THE TOOLS
MATERIALS:
- Primary color acrylic paint + White (I love this brand, so easy to squeeze out and no wasting paint ever!)
You can also use gouache or tempera depending on the age of the kiddo - Some age appropriate scissors
- Gold Pen (Totally optional but I love to incorporate some gold in almost all my art!) My Favorite is POSCA
- A Pencil + Eraser
- Paintbrushes, I like a few different sizes to play with
- Parchment Paper/Wax paper or paint palette,
- Cardstock or any heavy paper (watercolor or Bristol also work well!)
- Watercup + Rag (Not pictured) to clean brushes
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THEME: Color Mixing 101
ART LINGO: Color Theory + Ombre Effect
APPROX TIME: 30MIN-1 HOUR
LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: BEGINNER-ADVANCED
COLOR…..It’s my favorite thing to teach, I love the creativity that comes from mixing two colors together to make a third; the ‘WOWS’ that happen when little hands create a bright new shade and the fun imaginative names we come up with when naming our new hue! This ombre inspired color wheel project is a great first intro into the wide world of color and color mixing + I love the fun puzzle shapes each artist comes up with!
This is a wonderful project for any beginning artist or a reminder for those who want to brush up on their basic color theory!
You ready to get creative? Go get your materials and Let’s jump in!
STEPS
Step 1:
Get your cardstock + pencil and draw an X shape from corner to corner, then draw a line straight across the center of the X creating 6 triangles (See photo 1). Think of slicing a pie with 6 equal parts, it doesn’t need to be perfect, Number each triangle 1-6, this will be your color wheel!
Grab your Paintbrush, water cup + rag (to wipe your brush in-between color mixing) and layout your parchment paper (I love to use this so I don’t have to scrub a palette tray and I can just fold it up and throw it away when I am done or save it to make another cool project!) Put a dollop (No more then the size of a quarter) of each color White + Red, Yellow & Blue. The last three are called our Primary colors, they are the three colors that can’t be made by mixing two colors together and they are the MOST IMPORTANT of the color wheel!!
Step 2:
Let’s Start with our Red paint! Find your #1 on your color wheel and begin by painting 3/4 of your #1 triangle red starting at the top and going down towards the center, you want to leave a little room at the bottom for your white to make an ombre effect. When ready, wash your brush and grab just a bit of white. Begin painting your bottom section of your #1 triangle white (See photo 2) , you want to start at the very bottom of the shape and go back and forth up into your red paint making sure you are not pressing too hard with your brush, I like to tell my kiddos that we want to pretend we are dancing softly back and forth with our brush. Keep going back and forth moving up and down your red triangle until your white starts really blending into your red, you can swish your brush in a little water if your paint is feeling ‘sticky’ just be sure to only use a little to start and add more if needed! (See Photo 3), you are looking for an ombre/gradient effect here so if your triangle is turning all the same color, wash your brush and grab either a little white or a little red (Whatever you need or want to play with) to get a nice fade going from red to white. Basically we are looking for a soft ‘blurry’ transition from red to white and we can make that happen by gently and slowly going back and forth with our brush up and down the triangle. If you get flustered at all, just stop and wait for the paint to dry and try again on the same piece of paper!
Once you have a nice gradient going it’s time to go to our Yellow and do the same thing only this time you will paint a Yellow ombre in the #3 section then follow up with a Blue ombre in the #5 section (See Photo 4) Don’t worry if your colors are bleeding into the other sections (like mine was), we will have tons of opportunity to make it look neat coming up!
Step 3:
Now here is where the magic happens! You are going to start mixing the two colors closest to your white sections together to get a brand new color, we call these colors secondary colors and they are so fun to make (See photo 5)!
For instance I mixed equal parts Red + Yellow (Wash/wipe your brush in-between each color so they don’t become muddied) to get…ORANGE!! Once you made Orange do the same thing with Yellow + Blue (To make Green) and Blue + Red (to make Purple)
Let’s finish our color wheel, You are going to now do an Orange Gradient fade in #2, Green will go in #4 and Purple will end up in the last spot #6. Don’t worry if your color wheel is a bit off or the colors are in different places then mine, the goal is to have fun and practice our painting skills and fading colors into one another!!!
Step 4:
Oh LA LA!! You did it!! You made your stunning ombre color wheel, you took 3 colors and turned them into 6….IT’S MAGIC!!!!!! I like to let my color wheel dry (Acrylic dries fairly fast) then I grab my MOST FAVORITE paint pen: a GOLD POSCA medium tipped and get creative drawing fun patterns or lines in-between each color. You can also use the leftover paint from your pallet but I can’t resist adding a little gold to all my art pieces! (See photo 6)
Step 5:
Once your color wheel is dry, turn it over and using your pencil draw some fun puzzle-esque shapes filling up the whole page…. making sure they will be easy to cut out (I found that bigger shapes are easier overall but if you are feeling up to it cut your wheel into as many pieces as you can!) As carefully as you can, cut your Color Wheel puzzle shapes until the whole sheet is now a bunch of smaller fun shapes (See photo 7)
Step 6:
It’s puzzle time!!!! See if you can recreate your color wheel by matching up your puzzle pieces. When your are finished scramble it up again and see if someone else can solve it!! So fun, who doesn’t love a puzzle and who wouldn’t love an OMBRE COLOR WHEEL PUZZEL! If your puzzle pieces are not fitting just so, I like to flatten them under a few books overnight so they are nice and stiff!!!
Until next time, stay creative!!
xx Mrs. K!
