Copying the work of a master is a tricky place to be in! You need to ‘copy it’ for a while, then put it away, then work at it for a long time until it no longer looks like his, but carries your own signature. The influence of a master will however remain.
I did the 30 deliberately trying to stick to Bernd’s style so that I could have something that was copyright-free to show people what his work looks like. But while doing it, I suddenly wanted to move away from his subtle colour combinations and add some bright sparkle and contrast. That is because this is not a huge piece (it fits on an A4 piece of paper) and is a birthday card. However, I used his way of aligning the designs and adding intricate patterns on the sides. I also kept the concept of a shaped piece of work rather than a rectangle of colour. If you take away the intense cadmium red and the lime green, you will see Bernd’s sort of colour arrangement. All the colours are made using two reds (Cadmium & Alizarin) and two greens (Phthalo Green and Olive green). Except for the lime green which is an extra.
In the piece below, I worked without looking at Bernd’s work and just did small white Bastarda letters (instead of black-letters) and used only two opposite colours for all the various tones. The colours are Ultramarine blue and Schmincke Transparent Orange. It looks as though I sneaked in a little turquoise on the B though!
Love your lettering! Thanks for so generously sharing your choice of colours, all so inspirational! Kindest regards!