Overview
Line and Mark Exploration
In this lesson, you will begin to mix new colors with your oil pastels. Let’s see how we can mix two colors to make our own new colors!
Materials and Tools
- Set of oil pastels
- 9 x 12” paper
- Paper towel
Activities
- Open your oil pastels.
- Take out the blue and yellow oil pastels.
- Make a patch of color using blue. What kind of blue is this? (Bright, dark, sky blue)
- Make a new patch of blue! This time press as softly as you can, with your oil pastel, barely touching the paper. What kind of blue is this?
- Now let’s try a patch of blue pressing down hard with the oil pastel—how is this blue different from the first one?
- Let’s try a patch of yellow. Press softly to make a patch of color, then make another patch and press harder. How are these yellows different?
- Yellow and blue are called primary colors!
- Let’s try something new! Let’s make a new blue patch, then let’s make a yellow patch next to it. What do you think will happen when they get close to each other and meet?!
- Try mixing by pressing as lightly as you can with the yellow, then adding a bit of blue.
- What happened? You blended your colors and made green!
- How do you think you can make dark green?
- How do you think you can make light green?
- Try mixing by pressing hard with the yellow, then adding blue.
- Try smearing or spreading the color with your finger to mix.
- How else can you mix the colors? Try mixing by making lines or marks on top of each other, swirling lines of blue on top of yellow, etc.
- Make as many different kinds of green as you can! Some are light! Some are dark!
- When you’re done, the yellow oil pastel might have lots of blue on it. How can we clean it? Let’s wipe off the tip with a paper towel.
Prompts for Independent Art Making:
There are colors everywhere! Go on a green hunt in your classroom or your home! Look outside the window and see how many kinds of green you can find. Next time you leave your school or home, look for all the different greens in your neighborhood. What kinds of things are green? What is your favorite green?
Make a drawing with only yellow, blue and green. What will you draw? How will you mix the colors?
Artists for Inspiration:
Alma Thomas and Sam Tchakalian
What colors do you see in these paintings? Where do the colors mix? How do you think the artists mixed these colors?
Do you see lines or marks in these paintings?
Reflection Questions
When you mix yellow and blue, what color do you make?
Where do you see light green? Where do you see dark green?
How did you make light green? How did you make dark green?
Which greens have more blue than yellow?
Can you imagine what you’ve seen in the world that looks like these different greens? (grass, trees, fruits, vegetables)
Think of some names for the greens that you mixed? (apple green, pea green, grass green)
Vocabulary
Oil Pastel, Smudge/smear, Mix, Blend, Primary colors (red, yellow, blue), Green
Resources
Books:
Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Green on Green by Dianne White
Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lioni