Design II, Week 12, Color Cube

The references for this assignment can be found in:

Principles of Form and Design by W. Wong, Chapter 6, pgs. 295-306

Launching the Imagination, 2-d by M. Stewart, pgs. 62-66

Please go to these references for more important information.

Polyhedral Structures and Color Relationships

This week I am combining two projects because we missed the last color assignment due to the break.

Normally we concentrate on Polyhedral structures in the 3-d section of this course. I am giving you a small taste of how you can approach this topic. Please look at Chapter 6 in Principles of Form and Design. With the introduction you have to the polyhedron cube, in this assignment, you could build the other structures and I encourage you to explore this on your own.

The second topic we are exploring is called Color Relationship, or Color Harmony. Your Design book, Launching the Imagination, Color, pgs. 62-66, has a good section on Color Relationship with illustrations of color groupings. 

Part 1

Let’s start with the Polyhedron - cube.

The Cube/Hexahedron is considered a Regular Polyhedron because all of its faces, edges, and vertices are the same.

Materials:

Bristol paper, ruler, x-acto knife, pencil, eraser

1.     Create a net of the cube. You will notice that this is very similar to the spatial cell that you created last week. It has 6 faces and tabs to help with construction into the 3-d form. I made my cube with 3” squares. This fits nicely with the dimensions of the Bristol paper that I have.

2.     Correct measurement is super important. Once you have this drawn, score all lines, including tabs that will be folded. Scoring will make this project so much easier and neater. Find a tool that works – a metal nail file, the point of a scissors, a butter knife.

3.      Use a sharp knife to cut out the shape of the cube. If your knife pulls and makes ragged cuts, it’s dull.

4.       Fold on the folded lines, including the tabs. Crease the edges.

5.      Use a glue brush to put glue on the tabs and attach the corresponding sides. Rub the extra glue off your fingers. Count to ten as you put the edges together

Success! ???  This is the your first one – your study. What went wrong? What will you do next time to make it better?

I added 1/4 inch tabs to help with 3-d construction. Clipping the corners makes construction easier.

Part 2

Materials: Acrylic paint, color pencil, markers, oil pastel, collage, mixed media. Choose what you would like to work with.

Color Relationship

1.     You are now going to create a design, using one of the sides of the cube for the composition. This 3x3” square design will be repeated on each of the sides of the box.

2.      You can see in the examples that I used tracing paper to copy my design. You could also use a light table or a window to help with the tracing. If your lines are very strong, soften them with an eraser before going to the next step.

Before adding color to the design on your flat net, experiment with the color relationship

possibilities. 

In Launching the Imagination there are 6 variations of Color Relationship.

Monochromatic

Analogous

Complementary

Split Complementary

Triadic

Earth Colors or Chromatic Grays

Draw 6 individual squares with your design and try out a different color relationship on each one.

Earth colors

These are my six color relationship studies.

 I laid them on the cube to imagine how they would look on the form. 

Monochromatic

Analogous

Complementary

Earth Colors

Split Complement

Triadic

       Choose one color relationship that you like the best. On your cube net, use that palette to color your design. You may change the distribution of colors. In my example, I did change the distribution. You could also change the orientation of your design. Both of these changes give more variation and interest to your design.

I chose an analogous color relationship. 

Evaluation

_____One cube study

_____6 color relationship studies

_____Documentation of your flat net with color

_____Constructed cube with color

_____Craftsmanship

The cube should be measured accurately. The edges should fit together without gaps. No visible glue. Color added neatly and strongly in the application.

_____Document all parts of this assignment. In the final photograph of the colored cube, play with the position, and show several sides. Focus attention on the cube – get rid of all distracting elements around the cube.

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