Crafty Friday: Color Theory Abstracts

Yes, you saw that right. It's a Crafty Friday post! Since I'm teaching an art class on Friday to middle and high schoolers, I have to come up with lesson plans, projects, and samples. And since I have to make samples, I might as well share them on my blog. 

Since I've got a range of ages and skill levels in my class, I wanted to give them a few basic lessons to help prep them for what's to come. Knowing color theory will be quite useful in some of our projects, so we worked on color mixing and theory with this project, which is a little more fun than just making a color wheel.

First, if you're not familiar with color theory, you can check out this lesson here. 

You will need a large square piece of paper [I used 12x12"], with two lines dividing the square in half vertically and horizontally to make four equal quadrants. You will also need a smaller square the size of one of  the quadrants [in this case, 6x6"]. On the smaller square, draw a design consisting of shapes, lines, simple objects. The key is to not over complicate the design because you will be painting each part in different shades of color. Here's what I came up with:

If you need some ideas, here are several design samples:

The next step is to transfer your design into each of the four squares on your larger piece of paper. If you don't have a light box to use, you can do this by taping your small square onto a light filled window, and holding your larger paper over the design so you can trace it onto your piece. Once the whole paper is filled, you're ready to start painting. 

The first square will contain a monochromatic color scheme, which means one color. Pick a single color to work with [I chose blue], and make tints by adding white, or shades by adding black. Paint each of your shapes in a variety of tints and shades.

The next square will be filled with analogous colors [colors that are next to each other on the color wheel]. I chose red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, and yellow. 

The last two squares I filled with complimentary colors [colors opposite each other on the color wheel]. I chose to work with purple + yellow and green +red. [The third combo is blue + orange]. I made tints and shades of each color and filled in the remaining squares. And the end result is a nifty abstract art piece:

I got the idea for this lesson from a blog called Art Confidence. Check it out for more great examples of this project.

Happy Crafting!

xo

nessa dee

Crafty Friday: Color Wheels

Yes, you read that right. Crafty Friday is back! Thanks to our involvement in our homeschool cooperation and my having to teach a class, I am using my kids as test subjects for my art lessons.

There are three parts to this project, and here’s what you will need:

-3 clear glasses half full of water

-red, blue and yellow food coloring

-six containers or paper plates to represent the colors red, blue, yellow, orange, green and purple. We used white paper plates and I stuck a piece of colored paper on each one to indicate each color.

-glue

-pieces of construction paper, material, string, stickers, pom poms, etc. in the six colors aforementioned.

This being the first lesson, I wanted to teach the kids a little bit of color theory. This also being the first day I meet most of these kids, I thought it wise to hold off on painting until I can gage the how easy it will be to handle a room full of 5 and 6 year olds armed with paintbrushes. So, I figured a little demonstration with food coloring will do the trick.

First, fill three clear glasses about half way full of water. Then add drops of food coloring to make one glass with red water, one with blue water, and one with yellow water. Your child is welcome to smell the water like mine did.

Explain to your children that red, yellow and blue are the primary colors. These colors cannot be made by mixing other colors, but by mixing two of the primary colors together, we can make the secondary colors, orange, green, and purple.

Now the fun begins. Add a few drops of food coloring to each glass to mix the secondary colors in these combinations:

yellow + blue = green

red + yellow = orange

blue + red = purple

We mixed yellow into the blue glass to make the green, red into the yellow glass to make orange, and blue into the red glass for our purple; but the purple didn’t turn out so well. I don’t think we added enough blue because the color looked more maroon. Anyhow, here are our results:

The second part of the lesson introduces the kids to the color wheel. A color wheel shows the relationship between colors. Since I’ll be working with a young age group, I’m only demonstrating the primary and secondary colors, but if you’d like to add tertiary colors to the mix, feel free. You can find out more about tertiary colors and color theory here.

First, set up six plates in a circle, each plate representing a different color. Arrange the plates like so: Start with red at the top. Then, going clockwise set up orange, yellow, green at the bottom, then blue and finally purple, between the red and blue. Then have your kids find different objects around the house of each color and place them in the color wheel until it’s filled.

Finally, the kids will make their own color wheel by gluing scraps of paper, material, bits of string and stickers to represent the spectrum of colors. I created a color coded wheel for the project:

And here’s what Finn created:

Happy Crafting!

nessa dee