Artist Workshop: Painting

The Color Wheel

During Thursday's class we were taught the proper color wheel. I remember only learning this once in 7th grade, so I appreciated the review. The color wheel is made up of our primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. It is a great visual way to see how all of our unique colors are made. Here is the color wheel that I created in class with water color paint:

I love color wheels that are created with the use of the two triangles because it is a great visual reference to the primary and secondary colors. Our primary colors are: red, blue, and yellow. While our secondary colors are orange, violet, and green. Can you spot these colors on the color wheel? (hint: they are on the tips/points of the triangles). Now our tertiary colors can get tricky. But these are red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange, and red-orange. Notice how the primary color is always named first? This is key to make sure you always do when referring to a tertiary color. Can you spot how these colors are made? They are combinations of the primary and secondary colors! They create a unique version of the two.

How can you use it in the classroom? This would be a fun activity to do with your students. Children usually love arts and crafts, so incorporating painting into one of your content areas would give you the opportunity to teach them this simple color wheel! Sadly, I did not learn the color wheel until the 7th grade, but this is something that should be taught in elementary. Once students know all of the colors and their different types- they can create them themselves! A simple way to do this is with the use of water color paints. It is not as messy as regular paint and is easy enough for students to mix colors together to create new ones.

Water Color Painting Techniques

I got the opportunity to learn different water color painting techniques that could easily be taught to students. There are different properties such as wet paint on dry paper, wet paint on wet paper, and dry paint on dry paper. There are also different brush techniques such as using the tip, side, and varying the pressure. Different textures can be used such as sponge, paper towel, and salt. These are just a few different techniques that can be used, but it is a great start to creativity. Here are the techniques that I listed that I got the chance to apply:

As you can see, these are all unique in their own way. There are many more ways that you can be creative with this.

How can you use this in the classroom? Earlier I talked about and explained the color wheel. Once that is taught, then you can teach students different techniques that they can use to apply their new colors on paper. For part of a project, you can require that they use at least three unique colors and techniques. This can be applied to any art project that you would like to incorporate into your classroom. For example, you may have students illustrate a story that they wrote as an ELA project. Students would have a blast doing this! They could incorporate their new color and technique knowledge to their illustrations.