Color Harmony_Midterm Assignment

Color Harmony

Color Terms and Harmonies

Harmony-A relational combination of hues that produce a pleasing effect; the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole; agreement, unity.

Temperature-the relative warmth or coolness of a color as determined by its hue (blue is cool, orange is warm)

Tint-adding white to a pure hue

Shade-adding black to a pure hue

Monochromatic Color Scheme-Using and tint, tone, or shade of just one color

Complementary Color Scheme-Uses colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel

Analogous Color Scheme-Uses colors that are close to one another on the color wheel

Triadic-uses colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel (this relationship makes an imaginary equilateral triangle)

Split Complementary Color Scheme- this is a variation on the complementary color scheme.  In addition to the base color, it uses the colors adjacent to its complement.

Tetrad Color Scheme-uses four colors arranged into complementary pairs, and adjacent to a complementary set of colors.  (this creates a rectangle)

Square Color Scheme-Similar to the rectangle, but with all four colors spaced evenly around the color wheel

For this assignment, you will research and find an interesting pattern that has uniform and varying shapes (i.e. no checkerboards).  From here you will create a large four panel gouache series based on that pattern.   In each panel, you will be using one of the following color schemes: Analogous, Triadic, Split Complementary, and finally Tetrad.

You will start by creating a series of four groups of four 3x5” thumbnails in your sketchbook, breaking your selected pattern down into shapes.   Each composition will be painted on a 6”x9” Bristol board (if you have 9x12 tablet, this is half of one sheet).  You will want to include up to 25 shapes for each panel, keep in mind that simplicity can create a harmony and make the compositions easy to look at.

After you have selected your final design, gently draw the shapes onto your panels and paint.  Remember: Color Harmonies/Color Schemes are like recipes.  If you do not follow the recipe, you will be altering the recipe and the Harmony will not be successful.

Finally, mount your four compositions using only a ½ inch border on the exterior, and a ¼ inch border between each panel on the interior.

Examples of past student works: