the kitchen.

Next time you want to give a room a warm and happy vibe then consider the family of yellows. From golden harvest hues, mouth watering citrus yellow to smooth, buttery yellows the choices are many and very inviting. One word of caution is that when choosing a yellow, don't over do it. The yellow you see on the small paint chip will look much stronger on a large scaled wall. Go paler and work to a stronger shade, if desired, rather then having it become too bold and bright and needing to tone it down. If you encounter the problem of having a painted a yellow that is too strong, you can tone it down using a specific glaze that will work with your particular color.

More on yellow coming up.

Bold Yellows in Marketing and Advertising

Yellow can create a friendly and warm atmosphere but it can also be used to create an action oriented, high energy space. In marketing and advertising, we see numerous examples of using bright yellows to stimulate and activate humans. It's no coincidence that fast food giants such as Mc Donalds, In N Out, Wendy's and Burger King use a red and yellow color scheme. Red and yellow are both stimulating, activating colors. The combination is a call to action and movement. It is *fast food*, you're not supposed to linger and you won't want to when you're surrounded with such energetic colors. Yellow gets attention, such as the case with caution lights, construction signs and warning signs. Your brain sees yellow and gets the message to pay attention and be prepared to react.

Bright, bold yellow is a good choice for any environment where you want to add energy, such as in a health club, a home exercise room or a service oriented business that touts speedy service as a major benefit.

This is not to say that if you use yellow in your home that it will end up looking like a fast food restaurant! There are some wonderfully delicious and yummy yellows for use in the home that will make your home sunny, warm and happy. Look above for some inspiration and color schemes you might just fall in love with!

Gearing Up for Summer with Janus Et Cie

Here in San Francisco we've been blessed with 80 degree days this past week. My son and I had our first day at the beach last weekend which has got me alll excited about this upcoming summer season. I want to introduce you to the makers of some exquisite indoor and outdoor furnishings, Janus Et Cie. If you're planning on a poolside, patio or backyard makeover this year, take a look at their collection. Their line is just gorgeous and the quality and workmanship unsurpassed. Take a look.

WIP-Along

Life has been super hectic lately and I've been under the weather quite a bit with the flu and then a cold! urgh, now on the mend and I'll working on a mural next week for a client in New York. They're expecting a baby girl in April and want a forest theme. The image here is a 'rough' that I worked up in Adobe Illustrator but it's the general idea of the mural scene. The mural will be 6x6.5, a bit big to work on in my space so I'll be painting it at my teacher's loft, the Day Studios, in Oakland. I'll be posting pictures of my progress as I go along. I hope you will enjoy it and maybe get out your paint brushes too! Joe Anne Day will also be painting a large scale chinoiserie at the same time. She is the queen of chinoiserie painting and if she'll let me I'll post pictures of her work in progress too!

WIP-Along 1st steps

3/25/07
I'm posting this underneathe the original WIP-Along post so you can see the whole process with continuity.

Hurray! I finally got the mural underway for my client in New York. ; ) There isn't much to see yet but the background has begun to be painted out. I will be cutting into the sides and bottom with the wall color in the nursery to create a look of the the mural being painted directly on the wall. Next I will be dropping in the trees with pencil and then painting in the rainbow and clouds.

WIP-Along 1st steps

Baby steps. This mural still doesn't like like much but this is where I've got to so far. Once the animals and flowers are painted in it will spring to life!!

WIP-moving along

Now this mural is beginning to look like something. I've started adding in the animals so we can see the scene slowly coming to life.

Mural Progress

Here is a really bad picture of where I'm at so far. I just made fun of a friend today for sending a blurry picture and now here I have one. I must have had my camera on manual mode without realizing it. I hope to have some better pics tomorrow as I'll be working on it again.

I now have most of the animals all blocked in. The rainbow is in now as well. I still have grass, flowers, butterflies and a lot of detail to add but am on the home stretch now... kind of. ; )

WIP-more detail

Above is where I've started to add more detail but below you can really start to see the color coming in and some energy developing. It's all about details and the finishing touches now. The baby's name will be added as though carved into to the trunk of one of the trees. I still have a ladybug and some butterflies to add, plus maybe another surprise or two. ; ) stay tuned, I'm just about finished!