As part of our study of the Elements of Art, we have been looking at ’value’ – lightness and darkness.

We experimented with our watercolour pallets and finger-painted some amazing pictures.

We did a quick in-school ’field trip’ by visiting the Art Room next door. We saw all the lovely colours of the various items in there.  Then the lights were turned off and we experienced blackness, or darkness.  We did this a few times until the students realized that we have no colour without light.  Back in the classroom we heard a story about colour and light.  We learned that all the colours are in the white light.  When we ‘see’ a coloured shirt it is like the shirt is having a party and inviting all the colours, except for the one that we see.  That colour is bounced back to our optic nerves and we see it as its colour.

We then learned that black and white are ‘values’, not colours, as they are not in the rainbow of colours. 🌈

Students were introduced to ‘contrast’ (the sudden change from black to white or white to black), and ‘gradation’ (the gradual shift between the two values).

With their white paper they were to create a picture showing the two values while also showing that they understood the concepts of contrast and gradation.

We made three different kinds of small poppies; one set for the class wreath that will be part of our Remembrance Day Assembly on Wednesday, and one set for our small bulletin board by the Office (above).

We also made large poppies, in the style of Georgia O’Keefe, which we created through a Directed Drawing lesson (using china markers) and painting. Once the paintings were dry they were re-traced with the china markers, cut out, and glued onto green construction paper. These are on our large bulletin board in the hallway.

We began with our drawing pencils and plain white cartridge paper.  Students followed the directed drawing lesson done on our white board. The results were remarkable:

Students then re-created their bats on tan coloured 12” x 18” construction paper.  They were instructed to ensure that they outlined their bats, coloured their pictures to show the bat’s fur, and make the bats the central point of the art piece.  Students worked with drawing pencils and waxed crayons. They could then add other Autumn pictures to complete their scenes as they wanted.  They were encouraged use their tertiary art techniques from last week’s lesson. These are on the bulletin board in our hallway:

I think they all look spectacular!

This was last week’s Art lesson.

After a review of Primary colours (red, blue, yellow), which cannot be made from other colours, Secondary colours (orange, green, and purple) which are made from equal amounts of the Primary colours, and Intermediate colours which are uneven amounts of the Primary colours (red-orange, yellow-green, etc.) we explored the making of Tertiary colours which is the making of new colours by mixing Secondary colours.

Students explored making russet (orange and violet), slate (green and violet), and bronze (orange and green) while creating an Autumn scene with waxed crayons.

We had loads of fun this afternoon colouring and cutting out a turkey template and then creating our own feathers out of construction paper!

They are very colourful 🌈