We began by folding a square piece of paper into a rectangle, then back into a smaller square, and finally into a triangle. Then the symmetrical radial design begins with drawing four basic lines with black crayon, not too complex but not too boring either, this is one eighth of the design.
Next we unfold the paper back to the smaller square and fold it backwards "smooshing" the crayon lines in the middle. Then we rubbed a pencil very hard over the whole surface. This transfers the crayon lines from the first triangle to the other. To finish this step, we traced the faint lines with the crayon, now we have one quarter of the design completed.
Now we repeat this process of folding over and smooshing the crayon lines again. This time from one quarter to another quarter. After rubbing we retraced the faint lines again, now we have one half of the design.
As you can imagine, we repeat this process one last time transferring one half to the other half. This completes the symmetrical radial design!
To finalize this color mixing unit, we were given the freedom to select a color scheme to paint the design. Students learned about complementary and analogous color schemes. Students then picked their favorite to complete the project. The complementary color scheme uses two colors across from each other on the color wheel: red/green, yellow/violet, and blue/orange. The analogous color scheme uses three colors in a row on the color wheel like red, red-violet, and violet. (Above is an example of a complementary color scheme using red and green)
