Harmonious from realism to abstraction.

I am continually trying to come up with interesting ways for beginning art students to put color theory into practice. This project integrated new learning about color schemes with previously learned concepts such as observational contour drawing and abstraction and converting two-dimensional shape into a three-dimensional form.

Contour Self-Portrait

Students began by doing a self-portrait with contour lines. It had been a while since they worked with contour, so I had them warm up with blind contour drawing. When they had a self-portrait that they were satisfied with, they traced it on one panel of a 12 x 18" (30 x 46 cm) piece of watercolor paper (divided into three equal vertical panels). Because their initial con tour drawings were larger than the 12 x 6" (30 x 15 cm) panel, they had to crop, which forced them to think about composition and use of negative space.

Design with Lines and Shapes

On the next panel, I instructed students to take separate elements from their original drawings and make a design out of the element. This could be the shape of an eye, a wavy hair line, the shape of the side of a nose or lip, or whatever they chose. They could enlarge or shrink the size of these shapes, repeat them, or manipulate or distort shapes to create a successful composition. They could also add other shapes or lines. It is a good idea to let students practice on scrap paper first so they can work out their ideas without worrying about erasing.

Abstract Composition

For the last panel, students created a purely abstract composition based loosely on the previous ones. In other words, nothing in it could be recognizable as a facial feature, but they were to use the shapes and lines in the first and second compositions as a starting point.

Some students worked with mostly geometric shapes and lines, while others used organic shapes and lines. Some were more detailed and others minimal. We talked about unity, and students made each panel of their triptychs unique, but also created harmonious relationships between them. Imaginative students asked if they could overlap one design onto another. This turned out to be a wonderful idea which worked very effectively.

Outlining with Glue

Once students had all three panels drawn with line, I asked them to go over each line with black or colored glue (easily made by mixing powdered tempera with white glue). The glue, dispensed from bottles, created interesting lines and I encouraged students to allow the glue to make uneven, varied lines. However, many found toothpicks helpful to give them more control over their line, especially in detailed areas.

After the glue had dried overnight, students chose one of the six color schemes we had studied (monochromatic, triads, complementary, split complementary, analogous, warm/cool) and used watercolor to paint their "progressively abstract" compositions with these colors. Some students chose to work with different color schemes on different panels.

3-D Transformation

The paintings looked wonderful as two-dimensional art pieces, but because we planned to display them on shelves rather then the wall, we created three-sided sculptures by folding them into thirds, along the edge of each panel, and joining the 12" (30 cm) edges. This had the effect of allowing viewers to see each side as a separate composition, as well as see relationships between different students' work that were displayed alongside each other.

Students noticed that continuous line and color schemes created further unity between panels, but each panel stood on its own as an interesting composition. They had created successful triptychs based on the features of their own faces.

Materials

* 12 x 18" (30 x 46 cm) piece of watercolor paper, divided into three vertical panels

* black or colored glue (easily made by mixing powdered tempera with white glue

* toothpicks

* watercolor paint

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students create multiple solutions to specific visual arts problems that demonstrate competence in producing effective relationships between structural choices and artistic functions.

WEB LINK

www.tehachapischools.com/schools/ths/

Carol Horst teaches art at Tehachapi High School in Tehachapi, California. [e-mail], [e-mail]