Creating secondary colours from primary colours
To the Teacher
For a painting activity in any classroom you need to start planning, preparing and collecting long in advance.
Preparation
Firstly, you will need storage space, perhaps a cupboard or part of a store-room, to store the paint, and all the various materials and pieces of equipment required for painting (mixing trays are crucial to any painting activity).
You will then need several days or a week to collect – with your students’ help – plenty of containers for water (washed plastic yoghurt cups, the bottom half of plastic cold drink bottles, tin cans, or glass jars).
You will need mixing trays or palettes – at least one for each student. Polystyrene trays (such as those on which fruit or vegetables are packed in supermarkets) will do perfectly.
Remember to collect lots of newspaper too, for keeping surfaces clean.
Also, in the days or weeks before doing an activity, get students to collect some of their own “painting tools” (the “found objects” listed on page 24). That way, each will have their own set.
It will take at least an hour before the lesson to get all the materials ready for use. You can’t have long delays while students wait for you to organise their colours, brushes and paper! Think carefully about how to set up, and where each student will find their materials.
Working with paint: colours and marks
You will need:
A3 paper – 3 sheets per person or more sheets if they are smaller
Paint distributed into separate containers. You will need the three primary colours – red, yellow and blue – as well as black and white. (If you are using powder paints, mix powder with water beforehand.)
Found objects: sponges, rags, sticks, leaves or feathers
Buckets or large containers of water
Newspaper to cover the floor or table surface
Music to play while the students create marks: varied, evocative pieces (without lyrics) to create different moods and sounds.
Work in groups of six people. Work on the floor or on a large table surface while you explore mixing many different colours and making marks. Make sure you have enough mixing palettes (polystyrene trays or plastic plates).
Starting to paint
- You will need a large sheet of paper. If you don’t have cartridge paper, a sheet of newspaper will do perfectly.
- Choose just TWO primary colours to begin with.
- Dip a found object into one of your chosen colours and begin to make marks across the page. You can go up to and right over the edge of the page, if you like!
- Listen to the music that is playing and allow the sounds to suggest marks, patterns and arm movements for you to make across the page.
- Be aware of the colours you are working with. What do they remind you of? What mood do they evoke?
- After a few minutes, pick up another found object and dip it into the other colour you have selected. With this, create another layer of marks – in, around, across and over the previous lines and textures.
- When many, many marks have been made, rotate the page and look at it from a new angle.
- When everyone has finished, look carefully at all the paintings in your group.
Talk About This
What have you learnt about colour?
What happens when you mix:
red + blue?
red + yellow?
blue + yellow?
You will have mixed the secondary colours: purple, orange and green. Why do you think these are called secondary colours?
Look to see if you have different kinds of purples, oranges and greens. Why do you think you might you have variations of these secondary colours?
Ask yourselves these questions:
Have you discovered how to mix any new colours?
What happens when you add some white paint to red, to yellow, or to blue?
TINTS are what we call the lightened versions of these colours – for example, tints of red (which we call pink), tints of pale yellow and tints of light blue.
What happens when you add small amounts of black paint to red, to yellow, and to blue?
These colours become darker and change their character when mixed with a little black. They also become greyer. These darker versions are called TONES: tones of red, yellow (which sometimes looks browner, or greener, depending on the black pigment).
Creating secondary colours from primary colours
