Old 03-03-2018, 06:40 AM
  #33  
givio
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In my opinion, 'neutral' ought not to be really classified as a color, per se. It's a concept that involves a variety of colors, most often in pale shades involving a mix of white, black, and/or brown. If the pale shades involve other colors such as red or purple (resulting in pink or lavender) then they are often called 'pastels.' For example, you can use house paint to paint your room a neutral or a pastel. You can say, "My room is a neutral color," or "My room is a pastel color," but the sense of what you are saying is the concept, not the actual color. "What neutral did you paint it?" "It's a pale gray and I'm using an accent color of teal." "What pastel did you paint it?" "It's a lovely shade of mint green that reminds me of grandmother." However, with fabrics, there are solid colors and prints.

The colorful prints are not so easy to classify in a certain color. A print loaded with blue and green motifs might seem to one person to be blue, to another green, and to a third turquoise. Sometimes a multi-colored print with fairly equal amount of several colors defies being put into a color category!

Also, the prints are not so easy to classify as a certain value-- is it light or dark? That really depends upon what other fabric the print in question is paired with. For example, if you are using black, then a camel fabric may seem like a light in the finished product. But if you are using white, then the camel fabric may seem like a dark in the finished product. So, depending on what fabrics you are pairing, and depending on your point of view for color and value-- you may decide that a camel fabric may or may not be neutral.

When a print has a pale background and includes some motifs of one or more of perhaps a rainbow of colors there will always be various opinions about how to classify it... Imagine it hanging on the clothesline, standing back 30 feet from it, taking off your glasses, and looking at it. In that case, it might be neutral by anyone's definition! lol
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