Pantone Spring 2023 Fashion Colors - Final Clay Recipes

The final five Pantone Spring 2023 Fashion Color recipes that I will be sharing are Blue Perennial, Summer Song, Skylight, Macchiato and Gray Lilac - shown from left to right in the samples below.

The illustration below shows where these colors are located on the color wheel.  You can see where Macchiato is a mix of orange and green (half way between - more or less), thus creating a shade of brown.  It is also on the opposite side of the color wheel to the two blue colors making them "complimentary".  Complimentary colors generally make a good contrast to each other and can also look good together.

Here are a few other illustrations combining these same five colors to see how they look on various color backgrounds and also as a gradient blend.

Gradient Blend

Mixing the different color backgrounds

Colors shown on a white vs. black background

I like to play with my Pantone app and create various color palettes to see how they look together.

I should mention that the Pantone color Skylight is a lighter version of the Pantone Spring 2022 color Blue Harbor.  Since it takes a fair amount of white to lighten, it is much easier to use a small amount of the Blue Harbor as the base rather than mixing the Skylight color from scratch.  If you already follow my Clay Color System and saved any left over clay in the color Harbor Blue, you already know how convenient this method is.  That is why my Color System tutorial is more than just color recipes.  It is a simple easy to understand way to mix and combine color but also how to organize your recipes and your clay colors that are mixed.

So here are the recipes for these five Pantone colors.  I hope you have fun with them and I would love to see any samples you come up with.  You can always share them on my facebook page.

BLUE PERENNIAL

2 parts Ultra Marine # 9-2 *

2 parts White Mix # 1-2 *

1 part Ecru Mix # 2-8 *

SUMMER SONG

2 parts Kato Blue

1/2 part Kato Turquoise

2 parts Kato Silver

2 parts Ecru Mix # 2-8*

15 parts White Mix # 1-2 *

SKYLIGHT

4 parts White Mix # 1-2 *

1/4 part "Harbor Blue"

(see recipe here from Pantone Spring 2022)

MACCHIATO

4 parts Kato Brown

1 part Ecru Mix # 2-8 *

GRAY LILAC

1/4 part Kato Violet

1 part Kato Silver

6 parts White Mix # 1-2 *

* Note:  These clay color recipes are created using Kato clay.  Any of the base color "mixes" used are from my Clay Color System.

Pantone Spring 2023 Fashion Colors - Orange, Yellow & Green

The Pantone Spring color Tangelo is next on the color wheel following the reds and peaches I shared yesterday.  I should have included it as well since it combines and blends best with those shades.

Tangelo shown at far right on color wheel

Tangelo at far left of the gradient blend

Shown below are the next five Pantone spring colors going around the color wheel.  Starting from the top, and working to the right are the following colors in order: Tangelo, Empire Yellow, Leek Green (behind Empire Yellow), Love Bird & Classic Green.

Colors shown on various backgrounds

Colors shown on white vs. black background

Gradient Blend

I really like the color blend combination of the orange yellow and greens -- you just have to be careful when combining or blending the orange next to green as they are both "secondary" colors and when combined they become a "mud" color-- or in other words, brown.  That is why having a yellow in between works as a sort of "bridge" and prevents the mud effect.  I explain a lot of these color mixing rules and tips in my Clay Color System.

So here are the recipes for these five colors using Kato clay.  Again, two of the colors are a very close match to previous Pantone colors and I have provided a link to those original recipes.

TANGELO

5 parts Kato Yellow

1 part Kato Orange

EMPIRE YELLOW

Same recipe as Meadowlark

LEEK GREEN

2 parts Kato Yellow

1/4 part Kato Green

1/4 part Kato Gold

4 parts Ecru Mix #2-8 *

LOVE BIRD

Same recipe as Lime Punch

CLASSIC GREEN

1 part Kato Green

2 parts Kato Yellow

1/4 part White Mix #1-2 *

* Note:  These clay color recipes are created using Kato clay.  Any of the base color "mixes" used are from my Clay Color System.

Pantone Spring 2023 Fashion Colors - From Magenta to Red to Peach

The five colors, Fiery Red, Beetroot Purple, Peach Pink, Crystal Rose & Vanilla Cream are all close to each other on the color wheel.  They range from a magenta to red to a peachy pink.  The color wheel diagram below shows where they are actually located and how close they are to each other.

Colors left to right:
Beetroot Purple, Fiery Red, Crystal Rose, Peach Pink, Vanilla Cream

In fact, the color wheel below shows where Viva Magenta (Pantone Color of the Year 2023) fits in, which is right between Beetroot Purple (far left) and Fiery Red.

Colors Left to Right:
Beetroot Purple, Viva Magenta, Fiery Red, Peach Pink

I have the Pantone Connect app which is a lot of fun to play with.  You can create your own color palettes and see how the colors go together.  Here are a few examples using these five colors:

Gradient Blend

Different Background Combinations

Light vs Dark Background

Another feature with this app is that you can cross match Pantone colors and find other colors that are a close match.  I have so many clay color recipes in my "library collection" and if a new Pantone color is a close match to one I already have, I will prefer to just stay with that color instead of tweaking it ever so slightly.  It makes life in the studio a whole lot easier!  One example of this is the new Spring 2023 color, Beetroot purple, is a close match to a previous Pantone color from Spring 2017 called Pink Yarrow.

Another close match to the Pantone color, Crystal Rose, is Gossamer Pink which was one of the Pantone Spring colors from last year.

The Pantone color, Peach Pink was the exact same color used in the Pantone Fall 2019 palette.  Creme De Peche was another color used in the same Pantone Palette and is a close match to this year's spring color, Vanilla Cream.

And lastly, if you have my Clay Color System tutorial, then you already have the clay recipe for Fiery Red.  It is a very close match to Cadmium Red, recipe # 4-2.

So just click on the color names below to see the original recipes posted on my blog:

BEETROOT PURPLE

(same as Pink Yarrow)

CRYSTAL ROSE

(same as Gossamer Pink)

PEACH PINK

&

VANILLA CREAM

(same as Creme De Peche)

FIERY RED

(see Recipe #4-2 * in Carolyn's Clay Color System)

Viva Magenta! Pantone Color of the Year 2023

I am finally back and must apologize for the long delay.  I have had many things to deal with lately which I will be able to share eventually but not now.  In the meantime, I have just finally begun to mix up some of the new Pantone Spring Fashion colors for this year.

Pantone announced their color of the year for 2023.  It is called Viva Magenta!

I have been seeing a lot of facebook posts regarding this new color.  Some show it as an almost true magenta where some have even shared it as a plum or purple.

So is this color really a shade of magenta?  Or is it more a deeper red?

Leatrice Eiseman, Executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, explains how they "drew inspiration from nature and what is real.  Pantone, Viva Magenta, descends from the Red family and is inspired by the red of cochineal, one of the most precious dyes belonging to the natural dye family as well as one of the strongest and brightest the world has known.

Image credit: Vahe Martirosyan [CC BY 2.0], via Flickr

Cochineal is one of the most important insect dyes and you can read more about it here.  And this is another interesting article on its' history:   The Bug That Had the World Seeing Red

The dye it produces is a deep rich shade of red.  By adding various other ingredients, however, it can change to shades of pink, purple and even orange.  I have found that the Pantone color, Viva Magenta is a combination of both red and magenta.  That is why it is so difficult to determine on which side of the scale it really is.

As I mixed up the clay color to match my Pantone Swatch, I suddenly realized that this color looked awfully familiar!  I grabbed my samples and ran to my kitchen to discover why I had recognized it.  It was a dear ringer match for the color on the walls I had painted!  You can see my blog post here on the renovations I did.

I love this warm color and how it makes me feel whenever I am in the kitchen. I was looking for the paint color number but couldn't find the paint chip sample.  I used a Behr paint in a satin finish (recommended for kitchens).  When I find the color chip number I will add it here.

I haven't had time to create anything with my polymer clay version yet but should later on -- after I mix up the spring colors.  So here is the recipe using Kato clay:

Viva Magenta

4 parts Kato Magenta
3 parts Kato Red
1/8 part Kato Black

As you can see it is a very simple recipe that makes such a rich and exotic color!  I will be back shortly with more of my clay recipes for the spring colors.