Primary Colours

I like to introduce children to primary colours and mixing colours at the beginning of the year. It's a great skill to apply during other art lessons later on.

First I begin by using paper plates, divided into six sections.



Paint every second section a primary colour.

Secondary Colours

Show the children the amount of colour that needs to be mixed to make the secondary colour- i.e. a very small bit of blue and a bigger bit of yellow will make green. Let them discover what happens if they add more blue!

Secondary Colours

And then paint the secondary colours in between the two primary colours mixed! 

Complementary Colours

Colours opposite one another on their colour wheels are called Complementary Colours. They are colours that tend to 'go well' with one another.
It can be very effective to paint a picture just using two complementary colours.

Van Gogh's "Starry Night" is a fantastic example of this. 

Tones

Mix a colour with white and it lightens, black and it darkens.

The paint cards in hardware stores are a great example of this. Tone cards are really effective as a display border.

Here's an example of group projects I did with second class. They were only allowed use blue, black and white. The tone cards were used as a border. 

Lessons based on Primary Colour Mixing

Colour running art

Marbles in a box

Blow Painting

Jackson Pollock is a great artist to introduce to the children for these lessons (Uganda memories!)