Lesson 4: Colour

Drawing Exercise 1 Using Colour.

Understanding The Use of Warm/Cool Colours Spatially

• Materials
• 2B, 4B, or 6B Graphite Pencil
• Oil Pastels or Coloured Pencils.
• Visual Journal

1. Draw a flower very simply.
2. Start with a basic circle and draw a circle of petals around it.
3. Add one stem.
(Remember the exercise is about colour and not drawing itself.)
4. Fill the centre of the flower with a dark shade of orange.
5. Fill each petal with yellow - you can use a darker shade around the edges of the petal so that they 'recede.'
6. Colour the stem of the flower and the leaves with a very yellow green.
7. Cross hatch yellow across the green in the opposite direction if that is required to achieve the hue you are looking for.
8. Colour the background blue in stages.
9. Starting in the spaces behind each petal, begin to radiate outwards using a dark blue.
10. Graduate to lighter blue as you come out from behind the flower.
11. Try to graduate firmly but smoothly so that you are left with a lighter blue in the open spaces of the picture plane.
12. You can cross hatch purple over the blue behind the flower if you want the background to recede even further.
13. Follow the stages in the pictures provided.
14. Work this drawing up until it is a very simple colour drawing that you like.
15. Keep it for later as we will use it in our framing exercises. Sign and date your work.