This is a great quick project that gets the student thinking about color.
I show them a simple line drawing of a cut gem. No setting, just the stone. We can use just one design like the one here, or let the students come up with additional shapes. They draw their own gem with light lines on thick white paper, drawing the shape by hand, looking at the sample or using their imagination. If they don't like it, they can start over. But the gem doesn't have to be perfect.
The assignment is to come up with different variations on a color. So if the picture is meant to represent a red gem, one facet will be colored the original red. And then the student will color the other facets with mixtures of the original red with white or with a dark color to make tints. Or the student will mix the red with violets and oranges to make analogous colors, or with green to dull and darken the color.
It doesn't matter what facets the student chooses for any of the colors. It will have the appearance of a gem one way or the other. In the process, the student will learn how mixing colors makes for more variety and a more interesting picture. Even with all these variations, the gem will still read as having a particular local color. But the variation in color and value will give the picture dimension. I can talk to them about how the gem looks warm in some areas and cool in others, if that is the case. I can talk about value. I can talk about color schemes.
And very often, each student's gem will look unique, even if we all start with the same design.
In the sample below, the student started with blue construction paper and then worked with a complementary orange for the assignment.
