20 November 2017
Diamonds are this teacher's best friend. As part of a longer tour of the elements and principles, I wanted my kids to work with a few of the art elements, and I figured faceted gems would make for a sparkly introduction to value, shape, and colour, and provide an opportunity to practice colour mixing and flat colour painting.
For their studies on the art elements, Year 10 and 11 students worked from vector graphic illustrations to paint studies of faceted gems. They learned that facets are flat faces on geometric shapes and that crystals are cut in order to enhance the reflection of light. They were challenged to produce a wide range of values and to paint with flat colour– filling each facet in a uniform tone and hue.
This project focused initially on value, with the students mixing black and white paints to produce tones. Then in their colour study, they worked with various hues to depict the colourful dispersion and scintillation that together give cut gems their brilliant appearance. The slivers of wall around my windows are feeling fabulous now.
