Origami Flowers

Art studies require an element of 'not everything being flat'..! For a 3-dimensional project, I did something with origami. Following video-demonstrations on YouTube, I made a number of origami shapes; flowers. Here are the results of two very different examples, in red...

The more geometric flower is rather appealing for it's symmetry. Using different sized papers I made more before realising one could be placed inside another to create further interest. The inset is like a contrasting heart of stamens and anthers. Pale pastel colours of yellow and pink produce a stylised lotus-flower. Nice!

Using colour theory and tone, I decided to be a little braver with my choice of colours. I used two 'complementary' colours, opposites on the colour-wheel, in this case, orange and violet. In addition the orange paper is light and brightly coloured. The violet is deep, dark and somber and so contrasting nicely in tone, too. 

With two opposite-coloured flowers made, I mounted them, irregularly placed, to a painted surface. Using acrylic paint and paper with a watercolour-style, 'wet-in-wet' technique, I've created a watery background of greenish-blues. One could image these shapes floating down a river carrying a small tea-light candle in celebration. 

To apply these to a 'Heritage' theme, I realised red and white together would give the effect of a four-sided, rather geometric, Tudor-rose. The Plantagenet rose is Red for the House of Lancaster and White for the House of York. 

Here, I have combined the two colours, red and white as before, in opposite pairs, one outer and one inner, on each. 

Finally, I painted another background to mount the flower designs to. I created a textured ochre or stone-coloured surface with dry-brush marks. Over this I washed a transparent layer of primary colours; red, white and yellow, to overlay a simple Norman-style architectural pattern and placed the flower shapes at regular intervals in a band across the middle. 

These are usually five-sided, but this would be difficult to achieve in paper with origami. The last fold, produces the sepals, the outer-most petals. These are usually green on most plants and also on the Plantagenet roses. 

Normally, the centre of the York rose would be yellow, while the centre of the Lancaster rose would be white. The later Tudor rose is a combination of all three colours, red with a white heart but additionally with yellow, right in the centre. 

(The Tudor Rose.)