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3.2: Complementary Color Assignment

  • Page ID
    177185
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    Materials:

    • Trim your 14 inch wide Bristol Board to 12 inches wide before cutting in half to make two 8½ x 12 inch compositions

    • Tape

    • Board

    • Non-photo blue pencil

    • Ruler

    • Painting supplies

    • White and complementary colors, 1 set for each composition

    • Tree photo

    • Viewer

    Guidelines

    1. Tape your two compositions to your board using your tape to make clean ¼inch margins around each composition.

    2. Measure and draw the width of your margins to make them straight.

    3. Choose two sets of complementary colors, one set for each composition.

    4. Make sure there is one mixed secondary color and one primary color on your palette plus a large amount of white.

    5. Background: Mix one set of complements together to make a chromatic gray, then add a small amount of the mixture to a large pile of white. Mix a little lighter than #2 on your scanner. It will dry darker. Paint the entire surface of one of your compositions using your largest brush.

    6. Repeat background process with a different set of complements. Both compositions will be a light chromatic gray background.

    7. After the surfaces are completely dry, draw a contour drawing of a zoomed in view of tree branches with intricate spaces. Each composition should be different!

    8. Complementary colors are opposite each other on the color wheel: The three main complementary sets are Red & Green, Blue & Orange or Yellow & Violet.
    9. You may add white to lighten the colors, but no black. You can darken or dull colors by mixing with complements.

    10. Both compositions must contain:
      1. A full range of value from light to dark. Use the value scanner (value strip with holes punched) to match value to color to make sure you have some of each value.
      2. Variety in mixtures of the two complements and their tints (made by adding white). Try varying the percentage of each color to move the colors to warm or cool ranges.

    11. No pure unmixed color! Very little complement in a color = higher saturation (brightness). If complements are balanced, they become less saturated (dull).

    12. Write your name and the complementary colors you used on the back of each composition.

    13. Remove tape when dry. If your paper tears, use your glue stick to repair by gluing the torn section back to the surface.

    This page titled 3.2: Complementary Color Assignment is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Marcelle Wiggins.

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