Symmetrical Radial Color Wheel

For this assignment, 6th grade art students were challenged to first create a symmetrical radial design, then fill it in with the colors from the color wheel.

We began by learning how to make the design symmetrical.  This was accomplished by a series of folding, drawing lines with a black crayon, and then refolding and rubbing the lines from one area to another.  This process allows for the lines to be transferred exactly from one quadrant to another, and when repeated, keeps the design symmetrical.  It is also radial, because the design is based on a circle (though there are no actual circles in the design) and moves your eye in a circular eye path.

Then students studied the color wheel; reviewing primary and secondary color and adding knowledge of the tertiary/intermediate colors.  Over time students collaborated and learned the different mixtures to make all their own secondary colors (violet, green, orange) and their own tertiary/intermediate colors (yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet, and 

red-orange) from the three primary colors yellow, red, and blue.

Students had the freedom to use the color wherever they wished in their design as long as they had all 12 colors from the color wheel someplace symmetrically in the design.  Students had a lot of fun creating these colorful and interesting paintings!