Abstract Trees
This project is a great way to explore color theory and modern art.
Students first learn how to create a color wheel.
PRIMARY colors are the building blocks to our wheel:
RED, BLUE and YELLOW.
SECONDARY colors are made by mixing two primary colors together:
Red + Blue = VIOLET
Blue + Yellow = GREEN
Yellow + Red = ORANGE
TERTIARY colors are the colors we get when we mix certain secondaries and primaries together:
Red + Violet = RED-VIOLET
Violet + Blue = BLUE-VIOLET
Blue + Green = BLUE-GREEN
Green + Yellow = YELLOW-GREEN
Yellow + Orange = YELLOW-ORANGE
Orange + Red = RED-ORANGE
The trees we are creating will be colored with COMPLEMENTARY colors.
These colors are found opposite of each other on the color wheel.
When mixed together, these colors will make a brown, but when placed next to each other, they make each other pop!
Red & Green
Red-violet & Yellow-green
Blue & Orange
Blue-violet & Yellow-orange
Yellow & Violet
Red-orange & Blue-green
Now we are ready to start drawing our trees! We are use a silhouette image of a tree and a one inch viewfinder. By placing the view finder on the image, we will look for areas of the tree that look interesting in the viewfinder (this is known as a composition). We then enlarge and draw what we see in the viewfinder (this is known as crop and zoom).
We make four different compositions so that we can practice drawing and choose the best balanced design.
Next, we will plan our colors. Remember, we are using complementary colors, so choose your pair of colors. There are four images to explore different pairs
Notice that colors can be solid (bottom right) or patterned (upper left) by using values, which I will show you how to do.
For advanced artists, you can use more than one pair of complementary colors too (upper right)
Can you guess what color is complementary to pink (lower left)?
If you guessed green, your right!