The famous physicist who figured out that white light contains all the colors of the rainbow was Isaac Newton! He is also the one who organized all the colors into the chart we know as the "Color Wheel." The colors are set up in a special way, showing their relationships.
Did you know that scientists still cannot explain exactly how we see color? It is a mystery! Some animals can see the visible spectrum, such as birds, and others see in black and white, such as dogs. There is also a phenomenon known as "color blindness," where a person is unable to tell the difference between certain colors. Our eyes don't see color at night...we can only see color if there is light!
For the last two days, students have been practicing their color mixing and painting techniques. Using a liquid medium can sometimes prove challenging - the paint goes where it wants to go!
First, we used the three primary colors to mix all 12 colors of the color wheel (and brown.) We also tried the "clean-edge" technique to try controlling the paint, making it go where we want it to go!
Clean Edge Technique:
1. Use the tip of the brush
2. Slowly paint the edges of the shape FIRST, then the middle
3. Use very light pressure - barely touch the paper with the tip of the brush while you are painting the edges
After finishing the color wheel, students designed a "Circle Painting." We used various sized plastic lids to trace overlapping circles all over a half sheet of paper. Students are using primary colors plus black and white to finish these designs. Everywhere a shape overlaps, the resulting space is painted with a mixture of the colors of the surrounding shapes. So, if a red circle and a yellow circle overlap, the shape in between would be painted orange. These are practice paintings; we are getting used to the paint and learning to control a finicky medium! We will be learning more techniques in the coming weeks; 6th graders will be designing an original painting based on the artwork of artist Georgia O'Keeffe, and 7th and 8th graders will be studying the work of the Impressionist painters of the late 19th century. I can't wait to see what they will create!
Color Vocabulary:
Primary Colors - red, yellow, blue; colors that cannot be made from any other colors
Secondary Colors - orange, green, purple; colors made by mixing 2 primary colors
Intermediate Colors - red orange, yellow orange, yellow green, blue green, blue violet, red violet; colors made by mixing a primary and a secondary color
Neutral Colors - Black, brown, white, gray, tan
Shade - a color mixed with black (examples; navy blue, maroon)
Tint - a color mixed with white (examples; pink, baby blue)
Just for fun, here is a great video by Ok Go:
and here is a great animated website all about color and emotion:
Color In Motion, by mariaclaudiacortes.com
Here are a few finished Circle Designs!
