Art Inspiration with Color
This week we are juggling middle school distance learning with * waves towards everything else *. And we are so fortunate to have the ability to stay at home. I manage to work from home, though productivity is extremely challenging. This project was simple and engaging. I approached it as a science, open-ended process art project. And he actually loved the results. So win-win!
Prep:
Using a sharpie, I wrote the main color- his favorite color- at the top of the page. He could have written it himself but I wanted to make it an “easy onramp” because the resistance to “work” is real (and exhausting). To be honest, I get it because I feel that undertow too. I know that engaging in activities is rewarding, though, so I made this as easy as possible to start. Anyway, I drew circles across the page. Imperfect circles with different sizes (easier for me) with a sharpie. It has to be a pen that doesn’t react to water because that will mix with the paint.
Painting:
I set it up with him with the question- how do colors interact with orange? Mix them on your brush or on your paper. What causes different shades of orange?
We also talked about water tension and that if he didn’t have water go outside the circle, the paint would stay in the circle as well. Then we ended up going outside the lines a bit too.
He really enjoyed creating different shades of orange. And we got to continue the conversation when the page dried and colors changed slightly.
What we learned:
The paper influences the mixing a lot. We used a sketching paper that soaked the water quickly so it didn’t work to mix in the circle as well. We ended up mixing more directly dipping the brush from one to another color. Once he mixed two, I suggested three. We also mixed on the lid of the paint tray. Our paints, by the way, are Lyra watercolors available on A Child’s Dream Come True.
It would be fun to try with watercolor paper where you could drop one color onto the other on the page and see them interact.
This is a fantastic project for scientific “what if” questions. There really isn’t a wrong lesson for children to learn. I ended up painting beside him because it was fun to try different combinations.
Oh, and it may be surprising to see how some colors “play well together”. If you group warm colors together, and cool colors, similar colors (warm-warm or cool-cool) will enhance the chosen color. This can also be called analogous colors on a color wheel. But adding the opposite, like adding blue to orange, makes the orange look gray-green. Why? It connects to the idea of complementary colors that react differently with the chosen color. You can learn more about colors by researching.
We strongly encourage children’s curiosity, especially if they ask, “Why?” That gives you an opportunity to go learn more. The first step is observing, which means letting children try things and ask their own questions. Art is a wonderful way to explore ideas.
Of course, you can use different shapes, too. Squares, rectangles, triangles… lots of creative potential. We hope you have fun experimenting with color 🧡
