Assignment 4: Complementary Colour

Assignment 4: Complementary Colour

Assignment 4 was based on creating complementary colour scales, and applying the scales to a three dimensional form. I started off by using the colour aid to pick 3 complimentary colour pairings, towards which I would match my paint colour. The pairings were yellow/violet, blue/orange, red/green. The chosen colors were those of high intensity and saturation to ensure the neutrals are as pure as possible. 

Once I matched my paint to the according colour aid, I mixed the complementary colors together 50/50 in order to create the extreme neutral. Using this neutral, I went backwards moving towards yellow intensity by adding more of the yellow pure colour. I repeated the same step by adding violet to the neutral to create a gradation from neutrality to intensity towards violet at the end. The same process was continued for the blue/orange and red/green scales as well. This 11-step complementary scale can be seen below.

11-step Complementary Colour Scale

Following the gradation, we went on to creating a form to facilitate two of the three complementary scales created above. I chose a polyhedron template from www.korthalsaltes.com, which was rescaled to a larger size. Upon building a mockup version of the polyhedron, I sketched out my design on the template which I would then transfer onto the final product. I chose a very simple design as I wanted for it to work well with the overall form while facilitating the scales in an effective manner at the same time.

In order to craft my form well, I created a skeleton for the polyhedron by creating it out of bristol paper first. Next, I cut each individual diamond shape for the illustration board and attached it to its respective location. Although this was more time-consuming, I believe it gave me great craft quality. I actually really enjoyed building the form, to my surprise. I painted the form once it was built, which made it quite difficult to handle as it was not a conventional shape. Due to the fact that a large amount of the polyhedron was painted in neutrals, I chose to facilitate the 4 pure colors on a single panel together, as it really livened up the piece, and introduced a focal point. The final product can be seen in the first image above.