Rose Tone Summer: Sarah

Here is a splendid example of the Rose Tone Summer seasonal type.  This was a painted palette which I don’t do much anymore because I found the swatch fan palettes are more practical for shopping use for my clients.     My unique process for finding a client’s fashion image and archetype involves analyzing her physical appearance as well as her …

The Emotional Power Of Red: Happy Valentine’s Day

Wanna hot date? Then I advise wearing your “Related Red”, the most powerful and emotional color on your palette. Here is a great article on the power of red that I thought you would enjoy. Fashion designer Bill Blass has been known to say, “Whenever in doubt, wear red.” And we’ll admit, there really is nothing like a red dress …

You Don’t Know What You Like

Following up on my last post where I touched on the idea that we don’t know what we look like, I’m including here a poignant video that illustrates my point. A picture is worth a thousand words so I’ll let the video do the talking. It’s 6 minutes long and you might be amazed. There is a paradox here: while …

The Painted Palette: A Day’s Work In Just 10,000 Hours

Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hour Rule, that 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice” are needed to become world-class in any field, drives the passion and excellence in every personal, handmade, painted palette that I create. Knowing yourself visually is the first step to experiencing the “art of looking like yourself” but it’s a process for the objective, trained eye because…….you don’t know …

The Rose Tone Summer: Carole

Whenever I give my speech, “The Art Of Looking Like Yourself ,” I’m often asked, “why are there are so many names for each season?” The reason is hard to explain to the uninitiated, because unless you do Personal Color Analysis in the Caygill system, you won’t speak the same language; there’s no common currency for understanding my answer. But …

Jewel Tone Summer – Beautiful Irina

It’s the first day of December, but my mind is not on autumn. Before me is a woman who perfectly exemplifies the sub-type, Jewel Tone Summer.   These vision boards focus on Neo-Victorian, Victorian, and Steampunk historical periods for her aesthetic direction: two are aspirational, the others more practical. It can be helpful for clients to be able to reference …

The Iridescent Summer – They Are Not All Alike

Some time ago, this beautiful young woman came to my studio by way of her sister, Paige. The blog post about Paige, a Mermaid Summer is here. Brooke tagged along and enjoyed watching the process so much she decide to have her colors done as well. The challenge here was that the Brooke looked so much like her sister Paige, and …

The Autumn Spirit: Susanne Caygill and David Leffel

My favorite autumnal painter, David Leffel, is a master teacher and painter. His ability to arrange simple objects, then paint the light is legend. All of his paintings, like any good painting, are about the same subject: light. I only met him once… yet, I know him. I studied with one of his students, Greg Drinkwine, and spent hours at …

The Exquisite Nature Of The Mermaid Summer

Here is a Mermaid Summer. She has warm and cool color vibrations which create the iridescent quality so typical of this seasonal subtype. There is something quietly remarkable about her. She is not “siren” like or dangerously alluring like the women in the Waterhouse painting “Ulysses Returns” (detail below). Quietly charismatic and enchanting is how I think of her. She …