Color science for children
All adults are well aware that the world is filled with many colors and their shades, but small children of kindergarten age are not even aware of this variety of colors until they are told and shown about it.
The science and technique of studying color variations with a child, or with a novice artist, is called color science. To explain to your child the number and names of colors, you need to prepare properly, for which you will need to stock up on the following available materials:
- Colored paper and pencils;
- Paints;
- Colored cubes, or parts of a construction set;
- In order to explain the names and number of colors to a girl, you can try to buy multi-colored bows or hairpins; a boy will most likely learn colors better using the example of cars. With the help of toys, color learning activities with children can be fun and interesting.
Color science for children. Where to begin
Studying color science with children should begin with a story about how people are surrounded by colors throughout their lives; as an example, you can ask the child to name the color of the clothes they are currently wearing. If the child copes with this task, it is necessary to continue the story and explain that there are only three pure colors, they are considered yellow, red and blue, while the rest of the colors are just derivatives of those listed.
You can also use paper and paints, mix blue with yellow, resulting in green, which must be clearly demonstrated to children.
Continuing the lesson, you need to name the most common colors, also telling the children that the rainbow contains the most colors - as many as 7, after which you should ask the children to draw a rainbow using brushes or pencils. You can also suggest making a rainbow from sheets of colored paper.
Teaching the basics of color science to the youngest children can begin by playing with cars, cubes, and dolls, during which each participant who receives a toy must name as many colors as possible in which it is painted. When conducting such games, it is important to remember that all auxiliary materials, including toys, must be provided for children of a particular age, and also be safe.
Color science assignments for children
After repeating the names of colors with the children several times, and also, if possible, watching additional educational cartoons that are easy to find on the Internet, the teacher or parent should invite the kids to work with colors on their own, using several of the following tasks on color science for children:
- Kids who are encountering the concept of color for the first time can color in a coloring book that provides a clear example of how the drawing should look;
- Children from 5 to 8 years old can color the same coloring page, but without an example, provided that it was discussed with them in advance why this or that object belongs to a certain color.
- Children should also be encouraged to try themselves in making their own flowers using brushes and paints. Mom or a teacher can give a task to get orange, lilac, pink and other colors.
A small color mixing scheme
It is important to explain to children that the color of the paints depends on how much water they add to them; the more, the lighter the shade.
In the future, invite your child to draw up a color wheel, starting with the primary colors, gradually adding new colors for a smoother transition.
You can end a game or lesson on learning colors with praise for the most successfully completed tasks and drawings.
It is very important that the study of color science takes place in a relaxed atmosphere; it is quite possible to organize teaching the basics of color science for children on the street, where a large number of color shades will make it possible to more fully and easily explain their meaning and name to children.
Didactic games and exercises on color science
Author
: Bezruk Ekaterina Leonidovna
Job title
: teacher
Educational institution
: MAOU "SOSH" s. Seregovo
Locality:
Lyali village
Didactic games and exercises on color science.
Didactic game “Scarves and hats”
These bears are going for a walk. They had already tied their scarves, but had mixed up their hats. Help them figure out whose hat is whose. How can you find out? Look at the scarves (these are clues). Match the hats to the color of the scarves. Choose a hat for the bear with a yellow scarf (blue, green...). Name the colors of the hats in order - from top to bottom: green, yellow... And now vice versa - from bottom to top - purple, orange... Remember what color is your hat? Look at the bears and say whether they are the same or different colors. (These are different shades of brown.) Which bear is your favorite?
Didactic game “Color tea party at Masha and Dasha’s”
Dolls invite girlfriends for tea. Help them set the table. Look: there are a lot of dishes, but two dolls. This means that all the dishes need to be divided equally into two sets. But for a reason: this is Masha, and this is Dasha. Let's think together about how best to distribute the dishes. Are the dishes the same color or different? What color are the dolls' clothes? Which dishes are more suitable for a doll with a red bow? (A teapot and cups and saucers with red polka dots, a red sugar bowl with white polka dots and a vase with a red flower.) What kind of dishes should be selected for the doll in blue? Name what each of the dolls will put on the table for their guests.
Didactic game “What should we finish building the house!”
These houses were built and built, but they were not completed. And they were conceived so that two colors alternated in each. Complete the houses. What parts need to be placed on top? Find a house that has two green cubes at the bottom. What color cube is on top? (Red.) What cubes did you put in next? (Green.) So, which cube should be placed on top? Find him in the row on the right. Examine each building (the rest can be closed) and pick up the missing parts. Show me a house made of orange and green cubes. Made from yellow and green bricks? Name the colored parts from which the rest of the houses were built.
Didactic game "Motley Clown"
The clown is preparing to perform. Help him dress up. The clown's clothes are always the opposite. One sleeve is green, and the glove on the same hand is red. The other sleeve is red, and the glove on this hand is green. Let's take a look together. What's on the clown's head? Where is the green cap? What kind of pompom should be sewn to it? (Red.) Which pom-pom is suitable for a red cap? (Green.) Find the same color on the umbrella. Show me a glove of the same color. Which hand will the clown put it on? Show and name everything red. Where is the red shoe? Which foot will the clown put his shoes on? Name the color of the button and find this color on the umbrella.
Techniques for teaching older preschoolers the basics of painting and color science. Generalization of work experience
Bibliographic description:
Kalutskaya, N. Yu. Techniques for teaching older preschoolers the basics of painting and color science. Generalization of work experience / N. Yu. Kalutskaya. — Text: direct // Questions of preschool pedagogy. - 2022. - No. 7 (17). — P. 21-25. — URL: https://moluch.ru/th/1/archive/109/3717/ (access date: 01/18/2022).
The article reveals the relevance of the problem of teaching painting in a preschool institution. The results of testing the author's methodology for teaching preschoolers to draw a picturesque landscape, portrait, still life and familiarize themselves with the basics of color science are presented. The work experience of art teacher Natalya Yuryevna Kalutskaya in the visual arts of older preschoolers is presented.
Key words : visual activity of preschool children, teaching the basics of a picturesque landscape, a picturesque portrait and a picturesque still life.
The federal state educational standard sets teachers the task of developing children's independence, initiative and creativity in all areas of their activities. One of these is visual activity. It begins to attract the attention of children early and contains great opportunities for their all-round development. However, these opportunities can be realized only when children feel joy and satisfaction from what they have created, if the creative process causes them to be in a good mood.
It happens that a child draws enthusiastically, mixes paints, applies confident strokes, but cannot stop in time, and at the end of the lesson he is not satisfied with the quality of his drawing. Or, on the contrary, a child is not confident in himself, is afraid of a white sheet of paper, his hand is constrained, and the strokes turn out awkward and clumsy. And this preschooler at the end of the lesson will not be satisfied with his work.
Why do you think this happens? (can’t do it, didn’t teach it)
Absolutely right, before a child begins to create, the teacher must teach him the basic canons of drawing.
As a member of the jury of various creative children's competitions in our area, I see the works of children submitted to the competition. And there are often works that none of the jury members pay attention to. They are not interesting to the viewer! The young artist was unable to convey his feelings. And all because modern teachers pay too little attention to the “correctness” of children’s drawings.
That is why last academic year I conducted three training seminars for teachers of the Shatura urban district on teaching methods of drawing a picturesque portrait, landscape and still life.
You can’t attribute the illiteracy of children’s work to “that’s how the child sees it!” No, this is not true, the adult just didn’t show how it should look right.
The 21st century is the century of science and technology, and in the drawings of our children we still see the sun in the corner of the sheet (like a slice of pizza), blue clouds on a white, untinted sheet of paper, and objects standing “on the edge of an abyss”; a green stripe at the bottom of the sheet means weed But in fact, there is a horizon line, first, second, etc. plans of the picture, there is a concept of proportions and perspective in the drawing, even for a preschool child.
After all, visual arts, like mathematics and other activities, is a science! It has clear laws and rules, and the teacher’s task is to tell, explain, and convey these laws and rules to the preschooler. And only then will the child be able to create freely, without explaining anything about his drawing to adults. It will be a well-executed drawing, even if it depicts a green sky and red grass.
Children expect adults to appreciate their creativity! The teacher must teach the child to create competently and freely.
How to liberate every child? How to make each drawing unique and bringing joy, to teach children to see the splendor around them, to stir up their senses, to awaken their imagination and associations, to help them understand the meaning and harmony of painting - this is the most difficult task for an adult.
I turned to color science. Mixing colors is a lot of fun! But where can one find room for creativity if the art manuals say: “Hands out toned sheets of paper...”? I decided to give our children complete creative freedom!
The problem arose - will each child have time to tint his own sheet of paper and then work on it again! After all, classes for the senior and preparatory groups last no more than 30 minutes.
I realized that children who hold a brush correctly make backgrounds faster than those who do not know how to hold a tool correctly.
A fairy tale was born:
— Brush is a queen, she loves to dance. How do people dance? Do they lie on the floor, curl up, or straighten their back and stand on their toes?
Children answer that they straighten their backs, etc....
So the queen should always stand and her wooden tip should look up.
When the brush dances, it makes smooth, confident movements—strokes. They are usually applied in one direction. And if we apply chaotic movements, the brush will get tired and the queen will turn into a witch. The witch will draw a not very beautiful picture!
Thus, the “doodle-doodle” problem was solved!
The children began to pay attention to how they held the brush and what kind of strokes they made. At the same time, the time for sheet tinting has been significantly reduced.
In the older group, children learn how to handle paints correctly. When working with paints, children do not use a palette, because the new color they receive is washed off into a jar of water and does not remain on the palette. The palette gets dirty with a new color, and as a result the child has nothing to paint with.
In my classes, a child learns to get a new color immediately in a drawing. The preschooler constantly analyzes and argues which two colors should be used to obtain this or that color. What kind of paint should you put on the brush first so that the paints don’t get “sick”.
For example:
— Guys, what color will the sky be in our picture? (blue).
- Let's open the blue paint! (it is not in our sets!)
- How to get blue? (mix white and blue)
- This means that you need to open blue and white, and so that the white paint does not “get blue,” you need to put it on the brush first, and then dip the tip of the brush into the blue one. At the same time, each child gets his own shade of blue.
Art classes in our garden are held in a separate room and every child, entering the art studio, of course, wants to become a real artist. And like real artists, we become familiar with the three main genres of fine art.
— What genres of fine art do you know?
Of course, these are still life, landscape and portrait.
And when drawing the plot of each genre, I encountered different problems!
For example:
— Before you is the still life “Gifts of Autumn”, tell me which of these objects is the largest? (Pumpkin).
- Of course, the pumpkin, it will be the main character in our picture. But it happens that the pumpkin and tomato become the same size. I invite the children to analyze the composition of the still life - the pumpkin is large, the tomato is smaller, and the plum is very small.
— Next question: where are our items? (On the table).
— How to draw a table?
For children, this is a strip at the bottom of the sheet on which all the objects are located in a row. But this is not so!
Each item lies in its place further or closer to the edge of the table!
So let's show this in a drawing, step back a distance of about two fingers from the edge of the sheet, and draw our vegetables and fruits. I make sure to remind you where the table ends and draw a horizon line approximately in the middle of the sheet. Everything else is painted over with “air,” as “real artists” call the space behind and around objects.
When the work is almost ready, I discover another secret of “real artists” - the shadow under the objects.
- Let 's look under the pumpkin, what will we see there?
- It turns out it’s very dark there! And the darkness needs to be drawn too! The children named the shadow under the object “blue worm.”
So, the still life is ready! Admire it!
But when drawing a landscape, completely different problems arise!
— How to convey the state and mood of nature?
— What color are the snowdrifts?
— How to draw the wind?
- What color is the night?
— With what help can an artist convey these states of nature?
A “real artist” sees color in everything.
It’s very easy to describe a golden autumn with words and a cloudy day, but how to draw it so that the viewer (mom or dad) can understand it?
And the first question that appears:
— between heaven and earth?
Sometimes children answer that there is a distance, trees grow between heaven and earth. And then we begin to analyze:
— Can you see the sky between the trees?
— Do trees grow on the ground?
And then the children understand that we see trees both in the sky and on the earth, that is, there is no distance between the sky and the earth, they meet in the horizon line. When drawing, we divide a sheet of paper into two parts - heaven and earth.
It's called background.
And here there is a huge scope for creativity! Each child, due to his character and temperament, paints over a sheet of paper completely and he gets his own picture, unlike anyone else.
— What is the difference between winter, summer and spring landscapes?
- Of course in color!
For children’s better perception of color, I have developed “Colors: Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer” manuals.
— Tell me, how do the colors of summer differ from the colors of spring? (They differ in lightness; summer has bright colors, while spring has light, delicate colors)
— What do the colors of summer and autumn have in common? (They have bright colors)
Landscape painting helps us convey the mood and impression of contemplating nature. By depicting a blue night and multi-colored snowdrifts, the child gets great pleasure from the drawing process and from the final result.
But it turned out that the seasons can be depicted not only in the form of landscapes, but also in portraits!
During the production of a manual on color science, the girls Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer were “born”. First there were portraits, and then dolls appeared.
A doll is a ready-made image made by an artist; it moves, talks, asks questions, explains new material. The doll helps develop the child's creative thinking. With its appearance, gestures, and manner of communication, the doll helps each child create his own image.
Changing colors and learning something new for your preschooler is magical! A child who has mastered “magic” can happily invent and create new images, as well as depict everything that is closest and dearest to him. Everyone wants to draw a portrait of their mother! And I also want it to look like the original!
And again the question arose:
— How to show a child the sequence of a portrait without traumatizing his psyche?
And the portraits of girls from the seasons were very suitable for this.
Acquaintance with the method of drawing a portrait begins with a portrait of the girl Autumn. The child enthusiastically draws an invented image, and even if something went wrong, it becomes less offensive, this is not the mother!
Then, having drawn a portrait of Winter, the baby gains self-confidence and on March 8th, like a “real artist,” he will draw a portrait of a person dear to him.
When drawing each of the girls’ portraits, different tables on “Color Science” are used.
In drawing “Winter” and “Spring” the tables “Warm and cold colors + white” are used, and muted, whitened colors are studied.
When drawing “Summer”, the table “Primary and Composite Colors” is used. Children generalize their knowledge on the topic of color science.
This school year, the gallery of portraits has expanded: families of warm, cold and black-colored colors have appeared.
Here the yellow king and the red queen brought out the orange princess. But the blue king decides which of his sons will leave the inheritance - the green, blue or purple prince?
Here the white queen is sad next to the black king, or maybe she’s not sad at all, but just very serious!
And here are the three main colors - queens: blue, red and yellow.
All these portraits help the child plunge into the magical world of fine art.
The second question I came across:
— How to draw a portrait of a person correctly?
Children, as a rule, draw a saucepan, then add eyes and a strip of hair on top.
- What is the actual shape of the head?
In fact, the head is an oval like an egg.
- What shape are our eyes? (an oval like a fish or a seed).
- Certainly! It's not a circle, it's a different shape!
And now the fun part!
-What color are eyes? (Brown, gray, green, blue and light blue).
Look into each other's eyes, what color are they? Do we see red, purple or pink? But the girls really want to draw pink eyes for their mother, but after drawing, we think, what’s wrong with the portrait?
If you run along the eyebrow against the hair growth, the eyebrow will meet the nose.
- Now we know how to draw eyes, eyebrows and nose, but where are they?
Scientific fact: Every person's eyes are located in the middle of their head. And kids often draw on their foreheads! And in order not to make a mistake, we find the middle of the oval and place our finger there and draw two strokes on one side and the other of the finger. The secret of “real artists” has been revealed!
Having drawn portraits of Autumn and Winter, having understood what needs to be done to make the portrait work, the child very quickly draws an oval, neck, clothes and background, and with pleasure draws familiar features.
When drawing a portrait, the child chooses a favorite color for the background, comes up with a hairstyle, and even if the mother does not wear hairpins and jewelry, she often has a crown and her favorite hairpins on her head.
The atmosphere in the art studio is conducive to creativity, you can get your hands a little dirty, you can get your brush and paint on the table, no one even scolds you for spilling water on the floor. Everything happens with “real artists”!
Every “real artist” dreams of an exhibition of his own paintings!
And in our kindergarten there is such an opportunity. In the transition between the staircases, paintings by all the “real artists” are exhibited.
The child tries very hard to get the drawing into the exhibition. It is a great honor for the baby when he shows his parents his picture in a frame and for everyone to see!
Literature:
- Fine art and methods of teaching it in elementary school. Sokolnikova N. M. M.: 1999. - 368 p.
- Art. 1–4 grades Program for general educational institutions / V. S. Kuzin, S. P. Lomov, E. V. Shorokhov, id. — 4th ed., revised. - M.: Bustard, 2011. - 46 p.
- Art. Work programs. I38 Subject line of textbooks edited by B. M. Nemensky. Grades 1–4: a manual for teachers of general education. organizations / [B. M. Nemensky, L. A. Nemenskaya, N. A. Goryaeva, etc.]; edited by B. M. Nemensky. — 5th ed. - M.: Education, 2015. - 128 p.
Key terms
(automatically generated)
: child, piece of paper, color, What color, fine art, paint, horizon line, portrait, object, artist.
Oil paint color palette
Today the palette of colors is diverse and pleases us with such a wide range of choices . And the richer your palette, the more interesting and “not boring” your work will be. 12-15 tubes of paint are enough to start with, but as you learn different mixings, you will learn how to create new colors and shades. Or buy ready-made mixed paints in tubes, if funds allow. Oil paint in tubes can be stored for a very, very long time, but you certainly need to study and practice…. It’s impossible without this!
Oil paint color palette
The price of paint in tubes depends directly on how many times it is mixed to get this or that shade. And the more interesting and rare the mixing, the more expensive the paint will be. I have expensive paints in rare colors such as warm gray or crimson-purple-violet. I rarely use them, because over time I learned to “mine” them by mixing.
Important: not all oil paints are created equal. Different manufacturers may have slightly different paints in color, thickness, and even name. Therefore, it is extremely important to choose high-quality paints, especially at the stage of studying oil painting.
For example, I use French Lefranc & Bourgeois, Pebeo; Dutch Rembrandt, English paint manufacturers Daler & Royney and German Lukas, Mussini. Italian ones are also in my arsenal, Oil Master, but they are very thick and less favorite. There are also Russian “Ladoga”, but still they are much inferior in quality to French or English ones. For experience, it is useful to experiment with different manufacturers.
What do you think paint is made from? What is its composition and why do some dry faster than others? Oil paint contains colored pigments and binders. Typically these are oils, soft resins, beeswax and essential oils. Ether helps to “liquefy” thickly grated colorful pastes. And the ratio of pigment to binding substances is different. And one of the reasons for the slow drying of oil is precisely this. Here is an example of the composition of oil paints:
Characteristics of paints
You can often hear questions about mixing shades and colors: what can be mixed with what, and what is not advisable to mix with what, in order to avoid dirt.
When painting a painting, you need to remember the basic characteristics of colors and how the temperature of the paint changes under the influence of different shades. Also about warm and cold colors, but in general there are no prohibitions in mixing colors. This is an area where you can safely experiment and get results through trial and error. The article on mixing paints on a palette and on canvas will discuss mixing methods in detail.
And don’t forget, creativity should bring joy from the process , add energy and strength, and also charge us with vigor and not the other way around. Even fatigue after painting will be pleasant and with a feeling of satisfaction.
As you can see, the basics of color science are not so difficult, with certain knowledge and the correct proportions, of course. Painting is alive, you cannot learn color science once and for all, this is something that can be studied and studied throughout life... Do you agree with this?
Main characteristics of colors
If paint were an animate object, then we could say that it has a character, which consists of three components . Yes, most likely so... after all, it is these features in color in a painting that evoke different emotions in the viewer.
Color in art exists to express the emotions of some (painters) and the emotional reaction of others (viewers). Using red flowers as an example, I will give an example of the “character of color”.
The main properties of the character of color include 3 terms:
- Hue is a color science term that defines color. Hue allows you to distinguish one color from another, as well as distinguish them by name.
- Lightness - tone in color, tonality. One of the most important qualities of color that should not be forgotten
- Saturation – intensity, degree of richness and depth of color. Saturation is also a kind of visible degree of color tone in a chromatic color.
Saturation and lightness of red color
If, for example, the color was taken incorrectly, then the tonality will be different. This is an important sign that determines the proximity of a color to light or dark. How can you depict a flower if you use only color tone? No way, it would be flat and look like a child's drawing in pure red. The inside of the flowers is darker and richer.
Lightness and saturation added everything that was needed to the color. But the flower itself consists of only one color - red. All the rest are just its derivatives. As you guessed, in order to make the color lighter, you need to add white. This way you can get the degree of lightness and light and shadow tone. And darker, adding, for example, gray. To adjust the color, we include white and black in the palette. Of course, it will turn out lighter, but the shade will also be different. From a brightly saturated red, with white it will become lighter, that’s for sure, but the color will also change to pink. Therefore, we try not to change the color of the paint itself.
Saturation can be defined as the percentage of hue in a color. Was it confusing? Here's another fruity example: tangerine and apricot have the same color tone - orange. And even the lightness in both objects is light. And yet the richness of apricot and tangerine is different. The color of the tangerine will be more saturated than the color of the apricot: the tangerine seems to have a more contrasting orange. It’s even easier to describe in other words like this: a very bright orange tangerine and a dull pale orange apricot...
Shades from orange to yellow
Pure colors from a tube can be the most saturated. Mixing them with other paints and solvents thereby changes the purity and intensity of the color. We can “reduce saturation” by adding a gray tint to it
True, painters rarely use pure color straight from the tube. With skillful mixing of paints, you can get a huge palette of colors and shades. Some painting techniques still use paints in their pure form, for example, in the Impasto technique, or “palette knife painting,” or those who like pure contrasting paintings. The reasons may be different, because everyone’s color vision is different. about the basic techniques in oil painting in this compilation article.
Do you know why white and black are not considered colors on the tonal scale? Because “white” and “ink” have only one lightness. They cannot be more or less saturated. Have you ever heard “light white” or “light black”? All they can do is transform into gray shades, differing only in the lightness of the gray color.
The saturation of black is, for example, gas soot - cold and pronounced, while burnt bone is the opposite, warm and dim. There is also grape black, which is between them in terms of darkness and brightness. Mixing paints with white or black is a great way to practice and become familiar with all the properties of paint. Try it, it's very interesting!
Many artists are terribly afraid to use black paint on their palette, but in vain! After all, it can make the palette wider and richer. But it’s up to you to decide which of the black paints you choose; you also need to try them all. In principle, they are extremely important for changing other colors.
Darkness of black colors
