The way of civil and martial arts, one piece and one relaxation. I plan to write a total of seven articles in the series of articles by Jurgen. This fifth article is appropriately changed to a short and concise style. After all, each article is a 10,000-character long article. You can understand it, but I can’t write it.
In this fifth article, I plan to talk about Jurgen’s color matching skills. In fact, this topic has basically entered the field of pure art, and it is actually very difficult for a non-professional like me to talk about it. I only start from my own understanding of modern art knives and add a little art knowledge that I made up temporarily and talk about my views.
Art knives (here refers to art knives in a broad sense, including ABS forged and tactical schools, etc.) In fact, color matching must be considered when designing, and as long as it is a knife maker above a certain level, the works produced the color matching is relatively harmonious, and it is rare to see poorly done.
If it is such a thing that everyone seems to be able to do well, and the threshold is not too high, why should I dedicate an article to it? Don’t worry, just watch it patiently.
Let’s start with the conclusion: in art knife works, the more colors are introduced and the greater the artificial intervention, the more difficult it is to match the colors properly. The reason why we feel that the color matching of art knives is rarely overturned is because there are not many colors, and more importantly, there is less human intervention.
Let’s illustrate with examples one by one according to the degree of human intervention in color matching from light to heavy:
Case 1: Natural handle material forging works – Kevin Casey Feather Malaysian Fighting Knife
The color of most forged Malaysian steel is black, white and gray, which is a versatile color tone. Most of the handle materials like to use natural materials, and natural materials have their own colors and textures. In this way, there is less room for manual intervention and change in the color of the blade material and handle material. If you want the overall color harmony, the key is to choose the right handle material. After so many years of development in the modern hand-made knife industry, basically all the suitable materials have been explored, such as ebony, acacia wood, desert iron wood, antlers, mammoth, walrus Y, mother-of-pearl, musk ox horn, sheep horn, etc. Within these classic frameworks, you can’t go wrong as far as color palettes are concerned. Among them, I think the most classic is the amber antler:
Amber antlers, I like to call them flamed antlers, look at the color gradient from dark to light at the front and end of the handle, does it look like a burning cloud in the sky? This effect is actually formed by dyeing + polishing. After the antlers are dyed, the color must gradually become lighter from the skin to the inner core, and the head and tail ends are polished to expose the core, which is naturally the effect.
There is a story about this knife. I like it very much from the pictures. I asked the knife maker to make it for me and asked for the same style. As a result, the knife maker played by himself. In fact, it is similar to 9 points, but it is just a little bit of deviation. I don’t like it, so I finally transferred it. From now on, I only need to receive knives in stock, not custom-made.
Then some people will have doubts, is the polishing of the head end and tail end of the handle done to present this kind of color with gradual changes in depth? Is it a deliberate artificial intervention in color matching?
Actually not. Because the surface of the antlers has uneven lines, the first section and the tail end need to be docked with the hand guard and the tail iron respectively. If it is not polished smooth, the docking difficulty will increase a lot, and the first section must be polished finer, easy to hold. Therefore, the reason why this amber antler-handled knife shows such a color is the result of a skillful hand that does not aim at color matching. Therefore, amber antler has become an extremely classic handle material in handmade knives, which is natural, beautiful and practical.
Case 2: Titanium Mascus Tactical Folding Knife – Magic Talisman
This “magic talisman” of micro-technology is one that I almost had in my pocket. The blade material is the dragon scale horse originally created by my favorite South African knife maker Bertie (the new member of AKI), and the handle material is titanium Mascus, which is common in high-end tactical folding knives.
▲I really like the Magic Talisman Knife of Microtech, and this one is one of the most exciting
It is obvious that the overall color tone of Dragon Scale Damascus and Titanium Mascus is very similar, and the color of the blade and the handle is full of impact, and there is a sense of unity. Please take a deep look at the visual effects of the two materials of dragon scale horse and titanium Mascus, and you will find that the production of these two artificial materials also considers color matching. For example, the dragon-scaled horse, the “scales” of the pieces are basically blue, with only slight differences; another example is titanium Mascus, the main tone is blue and purple, which are also two similar colors. The colors are similar, and the visual effect is more harmonious.
Therefore, this tactical folding knife pays attention to the matching and color matching of materials, as well as the color matching of the materials themselves.
Case 3: One of the “Four Wonders” of Art Knife, the work of Michael Walker
Readers who have read my highly praised answer must have a certain impression of Michael Walker. It’s a pity that I haven’t used his high-end works before, so I can’t expand the space to talk about it. Here I can only briefly share my experience with you on the performance of his works in terms of color matching.
In the works of Michael Walker, the composition of artificial color matching is very strong. His color matching feature, in one sentence, is “contrast of cold and warm”. Take a look at a few pictures of the works:
One feature can be found from the pictures above. His works especially like to use two colors of blue and yellow at the same time, one is cool, and the other is warm. In fact, these two colors are basically in opposite positions on the hue circle. Putting them together is a “collision color”, which is not easy to deal with, otherwise there will be no such thing as “red and green, it’s a shit race”. However, Walker obviously still has a lot of skills. He carefully controlled the area of the coloring block, cleverly used the gray of Damascus steel as the base, and the blue and yellow were just embellishments, which not only showed a certain visual impact, but also not too gaudy.
It is also worth mentioning that the blue color of Walker’s work is formed by metal anodic oxidation. It is gorgeous, coquettish, and dreamy. Some knife lovers are particularly obsessed with his blue effect. They think that Walker uses and handles blue the most among all knife makers. The one in place. Although opinions differ from person to person, it also reflects that Walker is indeed superior in color matching.
It seems a bit off topic to write here. Isn’t this article talking about Jurgen? Why do these few examples seem to have nothing to do with Jurgen? Readers who are familiar with my routines know that I like to write articles layer by layer. The first three examples are all for the later content. Recall, what are the core skills of the three examples in terms of color matching?
Case 1: Color matching with consistent hue
Case 2: Adjacent color combination
Case 3: Combination of cool and warm colors
The reason why I want to write a special article on Jurgen’s color matching is because he has used all the above skills in color matching and introduced more colors and more complicated issues to consider. Some works even show a textbook level of color matching!
Do not believe? Please see below:
Tip 1: Consistent color matching
The mosaic of the work in the picture below, what did you feel when you first saw it? My feeling is: peace, comfort and tranquility, as if I am in a green wheat field, close my eyes and feel the natural breath of wheat waves blowing.
The reason is that most of the colors used belong to the green hue (white is not counted, that is the base. In addition, do you think that the white cut into narrow strips looks like noodles? Noodles are made of flour, and flour is It is ground with wheat, do you know why I think of wheat fields? Because I am a foodie, (￣▽￣)”).
I use the color picker to extract the green in the work, basically arranged by purity.
But this green has many variations in purity, from emerald green to light green, then olive green and finally to almost gray. And most of the purity is low, so that although the color changes are rich, it will not give people a dazzling and messy feeling.
There are some works of similar style, let’s give an example of blue tone:
Readers who have read the fourth of my Jurgen’s seven-day talk, have you discovered the highest mystery of Youshi’s mosaic in this picture?
Compared with the green inlaid in the previous work, the blue feels dreamy, deep and mysterious.
Tip 2: Combining Adjacent Colors
What are adjacent colors? It is to arrange adjacent colors on the hue circle. One way of saying is that the included angle is less than 90 degrees.
For example: blue with green, green with yellow, yellow with orange, orange with red, red with purple, purple with blue, these are adjacent colors. Among these adjacent colors, Jurgen prefers the combination of blue and green. For example:
▲ Currently the most advanced Jurgen
Compared with the matching of the same color, the contrast of adjacent color matching will be slightly stronger, but it still belongs to the category of high harmony and consistency. In addition, there are still certain changes in the different hues of adjacent colors. For example, in the blue-green combination in the above picture, both blue and green have certain changes in purity and lightness.
Tip 3: Combination of cool and warm colors
In color matching techniques, in order to highlight the contrast between colors and increase the visual impact, it is a common technique to combine cool and warm colors. If you look at the previous pictures and think that Jurgen is still good at similar and adjacent colors with less contrast, you are totally wrong. His use of contrasting combinations of warm and cold colors is no less than that of the aforementioned Michael Walker. Here is an example of the inlay of a classic Jurgen machete “Cosmetic Box”:
Please remember this mosaic, which will be cited many times later, because I think the mosaic of this work is the pinnacle of Jurgen’s mosaic art. There are many remarkable places, which can be called textbook level.
The mosaic mainly uses two major color systems, red and blue. Red is a warm color, and blue is a cool color. The contrast is strong and the layers are distinct. But if you want to highlight the strong contrast, blue should be paired with yellow, and red should be paired with green. Why did Jurgen hardly ever use such a combination? Please look back at the previous hue circle. Although blue and red are cool and warm colors, they are also similar to adjacent colors. Jurgen is obviously trying to avoid too strong color conflicts, even in the design of cool and warm colors. The idea of harmony and unity is also consistently considered in China.
Tip 4: Priorities
The several color matching techniques mentioned above involve the selection of colors, of course, this is the first step in color matching. So after choosing a suitable color combination, does it mean that an excellent color matching can be completed? the answer is negative. Distinguishing between primary and secondary is a problem that needs to be considered for further advancement.
For a good color matching work, the size of the area occupied by various colors is particular. For example, the picture above is divided into three categories: main color, secondary color and embellishment color. Arrange according to the ratio of 60%, 30%, 10%. This principle is actually consistent with the need to highlight the subject through focus and depth of field in photographic works. Moreover, the main color, secondary color, and embellishment color cannot be selected at will. For example, the picture above, although I used it as an example, but according to my personal point of view, it cannot be regarded as a wonderful color matching work. What’s the problem?
In my opinion, the main color, secondary color, and embellishment color must have a progressive contrast, and the progressive order should not be chaotic. If it is chaotic, the theme will not be prominent. For the main color, choose a color with relatively low lightness or purity, which should not be too conspicuous, while the secondary color can be slightly more prominent, while the embellishment color should use a color with higher purity and lightness, and a more “eye-catching” effect. I think the color scheme in the picture above lacks a sense of progression, the embellishment color is not brilliant enough, and there is no distance from the main color and the secondary color, and it is not even as good as the secondary color, and there is a feeling of being “cut off”.
And what about Jurgen’s work? It is obvious from the picture below. The main color is dark blue, low-key and deep, the secondary color is a mixture of red and blue with low lightness, and the embellishment color is the brightest and brightest red and blue, and the width is also the narrowest. Look at the narrowest and longest The color blocks are extremely sharp and attractive against the main color of dark blue, which grabs people’s attention at once.
What’s even better is that the brightest red and blue blocks are juxtaposed, which makes the contrast between cold and warm even stronger.
▲The embellishment color is eye-catching against the main color
Tip 5: Balance and Rhythm in Color Layout
After determining the selection of colors and the distribution of colors, the next step is to consider the layout and arrangement of colors. Excellent color matching works, at first glance, seem to be pleasing to the eye and harmonious, but behind it is hidden a lot of painstaking efforts in layout and arrangement. This kind of painstaking effort is not a professional, or if you think about it carefully, it is not easy to find out.
The layout of colors is similar to the rhythm of music. It follows certain rules and must not be arranged indiscriminately. Take the following picture as an example. Why should those color blocks be arranged in such a shape and in such an arrangement? Take the following picture as an example, take a closer look, there are several features:
First, the overall layout of the bright color block and the dark blue block as the base is relatively balanced. In the figure, I use the blue line to divide the front, middle, and rear parts. You can see that these two types of color blocks exist at the same time in each part.
Second, the interval between cool and warm colors. Carefully observe the color blocks around each color block, you can find that basically cool colors and warm colors are adjacent, there are very few cases where cool colors are adjacent to cool colors, and warm colors are adjacent to warm colors. Even if there are, most of them will use metal frames The edges are separated. There are two advantages to doing this. One is that the distribution of warm and cool colors is relatively uniform (regardless of the base color), and the other is that the contrast is stronger.
Third, the sense of dislocation in the arrangement of color blocks. The color blocks of this work are not arranged regularly like a chessboard but are intentionally staggered to create a sense of irregularity.
Fourth, there is a certain relationship between the arrangement of the color blocks on the front and back sides. This requires bringing the two sides of the work together to discover. Originally, I thought that the pros and cons of Jurgen were just pure irregular asymmetry, but after careful consideration when writing the article, in fact, there is a certain connection in the asymmetry. It is not easy to make this point clear. First I need to do some strict definitions:
Front and back: hold it in the right hand, with the tip of the knife facing up, the side facing you is the front, and the other side is the back.
Front, middle and rear: divided by the blue line in the above figure, the front is near the tip of the knife, the middle is the middle, and the rear is close to the tail of the handle.
Upper and lower parts: bounded by the ridge line protruding from the center of the mosaic, the part close to the back of the knife is the upper part, and vice versa is the lower part.
Base color and embellishment color: the large dark blue is the base color, and the rest of the brighter blue and red are called embellishment colors.
Let me explain this connection by taking the following picture where the front and back can be observed at the same time:
Number 1: There are narrow and long embellished color blocks on the front upper part. There is a similar one on the reverse side, but it appears in the front lower part.
Number 2: In the middle and lower part of the front, there are continuous embellishment color blocks that are not interrupted by the base color. There is also a reverse side, but it appears in the upper middle
Number 3: In the middle and upper part of the front, the base color and embellishment color are basically in a 50-50 layout. The reverse has similar features but occurs in the lower middle.
No. 4: At the very end of the rear part of the front, there are continuous dotted color blocks starting from the lower part of the back, extending to the top of the upper part of the back, separated by small blocks of base color. The negative features are the same.
These are some rules of Jurgen’s color layout that I discovered from this work. Sometimes I wonder if I’m over-interpreting, but it would be too inconceivable for so many patterns to be purely coincidental.
Tip 6: Less is More
Although the “Youshi mosaic” works with more colors are superior in terms of skill, complexity, and time-consuming, those minimalist mosaics with less color changes seem to be more in line with his artistic concept of “less is more” . For example, in the following works, bright blue thin lines are outlined on the darker base color. Looking back at the first five color matching techniques I mentioned earlier, you will find that although there are only two colors, but in design, layout On the one hand, there is also a hidden mystery, and the strong electronic sci-fi style is very well expressed through these few strokes.
In fact, this is a style that Jurgen likes. Some collectors named it the “Tron Legacy” style. It originated from a movie of the same name a few years ago, and the color scheme is very similar.
Speaking of this, I can’t help mentioning a story in the circle. There is a foreign collector who likes Jurgen’s Tron War style very much and is determined to collect all similar works in his pocket. Unfortunately, when he had collected almost all his works, his home was burglarized, and all of Jurgen’s works were stolen, and the thief even set a fire before leaving. This is definitely an acquaintance committing the crime, otherwise he would not be so familiar with the market, take away high-end things, and don’t want cheap ones. The collector was also disheartened and withdrew from the arena.
So far, Jurgen’s color matching article is finished. To be honest, writing this article is quite difficult for me. After all, I am not from an art class, and I don’t usually have much free time. I can only use the fragmented time to collect relevant information and express my amateur views. In my opinion, Jurgen’s color matching level is already quite high, and the background of a major in an art academy is still not comparable to ordinary people.
Perhaps other artists can use color combinations more superbly, but please note that these color combinations of Jurgen are not created with paint on the canvas, but carefully selected more than a dozen materials, hand-cut, polished, the mosaic combination is only the decorative part of the handle of the art knife. Color matching only reflects his artistic skills, far from being the whole of his works.
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