How Do You Create a New Color?

The students learn what primary and secondary colors are, and learn to use the correct names for the colors. They use learned art vocabulary. They learn to tell the difference between primary and secondary colors and to create new colors during creative expression. When analyzing the colors, they determine messages communicated by an image and identify the mood suggested by a work of art.

Objectives:

• The students know which colors are primary and which are secondary and can give the names of these colors. 
  
• The students can create secondary colors by themselves.
  
• The students can combine colors to form a new color.  
  

Vocabulary: color wheel, primary colors, secondary colors, chromatic colors, achromatic colors

The lesson begins with watching a short film, which shows the students landscapes and portraits painted in unusual colors. Then students carry out an experiment independently, in which they create secondary colors from primary colors. The next task involves using the knowledge from the previous experiment in practise – mixing the colors, creating new ones, and painting a picture based on a nature photograph. The next stage is brainstorming, when students think up names for the colors they have created. As an assessment, they create two pieces based on a Van Gogh painting. 

With this lesson plan, you will get fully explained ideas, with tips, on how to put creative arts exercises into practise, and a printable worksheet with a color wheel and photos of landscapes to be used by your students for reproducing the colors of nature. To make your lesson planning easier, you will get background knowledge - quick and comprehensive reference notes on primary and secondary colors and the color wheel.
The materials you will need to gather before the lesson are: post-it (sticky) notes, pens, paper, cups with water, plastic sheeting/drop cloth or waste paper to secure the classroom, paints, brushes, blank sheets of A3 paper.