A Study of Color - Warm and Cool

with

Vincent Van Gogh

At Ben. Davis we have been learning about the Elements of Art by creating a book with a page for each element and an artist whose work best represents it.

Vincent Van Gogh was a great choice for color because of the way he so expressively used color in his work.

We first learned about the PRIMARY colors (Red, Yellow, and Blue) and how they are pure color and cannot be made by mixing two colors together to create them.

Mixing two PRIMARY colors together creates SECONDARY colors.

Red + Yellow = Orange

Red + Blue = Violet

Yellow + Blue = Green

Mixing a PRIMARY  color. with a SECONDARY color creates an INTERMEDIATE color. Always list the PRIMARY color first then the SECONDARY

Red + Violet = Red Violet

Red+ Orange = Red Orange

Yellow + Orange = Yellow Orange

Yellow + Green = Yellow Green

Blue + Green = Blue Green

Blue + Violet = Blue Violet

We also learned about TINT and TONE.

To TINT a color is  to add white, to lighten a color.

To TONE a color is to add black, to darken a color

We also explored WARM and COOL colors.

WARM - Reds, Oranges, Yellows

COOL - Blues, Greens, Violets

These colors not only remind of us of warm and cool things but they also can also express emotion.

Our Van Gogh projects focused on exploring the use of warm and cool colors and how they can change the overall mood of a picture.  First Grade and Kindergarten worked from Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Second Grade with Starry Night. Each student drew their interpretation of Van Gogh's work using simple lines and shapes, and then chose either a warm or cool color scheme to complete it.

 

 

Kindergarten

Click Mona to Return to the 2006 -2007 Main Page