Color Mixing 101

Objectives

By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to:• identify primary and secondary colors. • mix primary colors of paint to create secondary colors of

paint. • learn about the uses of the color wheel for artists• create a painting of a rainbow or color wheel using mixed

colors• learn painting techniques using art media

What do you know about colors?•How have you tried mixing paints together?•What are the primary colors?•What are the secondary colors?•What does color do for a piece of art?•Colors are all around us in all areas of life, including plants, animals, foods, clothing, and places.

Blog.mpl.org/nowatmpl/villardlibrary

Colors and Artwork•Artists use colors to help communicate ideas and feelings•Color comes from light, if there were no light, we’d have no color•As artists, we use pigments in the form of color•What colors did the artist use here?•What type of feelings do you get from this painting?•What types of colors do you see around the classroom?

http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/modern_art/report_from_rockport/objectView.aspx?&OID=210006221&collID=21&vw=0

Primary Colors•The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue.•can be mixed together to create other colors•they are the root of every color mixture•they are the only colors that can’t be created by mixing two colors, you can try, but it won’t work!

The Secondary Colors•The secondary colors are green, orange, and purple• are made from mixing two primary colors•Secondary colors are located on the color wheel between the colors that created them

Mixing red and blue will make purple.

COLOR MIXING

Mixing yellow and blue equally will result in green!

COLOR MIXING TIPS

Red and yellow mixed will create orange!

More about colors and the color wheel

•Colors are all around us in all areas of life, including plants, animals, foods, clothing, and places.•Artists use a color wheel to plan and organize colors•It helps to understand how colors work together•The color wheel is made up of three primary, three secondary, and six intermediate colors.•The colors of the color wheel are in the color spectrum order. They are in the order of the rainbow, starting with red.

Let’s Start Mixing!Choice 1: Create a color wheel with mixed primary colors

Choice 2: Create a rainbow using mixed primary colors

www.waldorfteachers.com/gallery/Painting/Student+Paintings/Malen.JPG.htmwww.polyvore.com/.../thing?id=12992082

Mixing in Action/ Demonstrations

http://video.kidzui.com/videos/1320002?related%5Bchannel%5D=Primary%2BColors

www.boowakwala.com/kids/boowakwala-adventures-fingerpaint-colorsong.html

Here are some helpful resources to help you remember how to mix primary colors.

Assessment• Have you successfully created

secondary colors in the order of the color wheel or rainbow?

• In your own words, describe the process of using primary colors to create secondary colors.

• Explain the purposes of the color wheel for artists.

• What is the major difference between primary and secondary colors?

• Picture retrieved from:www.twincitysam.com/blog/page/2/

Fun places to experiment with color

• http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/Colormixing.shtml• http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/games/mix_and_paint/

mix_and_paint.html• http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/experiments/colorgame/

References

• Primary colors picture retrieved from:www.spraygraphic.com/ViewProject/5452/

normal.html• Color wheel picture retrieved from:

www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/encyc_colorwheel.html

• Secondary colors picture retrieved from:www.redo-stl.com/tips/theres-no-place-like-home/