Floral Design

19 Feb, 2006 in art pottery by admin

Floral Design

Color in Floral Design

The use of color in floral design is of utmost importance as that is the first thing at which people look. Colors reflect our personal tastes, moods and personalities. Outgoing people tend to enjoy the warm colors of red, yellow and orange, while a more introverted person are attracted to the cool colors of blue, green and violet (purple).

Primary colors are red, yellow and blue. All other colors are derived from the primary colors. Secondary colors are the colors you get when you mix two primary colors together. Green, orange and purple are secondary colors. The third tier of colors, or the tertiary colors are yellow/green, blue/ green, blue/purple, red/purple, orange/red, and yellow/orange.

Color is light. Lighting will make a huge difference in how a color looks. All the colors reflected together look white, while all the colors absorbed together create black. Warm colors need less light to be seen than do cool colors.

Color definitions to keep in mind for floral design.

Chroma-the intensity of color: its freedom from gray or white. Also refers to the intensity or saturation of a color.

Intensity-the brightness or dullness of a color.

of a color; adding white or black to a color to give it a new tint.

Hue-the full intensity of a color.

Tint-lightening the hue by adding white.

Tone-mixing a hue with gray.

Shade-darkening a hue by adding black.

Color harmonies are a valuable tool in floral design. These are the most commonly used color harmonies used in flower arranging.

Monochromatic-includes all the tints, tones and shades of one color. Mono means one.

Complementary colors-consist of a primary color and the secondary color that is directly across from it on the color wheel. The light/dark contrast of these colors make a dramatic impact. The three complementary color schemes are blue and orange, red and green, and yellow and purple.

Split-complementary colors-for a softer contrast using a hue with the two colors on either side of its direct complement.

Triadic color-use either all three primary colors (red, yellow, blue) together or all three of the secondary colors (orange, green, purple).

Analogous-use one primary color and three or more hues that are adjacent to it on the color wheel. A fall arrangement with brown, orange, gold and yellow is an example of an analogous use of color.

Experiment with the various color harmonies for fun and to find the most pleasing colors to suit your personality and preferences.

About the Author

Author Ellen Skiles was twelve years experience in the floral industry including three years in a greenhouse, four years designing in a shop, and seven years as head designer and manager of a second flower shop. She provides content for www.arrangefreshflowers.com.

For people who know a lot about flowers/floral design?

When floral design first emerged as an art form, emphasis focused on?

A. the arrangement of several varieties of flowers in a tight bunch, or mass.
B. creating flowers from nonfloral materials.
C. light, airy, and romantic arrangements.
D. using flowers in their natural state and shape.

I believe the answer is D

Ikebana, Continental and Western Design
by Robert Gordon, AIFD

Are you inhibited by floral design? Does it seem much too complicated for you to try? Have you said, ``I don't have the talent to arrange flowers." If the answer to any of these questions is ``yes," then I want to differ with you. As a result of many years of teaching floral design, I am convinced anyone can be taught to make acceptable arrangements. You may never be a blue ribbon designer or give a floral design programs, but YOU can be taught to make floral designs you and your friends and family will enjoy.

The use of flowers has been part of the culture of man from the beginning of recorded history. Floral design as an art form is just beginning to come of age. To date, it has not been recorded in a comprehensive way. There are specific instances of recording, such as in the schools of Ikebana, but as a general subject as it pertains to the culture of the world, documentation has not yet happened. The first step to learning to arrange flowers is to take the time to sort out what is available in styles, plant materials, etc. and find where the differences lie. You need to move towards uncomplicating what most people deal with in a complicated manner. Taking the time to sort through will make flower arranging much simpler and a whole lot more fun.

The world enjoys three basic styles of floral design, all of which have developed into art forms. They are Ikebana, Continental and Western. Generally speaking, you can categorize them as follows; Ikebana has its roots in the orient and is based on line, form and sparseness of materials. Much of Ikebana has the silhouette of an asymmetrical triangle. Continental has it's roots in Europe and is the exact opposite of Ikebana. It is a mixture of many kinds of material, many colors and many textures without obvious line. Its silhouette is circular. Western is a combination of the two, adopting the line and form of Ikebana and the Continental use of more materials. The United States became the melting pot of floral design as it did many other things. It is good to note that Western emerged into being in the mid-1940's whereas the other two have been recorded for centuries. As Americans, we liked the art of Ikebana and the abundance of continental. From the commercial floral design standpoint, we are interested in the American way (the quickest, easiest way to accomplish the best results) to still end up with an artistically acceptable design. In Ikebana, we hear the terms shin, soe and tai, sometime called heaven, man and earth. These lines are often curved and complicated, but most of all they are time consuming. Therefore, in Western style, we adopted the primary, secondary and tertiary of straight lines. The feeling of Do (Ikebana) or focal point was also appealing. To avoid interruption in rhythm, all stems must radiate from the focal point to the lip or the top of the container instead of above the lip as they do in Ikebana – the container in Western is no linger an integral part of the design as it is in Ikebana. Making the lines straight, and moving the focal point, made the construction of the design much simpler and therefore faster. Westerners also liked the abundant look of Continental but not the mixture of so many materials, so we adopted using more numbers but not such a variety. Most Western design is done with one or two kinds of material and most certainly not more than four. We can create an asymmetrical background (silhouette) using primary, secondary and tertiary lines of 10 or 12 flowers of the same kind and color (perhaps pink gladiolus). Across that pink background, we can place a contrasting flower (perhaps red carnations) in a diagonal line. We can finish the design with a filler flower or foliage. In this way, we can get both the artistry of Ikebana and the abundance of Continental in a quick and easy construction

Hawaiian Tropical Flowers Floral Design with Phil Rulloda