Fruit is a fabulous subject for
3-D value studies, hence
their prominence in still life painting. In the last lesson we studied
value in shades of grey with charcoal. However, this time we turned on
the
color! The students each received dollops of Red, Yellow, Blue, Black
and White
acrylic
paint then mixed them together on their palette and directly on their
painting to form secondary and tertiary colors
(remember back to the first of the year and the color wheel?). Various
fruit were displayed around the room and students were challenged to
use them as subjects in their paintings. As artists, the students were
able to change the colors and arrangement, or add and subtract pieces.
However, the goal was to depict depth with highlights and shadows.
We
learned that a dry brush was important to maintain the intensity and
thickness of the paint, but that it was all too easy to blend the
colors too much so that they lost their individually and became brown.
We saw that acrylics are great for building up color, so brush strokes were encouraged as was the overlay of colors. Best of all, however, is that we found out how much we could paint with just the Primary Colors and White.
Try this at home: Ask your child to show you
how to paint some of the items in your fruit bowl!
