Guide your students through creating all the colors they can imagine with this easy printmaking experience!
Materials list for mixing colors with paint….
- tempera paint (washable) or acrylic (not so washable)- at least the three primary colors plus black and white
- paint brush
- small jewelry box or other type of square found object
- larger paper to be used as the background
How to mix the most interesting paint colors….
This experience isn’t about creating the neatest square prints or the most uniform colors. This experience goes like this…
- paint square box with a single color, perhaps a primary color
- stamp a print on larger paper
- return to paint with the same printmaking object and brush
- add paint of a new color, or black or white, without washing old color off
- stamp another square box print on paper next the first, creating a grid
- continue adding paint and printing, allowing color to mix and creating new colors along the way
The colors may become muted, muddy, or otherwise. It’s all part of the color mixing experience!
Adding contrast to your color mixed composition…
Add a little interest and contrast to your color mixing experiment by turning the box over. Use the “hollow” side to stamp black outlines around the composition of squares. I can imagine doing this with different colors or even adding some doodling/ zentangling on top of the color blocking!
Connecting studio art to art history…..
I love a studio art project that has an easy to connection to a great artist. These squares couldn’t help but remind me of Paul Klee, a German artist who was famous for his use of color.
You can grab a done for you Paul Klee artist study as part of my Artists and the Elements digital course. This course presents a series of artists, in connection with the elements of arts, in a way that’s easy for kids to understand and get excited about!
