The Colour Collaborative: October
Halloween
From a colour point of view October is most definitely a yellow month to me. It's the leaves that do it, they fade to many shades of yellow. Other colours too, but yellow seems strongest through October, with orange taking over for November. Halloween is the clear moment that the switch takes place though. For the symbol of Halloween, to me, is the pumpkin and so the colour most clearly associated with that festival is orange.
They growing numbers of Halloween decorations and costumes in the shops these days also employ eerie black in abundance of course, slimey green, spooky purples, not to mention terrible blood red too but they can't overtake the sheer glorious bright orangeness of the pumpkin.
Orange can be a difficult colour to pair up being such a glaring and bold colour, but I love it together with subtle and sober greys. Such a classic combination that I don't ever seem to tire of seeing. I guess it's the flamboyance of one and the cautionary calmness of the other that balance out so perfectly.
Photo Credit: Steven Depolo
They say that Halloween is about remembering the dead and using humour to ridicule the power of death. I guess that may still true but lets face it, it seems mostly about the dressing up and the sweetie haul these days. Those garish candy colours look like a treasure trove of delight to a child but make for a very vibrant and quite frankly eye watering palette to the older eye. Or maybe just my eye...
Unsurprisingly my favourites are the pumpkin selections. The happy buoyant orange again, mixed with earthier tones to temper the whole thing down. I can't decide which I prefer though, the one at the top or this one below. They are similar but yet slight changes in shade or tone can change the whole flavour of a colour selection and this is an example of that.
The top one is complied of stronger, cleaner colours, the ones below have a chalky tint which makes the whole thing much softer. I'd happily use either some day though.
But now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and revel in some orange because we still have this year's Jack o'lanterns to make...
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Don't forget to check out the other great 'Colour Collaborative' blogs
for more of today's posts...
Annie at Annie Cholewa
Gillian at Tales From a Happy House
Jennifer at Thistlebear
Claire at Above the River
our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways.
S x
♥