K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Silly!



If you are looking for something simple and wonderful and don't have a lot of time, this is your lucky day!

I love making circular pictures or cards!  Not quite sure why - maybe it is because I am always running around in circles and feel like I accomplish little if anything...LOL

So here you go - this is a 16" x 20" pastel (chalk) picture that I taught my students to do years ago.

It is a lesson in color theory.  Hot vs Cold. Color opposites.  Color analogy. If you don't have a color wheel, this would be a great time to get one so that you can truly understand what I am saying in this post.

Anyways, Here we go!

On any size paper that you would like,

1. Draw circles with a light blue pencil, stopping at the points of the circle(s) where they overlap to give your peice some dimension.
2. Now choose  two "friendly" colors - they are colors that are next to one another on the color wheel -these are your "friendly colors".  i.e. yellow and orange, green and blue.
3. Now pick another set of "friendly" colors.  This time make sure that if you chose two warm hues, choose two cool hues to help set off your composition.
4. On one side of the circle, use one of your "friendly colors" and color in 1/3 of the circle.
5. On the other side of the same circle, color your other "friendly color".
6. Blend the two colors together towards the center of the circle.
7. Continue coloring all the other circles in the same manner using different combinations of "friendly colors". Make sure that you don't put two of the same friendly color combinations next to one another. 
8. Once all your circles have been colored in, color black in all the surrounding areas that you have not colored in yet.
9. WALLA!  You are done!  

I like to use a little aerosol hairspray on my chalks to set them so they don't smear or come off on my hands at a later date - but I will leave that decision up to you as to how you want to finish your piece of.

Warm vs Cool - spectacular color choices when making a greeting card.  Use one for the images and the other for the background or vise versa.

You can't go wrong using this color theory!

Have a creatively great day!

Laura Anne and Bella Boo