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How to do basic Skinner blends |
Color gradients are great for giving depth and visual interest to any art piece. Judith Skinner is a hero to literally countless of clayers for her incredible discovery - how to use the pasta machine to easily create ramped color gradients. That's what a Skinner Blend is - using the pasta machine to produce a ramped or smooth color transition gradient. In the illustration to the right, that first drawing with the blue and white triangles may help you understand why the Skinner blend technique works the way it does. The ratio of the two colors as you go from left to right changes. Buy Cheap Adobe InCopy CS4 donde comprar viagra en usa Buy Cheap Adobe After Effects CS6 générique pour viagra jeux videos ou acheter du kamagra gel en france acheter sildenafil 100mg ou kamagra ab wie vielen jahren kann man viagra kaufen generique viagra prix comprar kamagra en farmacia dove comprare kamagra oral jelly in italia achat kamagra francfort ou acheter du viagra en toute sécurité delai livraison kamagra now Because of the way you lay the triangles together (instructions below), then fold the clay sheet and allow the pasta machine to mix the colors together in one direction, you create endless varying ratios of the two colors. That's why the way you fold the sheet is so vital to doing a Skinner blend. Doing stepped color gradients (e.g. a mixed blob of 7 parts color A with 1 part color B, a second blob of 6 parts color A with 2 parts color B, and so on...) has been relegated to being an option only when you want a strong stepped color pattern. I looked on the web at various sites that provided Skinner blend instructions, but I could not find a single page that explained it how I like to explain it. ;-) So I decided to throw in my two 'technical' cents on the how and whys of doing a basic skinner blend. I'm using illustrations instead of photos to help tighten the focus on the technical aspects of the technique. |
Email me if you want me to include something I've overlooked. A comprehensive discussion of blending and color gradients can, of course, be found at Diane's http://glassattic.com |
Instructions |
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1) | Create 2 sheets with your pasta machine; 1 blue, 1 white, each sheet approximately 5 1/2 " wide X 5 1/2 " long and as thick as the thickest setting on your pasta machine (#1 on modern Italian Atlases). | |
Cut each sheet on the diagonal, as shown. |
2) | Select one triangle from each color and place them on your work surface so that they will form a rectangle if placed together. Buy Cheap Adobe Photoshop CS5 For Photographers Buy Cheap Adobe InDesign CC comprar kamagra en supreme suppliers prix kamagra pas cher ou acheter du viagra acheter kamagra uk comprar kamagra mallorca équivalent viagra homme sans ordonnance Faut il une ordonnance pour le kamagra |
There are two basic methods to blending two colors, depending on how you want the color gradient to appear. I call them Aligned versus Offset methods. |
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5) |
The two sheets are shown below for better comparison. Well now. That seems simple enough, no?
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6) | Stretching One additional typical step is to fold the gradient sheet in half, this time so gradient edge matches gradient edge (#2), then roll the sheet through your pasta machine to stretch the gradient (#3). Narrow the roller gap to, say #3, and roll the sheet through again. Narrow the roller gap again to a 5 and roll the sheet through again. If you have a motorized pasta machine, this process will be easy because you generally need both hands to guide the loooong sheet through the machine. |
7) | Linear Gradient Cane* What to do with a. the standard sheet? Here's one simple technique. Starting with either one of the two color gradient edges, roll up the sheet. As a cane, you can lengthen or shorten its width to suit your needs. * = I haven't encountered any name for this cane so I decided to give it this name.
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8) | Radial Gradient Cane* What to do with d. the long sheet? Here's another simple technique. Roll it up starting at the lighter end. * = I haven't encountered any name for this cane so I decided to give it this name.
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Enjoy. ;-) Desiree |
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Last update to this page: 28 Jul 08. Send comments, questions or suggestions to Desiree McCrorey. |