Color Theory Lesson

Color Theory Without the Color Wheel

and so much more

Elements and Principles of Design

•The basis of good education is twofold: these are fundamentals and creativity.

•In art your fundamentals are the elements and principles.

•This lesson focusses on line and color and how to turn them into form, a third element.

There are many versions of the color wheel and all have merit.  They show you clearly how to mix the three primaries Red, Yellow and Blue into the rest of the colors, right?  Well not really.  Have you ever tried to mix purple and ended up with something that looks rather muddy?

This is what the color wheel can do.  It can show you how to mix most secondary colors - orange, green and purple although as I stated, purple is a tricky one.

From examining these, the complementary colors become apparent.  The one primary that can’t make green is red so red and green are complements.  The one primary that can’t make orange is blue so those are complements.  The last complements are yellow and purple.

What the wheel doesn’t show you is what the complements make when mixed together.  They make neutral greyish browns.  These neutrals are essential in art making.  Any natural environment where light casts shadow is full of neutrals.

Teachers can talk to students about tints and shadows that are also missing from the wheel and we can drone on about tertiary colors but when we do, the class tends to disengage.

So instead, I do this project.  Kids learn the theory hands on, which is why they take art in the first place, to get in and create not sit in a desk and just listen about theory. It’s quick and dirty and teaches you more about color than the wheel can.  So let’s begin by learning about how we can best use color theory to teach form and contour as well. 

Teaching color on it’s own fails to really show how to use it.  Color really doesn’t ever stand alone.  Color is shadow and highlight and all that is in between to create a three dimensional illusion.  Here you can see the gray scale, and tint, monochromatic, primary, secondary, tertiary, complimentary and tonal color schemes.

 

Contour lines describe the edges of an object. We’ll be using both contour and cross contour in our drawings.

Material: oil pastels, pencils and construction paper.  

Procedure: 

1. Draw 8 pears out on the construction paper.  I've created tracers and had students create tracers so that their pears look uniform.

2. Begin by rendering the gray scale onto one of the pears. 

We are going to give the illusion of the pear by using black and white.  Shade the shape by using contour lines that follow the form of what you remember a pear looks like. Shade in a round white highlight and don’t forget to create a shadow where the pear indents.  One side should be dark and in shadow while the other is white in highlight.  Use the white to blend and spread the black.

If you color over the edges, do not worry as we will be cutting these out and mounting them onto a background.

3. Create a tinted pear.

A tint is technically when white is added to a color.  Choose any color (and we know black and white are not colors) and repeat the process used in the grey scale pear.

4. Create a monochromatic pear.

Monochromatic: One color in a variety of shades and tints is used.  Notice the absence of white.  Please repeat the process.

5.  Primary colors pear

The primary colors are red, yellow and blue.  It is with these that all other colors are created.  Notice that yellow is bright so I used it as a highlight.  Blue is cold so it naturally recedes or pushes the image back.  Just think of landscapes and images in the distance.  They naturally become bluer as they go further into the horizon.  Red is warm.  Warm colors naturally come forward.  Please repeat the process.

6. Secondary colors pear

Here I have used red and yellow to create orange.  Notice that yellow is used as the highlight.  Try using two of the 3 primaries which are blue, red and yellow to create a secondary.  Remember blues can be used as shadows, yellow can be used as highlights and red will push backward or forward depending on if you use yellow or blue.  Create one of the secondary colors which are green, orange and purple while still showing some of the primary colors as a highlight or a shadow.

7. Tertiary colors pear

Tertiary colors are created when you blend a secondary with one of the primary colors used to create that secondary hue.

You get red-orange, yellow-orange as seen here, blue-green, yellow, green, blue-purple and red-purple.

Please complete this pear and experiment with colors other than the one seen here. 

8. Complementary pear

Here is where the magic begins.  Complementary colors are a secondary and the primary color that was not used to create the secondary. 

For example, green and red are complementary because there is no red used to create green.

Blue and orange are complimentary for the same reason as are yellow and purple.

What is magical about this is when you mix two complementary colors, you create a dull tone which becomes a brownish grey.  This is a natural shadow.

Please repeat the steps from before.

9. Tonal Pear

Finally by understanding color theory, you can create a three-dimensionally believable pear by using a tonal scheme.  Here I have used green in the shadows and covered it with red to create a dull shadow while using yellow for highlights. 

You can reproduce what you see here or you can try different complimentary colors and highlights.

10. Cut out all or your completed pears.  Glue them onto another large sheet of construction paper.  Add some stems if you'd like.  Label each of them.  Identify the classifications of colors used...

...And voila!  You have one completed project!  

By teaching the elements and principles of design you are giving your students the fundamentals to go and create just like letter recognition leads to reading which leads to writing. It’s similar to how number recognition leads to complex problem solving.

Today you have learned something about 3 of the elements of design

These are color, line and form.

11. Next lesson: Drawing of choice

Once your students learn these they need to create a pastel drawing of choice where they demonstrate the theory around color, line and form that they learned in this lesson.  

This is ESSENTIAL because

• Students now get to choose so they buy into the project
• They demonstrate the theory that they've just learned so it is reinforced learning.

In my 20+ years of teaching experience, kids use what they learn in this lesson the most!  It gravitates into drawing, painting and even sculpting and it's the quickest way I've taught how to use form, line and color so that they can be empowered to use these elements.

From this lesson drawings such as these happen:

Have fun!