A lesson in contrast...

Getting the right amount of contrast in my projects has always been one of my biggest challenges. I must have a deathly fear of getting too much, so I usually don't have enough. What looks fine up close all blends together with any distance. I've learned a few things, but I still have trouble, as you can see with this poor little chickadee :-) Chickadees are actually a good thing for me to do, the black and white provides automatic contrast as long as I use a medium-ish background. The problem with this one is that my quilt block in the background doesn't have enough contrast. When the fabrics were in big pieces and up close, they looked to me like they would work, but as soon as I got done I could see that they didn't, the quilt block disappears. See yesterday's post to see how I changed it to work a little better. (On that one the wing was much too light, so I had to outline it...)
A great tool for seeing contrast is the red or green plastic bars that you look through. Another trick is to look at it from a distance, through a little peephole from the hardware store, or on your camera so it gets really small. One of my problems is that I'm always in too big of a hurry to finish something so I forget or don't take time to do those things, but they really help! Maybe one of these days I'll learn... :-) 

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