Time to Play: Intrigue

The intrigue of a draft is basically how much it piques your visual curiosity, and how much effort it is to take in. Is it straightforward and simple, or is it more of a visual puzzle? This will change the feel of your piece.

Intrigue is affected by four factors: Pattern boldness, pattern crispness, pattern regularity, and pattern complexity. Pattern boldness is controlled by color, and is what you’ll be exploring in this exercise. The four drafts show a variety of pattern crispness, regularity, and complexities.

1. Choose white for Color 1, and black for Color 2.
   How complicated does each draft look?
2. Choose two colors that are similar in darkness, and similar in hue.
   How does the complexity change?
3. Choose a light color for Color 1, and a dark version of the same hue for Color 2.
   What happens when you create value contrast without hue contrast?
4. Choose yellow for Color 1, and dark blue for Color 2.
   How does the complexity change when you use highly saturated colors that contrast strongly in both hue and value?
5. Explore different combinations of hue, value, and saturation.
   What’s the most surprising thing you’ve discovered?

Pick Color #1

Pick Color #2

Draft#1 – Crisp, regular, simple

Draft #2 – Somewhat crisp, irregular, simple

Draft #3 – Somewhat crisp, regular, complex

Draft #4 – Not crisp, irregular, complex