Primary Lines Genealogy

"Primary Lines" Evolution Series:
Complete Genealogy

The Ancestor: Primary lines 1.0, Watercolor

The Digital Ancestor: Primary Lines 2.0

Primary Lines Fog 3.0

This evolution series began as a small watercolor demo in Color Theory Workshop about using primary colors to make other colors. In this case, I was using the "popular primaries" (red, blue, and yellow) to show how they produce more subdued colors when mixed than the true primaries do (cyan, yellow, and magenta). The simple triple stripe composition was a marvelous base on which to apply the processes of evolution. The "force of nature" decisions that drove selection of pieces for each generation were crowd-sourced through online vote pages.

The ancestral images are shown above. I scanned the watercolor image and did some basic digital manipulation to produce the digital ancestor, and then made a square version as well to generate generations of square images.

Finished artworks from each generation are shown below, with some process notes and notes on the 'founders' or ancestors of successive generations.

Generation 3: from Primary Lines 2-1 Square

Working with 2.1. and using "liquify", I could treat the surface like wet paint and push and pull it around (and around)

Gen 3
Branch Founders

Primary Lines Fog 3.0

Primary Lines, Fog 3.1

Primary Lines 3.3 Iced Inferno

Primary Lines 3.2 inverse

Dancers Family

The Dancers family started with one of 3rd generation (above) that took on a life of its own and founded a new family line. As I worked with it, I realized that while I loved the energy and motion of the dancers, I didn't love the plain white background. The finished works shown below in generation 4, 5, and 6 of the Dancers branch tend to be very dense with color and dynamic movement.

After producing several generations of Dancers, I went back to the previous generation to select a new founder for the next branch.

"The Dancers": family founder

Gen 4

Red Frame founder, Gen 5

Gen 5

Rave

Gen 6

Breakdancers

Gen 6

Red Frame founder, Gen 5

Fog Branch

The plain white background of the Primary Lines image was too plain and high contrast with the bright colors, so I added a cloudy grey background texture to provide a bit of subtle movement. This "Fog" piece spawned several generations across three different family branches.

Fog 3.0

Primary Lines 3.0 Long

Fog 4.1

Fog 4.4

Fog 4.7

Fog 4.2

Fog 4.5

Fog 4.8

Fog 4.3

Fog 4.6

Fog 4.9 - StarFish Branch Founder

Gen 4
Square

Fog 4.2 square

Fog 4.3 sq

Fog 4.4 Square

Fog 4.5 sq

Fog 4.6

Fog 4,7 Sq

Fog 4.8

Fog 4,9 Sq

Gen 5, Cross Breeding

Gen 5 -
Crossbreed Mixtures of 4th Gen members with the 2.0 parent

4.4 & 2.0

4.1 & 2.1

4.4 & 4.7

4.9 & 2.0

Primary Lines "Fog" variation #2

Primary Lines, Fog 3.1

Thinking that the "Fog" family needed a bit more activity in the background, I created this variation. I like it a lot, but haven't had time to work with it much.

Fog 4.x long

The crowd-sourced "survival of the fittest" poll produced an overwhelming favorite, # 4.9 (now known as "Starfish". The two distant runners-up were 2 and 5