A lesson in color theory

What do you need?

• 4 cards of drawing paper, 10 by 7 cm
• pencil
• ruler
• markers of color pencils 
• black construction paper

Instruction
Discuss the words primary and secundary colors using the color wheel.  

What are primary colors and why are they called so? What are secondary colors, how do you make them and why are they called so? What are the neutral colors? Explain also the word nuance. 

What should you do?

1. Draw a frame on the cards at 2 mm from the edge using a thin black marker.
2. Draw a pattern of your choice on each card.
3. Color the cards according to the terms discussed.
4. Outline the patterns with a thin black marker.
5. Stick the cards on a black background.
6. Add the learned words.

Same insect - different colors

 

made by student of grade 1

You need:

1. drawing sheets A5 size
2. crayons
3. liquid watercolor paint 
4. brush

Draw two the same insects and color them with crayons: one with cool colors, the other with warm colors. 

Paint the background with dilluted watercolor paint: warm colors for the 'warm' insect, cool colors for the 'cool' insect. 

Element of art: color.

In 'The Factory' of Andy Warhol

made by students of grade 1

You need: 

1. colored paper 12 by 12 cm
2. black construction paper 50 cm by 15 cm 
3. tempera paint
4. brushes
5. apples
6. glue
7. black marker 

Tell about Andy Warhol's Factory. 

First lesson: "We are going to work today in the factory of Andy Warhol. Choose four colored sheets. Make apple prints in complementary colors: on a blue sheet you print an orange apple, on a red sheet you print a green apple etc."

Let dry and paste the colored sheets on black construction paper.

Second lesson: make a second print in a complementary color: on the orange apple you print a blue one etc. Let dry. Outline the apples with a black marker and add seeds and stem. 

Colour theory part two

Following Colour theory part one a lesson about the effect that colours have on each other.

The aim of this lesson is that students discover the effect of primary and secondary colours on one another.

You need:

1. two sheets of white or black paper, A3 size
2. coloured sheets in red, yellow, blue, orange, green and purple
3. glue

Pre-cut squares of coloured paper. Per student you need: 5 squares of 5 by 5 cm in all six colours and five squares of 3 by 3 cm in all six colours.

Repeat the terms primary and secondary colours and name the colours. Tell students they will see today how the colours interact. What would be yellow on blue? What about red on purple? What colours would stand out well, what not? Try to discover how we can systematically investigate. Eventually you come to the following concept:

A. primary on primary.
B. primary on secundary.
C. secundary on primary.
D. secundary on secundary.

primary on primary

A. Primary on primary.

To make all combinations of primary on primary to make you need 2 large and 2 small squares of all primary colours. Ask students to find out how, or give them the solution:

- blue on yellow and red on yellow
- yellow on blue and red on blue
- yellow on red and blue on red
Paste all combinations on a sheet of white paper. Write under it: primary on primary.

secundary on primary

B. Secundary on primary.
To make all combinations of  secundary on primary, you need 3 large squares of each primary colour and three small squares of each secundary colour. Ask students to find out how, or give them the solution:

- orange on yellow, purple on yellow, green on yellow

- green on blue, orange on blauw, purple on blue
- purple on red, green on red, orange on red
Paste all combinations on a sheet of white paper. Be sure the big squares in the same colour are next to each other. Write under it: secundary on primary.

primary on secundary

C. Primary on secundary.
To make all combinations of primary on secundary, you need 3 big squares of each secundary colour and 3 small ones of each primary colour. Ask students to find out how combinations have to be made, or give them the solution:

- yellow on orange, blue on orange, red on orange

- yellow on purple, blue on purple, red on purple
- yellow on green, blue on green, red on green
Paste all combinations on a sheet of white paper. Be sure the big squares in the same colour are next to each other. Write under it: primary on secundary.

secundary on secundary

D. Secundary on secundary.

To make all combinations of secundary on secundary, you need 2 big and 2 small squares of each secundary colour. Ask students to find out how combinations have to be made, or give them the solution: 
- purple on green, orange on green
- orange on purple, green on purple
- purple on orange, green on orange
Paste all combinations on a sheet of white paper. Write under it: secundary on secundary.

Ask students after making this work to discuss see which colors are most contrasting, which you hardly see, etc.

Colour theory part one

By students of grade 2

You need:

1. black cardboard 15 by 15 cm
2. coloured paper in yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green
3. scissors
4. glue
5. pencil

Fo the first part of a lesson on colour theory, we repeated primary and secundary colours and showed how to make secundary colours out of primary colours. Students knew those colours, but didn't know the names. Tell them about the complementary colours, the colours that lie opposite each other in the circle, called complementary. Red is opposite green, yellow against purple, blue opposite orange.

The primary colors red, yellow and blue are in a triangle. The same goes for the secondary colours orange, green and purple.

Tell students to cut 6 shapes from the coloured sheets and paste them on black paper as discussed.

Use a pencil to draw triangles in dotted lines between the primary and secondary colours.