ALEX Classroom Resource

  

The Elements of Art: Color

  Classroom Resource Information  

Title:

The Elements of Art: Color

URL:

https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/lessons-activities/elements-of-art/color.html

Content Source:

Other
National Gallery of Art
Type: Lesson/Unit Plan

Overview:

Students will analyze works by Monet, Matisse, and Kandinsky.  They will discuss primary, secondary, complementary, cool, and warm colors. Students will complete a painting and a worksheet about colors.  

Content Standard(s):
Arts Education
ARTS (2017)
Grade: 1
Visual Arts
6) Use art vocabulary while creating art.

a. Apply primary and secondary colors in a work of art.

Example: Use Mouse Paint book by Helen Walsh to teach color mixing of primary to achieve secondary colors.

b. Apply line, shape, texture in a work of art.
Line: Horizontal, vertical, diagonal, straight, curved, dotted, broken, or thick/thin.
Shape: Geometric and organic.
Texture: Smooth or rough.

Example: Create a painting inspired by Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie.

Unpacked Content
Artistic Process: Creating
Anchor Standards:
Anchor Standard 3: Refine and complete artistic work.
Process Components: Reflect, Refine, Continue
Essential Questions:
EU: Artists and designers develop excellence through practice and constructive critique, reflecting on, revising, and refining work over time.
EQ: What role does persistence play in revising, refining, and developing work? How do artists grow and become accomplished in art forms? How does collaboratively reflecting on a work help us experience it more completely?
Concepts & Vocabulary:
  • Complementary colors
  • Contrast
  • Curator
  • Elements of Art
    • Texture
  • Landscapes
  • Portrait
  • Positive/ negative space and shape
  • Principles of design
    • Repetition
    • Variety
  • Secondary colors
  • Still life
  • Technique
  • Venue
Skill Examples:
  • Work with a partner or small group to create an artwork.
  • Use the book Perfect Square by Michael Hall to help "thinking outside the box" skills.
  • Create two-dimensional artworks using a variety of gadgets for printmaking.
  • Use paint media to create paintings of family portraits or a favorite memory.
  • Create three-dimensional artworks such as clay pinch pots or found-object sculptures.
  • View a step-by-step demonstration of an artistic technique.
  • Properly clean and store art materials.
  • Use Mouse Paint book by Helen Walsh to teach color mixing of primary to achieve secondary colors.
  • Create a painting inspired by Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie.
  • Create a "Pop Art" inspired artwork of positive and negative spaces and shapes by using colored paper cut-outs and gluing to different background squares.
  • Make a color wheel and identify the complimentary colors (red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple).
  • Draw different forms in the school environment: cones in the gym, cubes in math center, and sphere used for a globe.
  • Create texture rubbings by placing paper over different surfaces and rubbing with a crayon or oil pastel. Use a rough brick wall, a smooth table, bumpy bubble wrap, or soft felt shapes.
  • Use repetition in art by looking at the designs on a shell or the stripes of a zebra for inspiration.
Arts Education
ARTS (2017)
Grade: 1
Visual Arts
11) Compare and/or contrast similar images, subjects, or themes.

Examples: Compare Leonardo DaVinci's Mona Lisa with Johannes Vermeer's The Girl with the Pearl Earring.

Unpacked Content
Artistic Process: Responding
Anchor Standards:
Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
Process Components: Perceive, Analyze, Interpret
Essential Questions:
EU: Visual imagery influences understanding of and responses to the world.
EQ: What is an image? Where and how do we encounter images in our world? How do images influence our views of the world?
Concepts & Vocabulary:
  • Complementary colors
  • Contrast
  • Curator
  • Elements of Art
    • Texture
  • Landscapes
  • Portrait
  • Positive/ negative space and shape
  • Principles of design
    • Repetition
    • Variety
  • Secondary colors
  • Still life
  • Technique
  • Venue
Skill Examples:
  • Identify the basic elements of art in a work of art through group discussion.
  • Discuss how people create works of art to communicate ideas and serve different purposes.
  • Investigate how a select work of art was created.
  • Identify elements of art and principles of design in their own artwork and in those of others using art vocabulary.
  • Connect the stories in works of art to the cultures they represent.
  • Compare Leonardo DaVinci's Mona Lisa with Johannes Vermeer's The Girl with the Pearl Earring to identify different uses of the elements of art and principles of design.
  • Compare images that represent the same subject matter.
  • Connect visual stories with literary stories.
  • Share their art-making processes with peers
  • Classify/ group art work by portraits, landscapes and still life.
Arts Education
ARTS (2017)
Grade: 1
Visual Arts
12) Interpret art by categorizing subject matter and identifying the visual qualities.

Example: Compare images that represent the same subject.

Unpacked Content
Artistic Process: Responding
Anchor Standards:
Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
Process Components: Perceive, Analyze, Interpret
Essential Questions:
EU: People gain insights into meanings of artworks by engaging in the process of art criticism.
EQ: What is the value of engaging in the process of art criticism? How can the viewer "read" a work of art as text? How does knowing and using visual arts vocabularies help us understand and interpret works of art?
Concepts & Vocabulary:
  • Complementary colors
  • Contrast
  • Curator
  • Elements of Art
    • Texture
  • Landscapes
  • Portrait
  • Positive/ negative space and shape
  • Principles of design
    • Repetition
    • Variety
  • Secondary colors
  • Still life
  • Technique
  • Venue
Skill Examples:
  • Identify the basic elements of art in a work of art through group discussion.
  • Discuss how people create works of art to communicate ideas and serve different purposes.
  • Investigate how a select work of art was created.
  • Identify elements of art and principles of design in their own artwork and in those of others using art vocabulary.
  • Connect the stories in works of art to the cultures they represent.
  • Compare Leonardo DaVinci's Mona Lisa with Johannes Vermeer's The Girl with the Pearl Earring to identify different uses of the elements of art and principles of design.
  • Compare images that represent the same subject matter.
  • Connect visual stories with literary stories.
  • Share their art-making processes with peers
  • Classify/ group art work by portraits, landscapes and still life.
Arts Education
ARTS (2017)
Grade: 2
Visual Arts
6) Integrate art vocabulary while planning and creating art.

a. Elements of art: line, shape, neutral colors, value, texture.

b. Picture compositions: overlapping, background, horizontal, vertical orientation.

c. Colors in the color wheel: primary, secondary, warm and cool.

Unpacked Content
Artistic Process: Creating
Anchor Standards:
Anchor Standard 3: Refine and complete artistic work.
Process Components: Reflect, Refine, Continue
Essential Questions:
EU: Artists and designers develop excellence through practice and constructive critique, reflecting on, revising, and refining work over time.
EQ: What role does persistence play in revising, refining, and developing work? How do artists grow and become accomplished in art forms? How does collaboratively reflecting on a work help us experience it more completely?
Concepts & Vocabulary:
  • Principles of design
    • Balance
  • Brainstorming
  • Composition
  • Concepts
  • Characteristic
  • Elements of art
    • Space
    • Value
  • Expressive properties
  • Foreground
  • Middle ground
  • Neutral colors
  • Resist
Skill Examples:
  • Create two-dimensional artworks such as drawing or painting by using a variety of media.
  • Use the book, The Goat in the Rug by Charles L.
  • Blood & Martin Link to learn about weaving.
  • Use clay or pipe cleaners to create small animal sculptures.
  • Work in groups to brainstorm ideas for a collaborative art project.
  • Use a book about clay, When Clay Sings by Byrd Baylor to study Native Americans and their traditions.
  • Use the book A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle to explore collage techniques.
  • Create a real or imagined home using two-and-three-dimensional media.
  • Learn how to properly use and store brushes, close glue bottles and marker tops.
  • Use found objects such as leaves, rocks, paper tubes, egg cartons, etc.
  • to create artworks.
  • Use the book A Day with No Crayons by Elizabeth Rusch to explore different colors and values.
  • Create a landscape showing depth by placing the foreground, middle ground and background in their correct positions.
Arts Education
ARTS (2017)
Grade: 2
Visual Arts
12) Interpret art by identifying the mood or feeling suggested by a work of art through subject matter and visual qualities.

Examples: Talk about color qualities and composition in Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist.

Unpacked Content
Artistic Process: Responding
Anchor Standards:
Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
Process Components: Perceive, Analyze, Interpret
Essential Questions:
EU: People gain insights into meanings of artworks by engaging in the process of art criticism.
EQ: What is the value of engaging in the process of art criticism? How can the viewer "read" a work of art as text? How does knowing and using visual arts vocabularies help us understand and interpret works of art?
Concepts & Vocabulary:
  • Principles of design
    • Balance
  • Brainstorming
  • Composition
  • Concepts
  • Characteristic
  • Elements of art
    • Space
    • Value
  • Expressive properties
  • Foreground
  • Middle ground
  • Neutral colors
  • Resist
Skill Examples:
  • Compare lines on a seashell to lines made by fence posts.
  • Discuss how artists make choices that communicate ideas in works of art.
  • Discuss how artists use familiar symbols to express and create artwork.
  • Discuss how the artistic process can lead to "happy accidents" discovering something new.
  • Use basic self-assessment strategies to improve their artworks.
  • Discuss the difference between assessing the quality of an artwork and personal preference for the work.
  • Talk about color qualities and composition in Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist.
  • Discuss and recognize how artists use different materials and processes to create art.
  • Recognize patterns and textures that can be found in many places in and around the school and community.
  • Use statements that include artistic terminology such as, "I know the texture of the cat is soft from the pencil marks I see."
Tags: colors, complementary, cool, Kandinsky, Matisse, Monet, primary, secondary, warm
License Type: Custom Permission Type
See Terms: https://www.nga.gov/notices/terms-of-use.html
For full descriptions of license types and a guide to usage, visit :
https://creativecommons.org/licenses
Accessibility
Comments

Color Worksheet

 

  This resource provided by:  
Author: Tiffani Stricklin
Alabama State Department of Education