Abstraction and Color Theory Triptych

Criteria & Objectives

• Students will explore abstraction and how to abstract objects.
• Students will make a triptych with three color schemes: analogous,
complementary, and triadic.
• Students will pick a dominant color and build their relationships off of that color.
• The left hand panel will be analogous, the middle panel will be complementary,
and the right hand panel will be triadic. The colors will increase in contrast. Each
color can and should shift in value at least twice.
• Each panel should have about fifteen plus shapes in it.
• Students can pick the subject and depict it however they want. They must split the
subject across three panels. The subject can be abstract or representational.
• Students will use paint, pencil, a sheet of 18 x 24 in. paper, and other necessary
supplies.
• The objective of this lesson is to review, explore, and use color schemes.
Nature triptych The objective of the assignment is to explore the three color schemes in relationship to a dominant
color schemes color across a three paneled triptych. The secondary objective is to take a natural subject and
rubric depict it in an abstract or representational manner

Fulfills the The student fully explores the three designated color schemes in relationship to a dominant color
5 4321
Objectives across a three paneled triptych. The subject is abstracted or representational depiction of nature.

The student always exhibits widely varied designs, does not imitate but is imitated, displays highly
Creative
5 varied and unique work that is an original solution or combination of ideas. The student always 4321
Solution
integrates their nature subject matter in a unique abstract or representational depiction.

All of the student’s design is split across the three panels of their triptych. The three panels are
connected by a dominant color, the dominant color is the color the students will use the most. The
Follows the
5 left panel is an analogous color scheme, the middle panel is a complementary color scheme, and 4321
Process
the right hand panel is a triadic color scheme. All of the student’s subject has been depicted in an
abstract or semi-representational manner, or some combination of the two.

The student always uses crisp edges, no pencil under-drawing is visible, no white of the paper is
visible, as many possible combinations of colors exist within each panels color scheme with a
Craftsmanship 5 minimum of two value shifts for each color, no overlapping strokes or muddying has occurred, 4321
colors do not indiscriminately intermix, the subject has been sketched out and planned ahead of
time on the provided worksheet.
Piet Mondrian, work from 1910-1930
Pick a natural subject as
your reference point and
draw-then-paint it:
•Representational
•Somewhere in
between
•Abstract
Franz Marc, work from 1911-1914
Paul Klee, work from 1910-1930
Georgia O’Keefe, work ranging from 1912-1970’s /80’s
Ellen Dittebrandt, contemporary
Lia Porto, contemporary
Jim Waid, contemporary
Traditional triptychs, for votive, prayer, or contemplation during mass or at home. Shut when not in use.
Contemporary uses of the triptych archetype
Started by Hubert van Eyck, who died in 1426 while work was underway, and completed by his younger brother Jan van
Eyck. Ghent Altarpiece or Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (Dutch: Het Lam Gods or The Lamb of God; completed 1432)
Peter Paul Rubens, The Elevation of the Cross,
1610-1611
Otto Dix, Der Krieg [War] 1924
Francis Bacon, " Three Studies for Figures at
the Base of a Crucifixion" (1944)
Potential variations or design solutions
Process
1. Draw a central subject,
split it into three panels
2. Add detail, you need at
least fifteen plus shapes
for each panel
3. For your first panel you will
use an analogous color
scheme
4. Your second panel will
have a complementary
color scheme
5. Your last panel has a
triadic color scheme
Pick a dominant color first to base your painting on

1.First panel: analogous

color scheme
2.Second panel:
complementary color
scheme
3.Third panel: triadic color
scheme