“Color” by Betty Edwards

I have been finding Betty Edward’s book on color to be extremely helpful.  Back when I was teaching art to junior high kids a fellow teacher gave me Edward’s drawing book.  I used it frequently with my students but didn’t notice she had written another one on color until about a year ago.  Slowly I have been working through the exercises during nap times and in the evenings.  The projects range from making tools like a color wheel and a hue chart to painting a still life floral arrangement to a personal journal of color meanings.

Here is an example of a project in which you paint several folded pieces of construction paper (plenty of that around!), with a striking abstract as the result:

Here is an example of a lily (a gift from my sweety for mother’s day) with analogous colored paper below and complementary-colored paper behind: