Artistic Color Mixing Sampler - Grade 3

We all started the same way, by making  3 large closed shapes that were filled in with RED, YELLOW and BLUE. 

To help us designate the shape without having to draw it, I showed my 2 classes that they may join 3 short wikki sticks (waxy covered wire sticks)  and twist the shape closed. 

Because we were working on a shiny cardstock, the wax stayed hooked to the page very well.  They made 3 shapes this way and painted inside each one with a different primary color. 

The next day we continued on by outlining the primary colors using 2 neutrals, a black and a white to mix a gray line around the edge of the color patches.  Then I demonstrated the color mixing to make the secondary colors of orange, green, and violet.   They could use the wikki sticks again for making the shapes.

They were able to make mixtures of any experimental colors in the available space.  The only rule that I gave them were to not mix on top of the red, yellow, blue, green, orange, or violet shapes.  They were free to create any color mixture recipes their heart's desired, just as long it was in a different spot than the already painted shapes.




Mixing palettes after 2 classes

  Most of them were delighted to get so many different mossy greens and murky browns!  Others concentrated on doing cleaner mixtures that had yellow and green, or yellow and orange and lots of different purples or reds!  Of course the key to that, was that they wiped their brush out really well between mixings.  Someone from third grade actually said, "Oh this was so much fun, we never got to mix this much before!"  That comment made me feel very happy.

Another thing that helps the color mixing step to go smoothly is to encourage color mixing to take place on the newspaper.  When they get a color they like, they can then go ahead and paint it on the project page.

Now that they are ino the final stages, they have really developed the shapes individually.  Some made the shapes into recognizable images, others focused on making the color mixed spots into a pattern, while others made only a few large mixed blobby shapes.  Each piece was quite unique.  I even saw one boy that made his shapes look like aliens!

By Macauly gr 3 "Alien Color Mixing"

The final day we got out the oil crayons again and I asked them to outline and bring out the edge of the secondary colors using black first then a touch of white.  When those three were outlined just like the primary colors I told them to switch to only colored oil crayons and put lines around and over the colored mixing spots.  They could outline them or add color on top of the spots to bring out the recipe for how the color was made. 

one example with a lot of extra mixing spots!

One student suggested that these creative color mixes look like close ups of germs.  Another student thought they looked like a view into a microscope.  Another student drew oil crayon plaid lines over the top of her color mixing spots.  It is quite a nice pattern.  I responded with a comment that went something like this, "Isn't it nice that we can see different things in each artist's work?"

Animals In the Style of Mondrian

Piet Mondrian's Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue


I have shared two art prints of Piet Mondrian's Boogie Woogie with my 3rd grade classes. Each was a different version from his series called Boogie Woogie. We started to get familiar with some other pieces of his work too. I also showed a photo of a dress that was inspired from his painting. Did you know that Nike has designed athletic shoes that are styled after Mondrian's work too? The trademark slash is black, but the rest of the colors are red, blue, yellow, and white.


Nike Low Dunk shoes released in 2008


Afer having a little discussion about the art examples, we set out to create a large animal silhouette from white cardstock. I had a small booklet of animal shapes that I made from various silhouettes I had found on-line. They looked at frog, giraffe, fish, kangaroo, fox, dolphin, before they considered which they would draw. I showed them how to visualize a box around the animal to see which parts may nearly touch the edge when the animal was enlarged. The students tried to make their animal as large as the paper. We stacked our pattern on top of white cardstock and paper clipped the corners to allow us to cut through both layers.



I will have artwork to post in the blog later.