LESSON PLANS FROM 6-12 / PAINTING BEYOND + =ORANGE Written by Mandy Theis Hallenius OBJECTIVES Students will identify the characteristics of chroma, value, and hue Students will practice observation skills Students will discover and apply color theory Students will increase their visual literacy by practicing color mixing skills MATERIALS SUMMARY In this lesson, students will increase their visual literacy by breaking down the elements of color into chroma, value and hue. They will also explore the elements of warm and cool colors. They will then practice identifying these characteristics through a series of color mixing projects. Classroom management strategies for using oil paint in the classroom will be covered at length. Oil Paint (Cad Red, Cad Yellow, Cobalt Blue, Titanium White, Cad Green, Cad Orange, Purple, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin, Lemon Yellow) Palette Knives Palettes Canvas Paper Linseed Oil Gamsol Auto Heavy Duty Paper Towels (they re blue) Pizza Boxes (for storing wet projects) Metal trash can
BEYOND + = BLUE 6-12 / PAINTING BACKGROUND INFORMATION Oil Painting in the classroom is often a daunting prospect for art teachers. Due to the popularity of acrylics in recent times, many art teachers have not had access to training in oil paints. There are many concerns about oil painting in the classroom that keep art teachers away from using it. One of these is the concern that oil paint is unsafe for classroom use. Gamblin, a paint-making company, offers a great overview of classroom safety with oil paints on their website. With their permission, portions of it are included in the appendix of this lesson plan. The full version can be downloaded from their website at https://www.gamblincolors.com/studio-safety/guide-for-schools/ Some art teachers worry that oil painting is too expensive to teach in their classrooms. Although oil paint can be more expensive than other art activities, it doesn t need to be. There are many art activities that require a very small number of colors to execute. Additionally, working on relatively small projects keeps the cost of oil paint down and your supply lasting much longer. Using oil painting paper instead of canvas also keeps costs down. Providing clear instruction on how much paint to put on your palette at a time (I suggest to my students to use a dime at a time and that they can always add more if needed) is important. The first few days of painting you need to watch students closely when putting paint on their palette, but once they have a general understanding of what too much is they are able to consistently put the appropriate amount of paint on their palettes. Another common concern is how to manage oil painting in the classroom. It is important to put a system in place for setting up and cleaning up oil painting lessons. Once students have learned the oil painting routine, it takes no more time than other hands-on art activities to teach oil painting in classrooms. One system that is effective for teaching oil painting in the classroom is to have students work in painting groups of 6 students. Each group gets a tote bag with one set of oil paint, palettes, palette knives (which are not real knives, are not used for cutting, and have relatively dull edges - call them palette scrapers if your administration is uneasy about the word knives ), linseed oil, a roll of blue paper towels, and Gamsol. (Canvas paper should be passed out separately to keep it clean and otherwise undamaged.)each student in the group will have a specific job to execute as part of setup and cleanup. Setup chores can be assigned based on the project. Below is a recommended distribution of clean-up chores. Student 1: collect, count, and wipe palette knives Student 2: Scrape palettes and wipe down with linseed oil Student 3: Collect the group s paintings, place in individual pizza boxes, and bring stack to storage place. Student 4: Inventory tote bag for all components (paint tubes, Gamsol, linseed oil, etc.) Student 5: Collect and dispose of all used paper towels in appropriate bin. Student 6: If using paint brushes, this student is responsible for wiping and washing the group s paint brushes. If using just palette knives, such as in this particular lesson, this student can assist the group where needed.
BEYOND + = BLUE 6-12 / PAINTING
BEYOND + = BLUE 6-12 / PAINTING STEP 1 STEP 3 Photocopy the template for color exercises onto canvas paper. BLUE Mix an orange using cadmium red and cadmium yellow. Then mix a green using cobalt blue and cadmium yellow. Now mix a purple using cobalt blue and cadmium red. Add these to your color wheel half way on the lines of the triangle. BLUE STEP 2 Have students put only three colors onto their palettes, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, and cobalt blue. Using the back of a palette knife, dab each color in a triangle shape on your canvas paper to align with the written color. BLUE STEP 4 Now that there are mixed colors on the triangle of the canvas, add cadmium green, cadmium orange, and dioxazine purple to the outermost circle of the canvas. BLUE
BEYOND + = BLUE 6-12 / PAINTING STEP 5 BLUE Compare the mixed colors that were made first to the tubed cadmium green, cadmium orange, and a dioxazine purple. Do you notice that the tubed paint is more intense than the mixed colors? That s because of CHROMA. The tubed cadmium green is more CHRO- MATIC than the cadmium green that is mixed from cadmium yellow and cobalt blue. Chroma is a word that describes how intense a color is. BURNT SIENNA BLUE STEP 7 STEP 6 Have the class look around the room and find 4-5 different examples of objects that are red. Then, rank them according to how CHRO- MATIC of a red each object is from most to least. For example, in the image below, the handles of the pliers are a much more chromatic red than the red of the carpet, which is closer to a burnt sienna color. Repeat this process of ranking objects by their chroma for both blue and yellow objects. This practice will help your students to better understand chroma. Now lets look at an earth tone color, such as burnt sienna. Burnt sienna is still a reddish-orange color, but it is much less chromatic, or intense, than cadmium orange or the orange that was mixed from cadmium yellow and cobalt blue. So far, the more chromatic colors are placed on the outside of the color wheel, and less chromatic colors are placed on the insdie of the color whell. Ask students where in the circle they think burnt sienna belongs. Use the palette knife to place burnt sienna onto your color wheel closer to the center of the circle, but towards the orange side.
BEYOND + = BLUE 6-12 / PAINTING STEP 8 BLUE Using only your cadmium red, cadmium yellow, and cobalt blue, see if you can mix a true neutral, known as a chromatic neutral. A true neutral means that the color looks greyish, but not green-gray or orange-grey, or blue-grey. It should not appear to have any color in it. Mix this neutral using very small bits of paint. It will take some give and take between the three colors to find the true neutral. If your pile of paint gets too large, pull a small amount aside with your palette knife and start mixing colors into this new smaller pile in order to save paint. Place this in the very center of your color wheel. ALIZA- RON CRIMSON STEP 10 LEMON BLUE TRUE NEUTRAL Now, take one the cadmium red and make a 9 step VALUE scale by adding titanium white. What happens to the hue of the color as you add white? Does it get warmer or cooler? Make a strip with your values on your canvas. Be careful to make your steps even. Because white is a cool color, you should notice that your red becomes more and more cool as it becomes lighter because the proportion of titanium white to cadmium red becomes greater. TO WHITE STEP 9 All colors can be warm or cool, it depends on the context. Look at alizarin and cadmium reds. Which one is warmer? Cadmium red is warmer than alizarin red. Therfore, the alizarin red can be placed towards the purple side of the cadmium red. Evaluate the relative warmth and coolness of lemon yellow and cadmium yellow. Where do these new colors belong on your color wheel? Place them appropriately. Often, in order to maintain the warmth of a color when it is being lightened, classically trained artists will add a tiny bit of a warm color, such as cadmium yellow, to maintain the integerity of the HUE. The hue is where exactly the color falls on the outside of the color wheel. If a color gets cooler, it is changing hue. In the next value scale, add a tiny bit of cadmium yellow to your paint mixture as you lighten it to maintain the HUE. TO WHITE WITH A TINY BIT OF
BEYOND + = BLUE 6-12 / PAINTING VERBAL ASSESSMENT 1. How did your paint handling skills change from the beginning to the end of this project? 2. If you could do your color wheel or value scales again, what would you do differently? 3. What do you see other students doing that you like? OBSERVATIONAL ASSESSMENT 1. Does the student demonstrate a clear understanding of value, chroma, and hue as they relate to color? 2. Does the student use good paint handling skills when completing their color wheel and value scales? 3. Does the student apply any of the skills learned in this lesson to other projects? RUBRIC VALUE CHROMA HUE CRAFTSPERSON- SHIP 3 pts 4 pts 5 pts Student needs to practice more careful observation when gradating between light and ark on their color value scale. Student needs to practice demonstrating an understanding of chroma by placing the most chromatic colors on the outside of the color wheel, and the least chromatic colors on the inside of the color wheel. Student incorrectly places warm and cool versions of colors in the correct location around the color wheel. The color wheel and value scales are not completed neatly, with many extra smudges, or rips in the canvas. Paint is not neatly applied. Student makes somewhat equal gradations between light and dar on their color value scale. Student demonstrates an moderate understanding of chroma by placing the most chromatic colors on the outside of the color wheel, and the least chromatic colors on the inside of the color wheel. Student sometimes correctly places warm and cool versions of colors in the correct location around the color wheel. The color wheel and value scales are sometimes completed neatly, with no extra smudges, or rips in the canvas. Paint is neatly applied. Student makes equal gradations between light and dark on their color value scale. Student demonstrates a firm understanding of chroma by placing the most chromatic colors on the outside of the color wheel, and the least chromatic colors on the inside of the color wheel. Student correctly places warm and cool versions of colors in the correct location around the color wheel. The color wheel and value scales are completed neatly, with no extra smudges, or rips in the canvas. Paint is neatly applied.
BEYOND + = BLUE 6-12 / PAINTING ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Art Renewal Center Online Image Museum www.artrenewal.org Gamblin Studio Safety Guide https://www.gamblincolors.com/studio-safety/ guide-for-schools/ Lessons in Classical Painting Juliette Aristides - Watson-Guptill Publications - 2016 Classical Drawing Atelier: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Studio Practice Juliette Aristides - Watson-Guptill Publications - 2006 Lessons in Classical Drawing: Essential Techniques from Inside the Atelier Juliette Aristides - Watson-Guptill Publications - 2011
BLUE TO WHITE TO WHITE WARMED WITH A TINY BIT OF