Using Colour Year 9

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• A year 9 class was about to begin a graphic design project in which they would explore the formal elements of colour, shape and typography to develop healthy eating campaign posters using both ICT and traditional media.
• The objective of this introductory lesson was to focus on the use of colour to express mood, building on pupils’ previous knowledge of the colour wheel, and developing it through practical sketchbook activities. In the following lesson the group would explore the symbolic use of colour both in the UK and in other cultures.
• The teacher had prepared a series of 5 short activities for the interactive whiteboard as a lesson starter to engage pupils in the concepts they were to apply during their practical work.

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Step 1: Individual pupils came to the board and filled in the 3 primary colours of pigment [or subtractive primaries], followed by 3 secondary colours, using the fill tool and colour palette available in the whiteboard software. The class explained orally how to mix a secondary colour and one pupil checked the answer by revealing it with the Board Rubber tool.

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Steps 2 & 3: The class next identified complementary and harmonious/analogous colours by annotating the colour wheels with arrows and dragging or deleting text labels.

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Step 4: They were then asked to label the primary, secondary and tertiary colours on the wheel and to explain how tertiary colours are made, dragging the labels and revealing the correct answer to the question after they had reached a consensus verbally.

Step 5: Finally, pupils worked in pairs to decide which colour combinations were used in 5 paintings from different periods and to identify the artist. They were also asked to describe the mood they felt the paintings evoked, finding one appropriate adjective for each. When the paintings had been correctly labelled on the board, the teacher added students’ descriptions directly onto the board with the e-pen.

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Step 6: The lesson continued with the class using caran d’ache or felt tip pens to experiment with sample colour schemes on a simple line drawing of another Matisse lithograph from the Jazz series, called The Clown, which they copied from the whiteboard into their sketchbooks. The instructions and picture were left on the whiteboard throughout this activity.

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• The activities give a clear, challenging start to the lesson and allow the whole class to participate.

• The pages can be prepared in advance and used or adapted with groups in future and to recap when necessary during the current project. 

• Using a large projected image for activity 6 rather than postcards or small reproductions is less intimidating for pupils. Because they need to lift their heads to look up at the whiteboard, this also facilitates monitoring patterns of observation when drawing, so that the teacher can encourage pupils to view the source “model” more attentively and frequently.

http://colourmatters.com
All you ever need to know about colour – how it affects your body, mind and vision, its science, legal issues and a global colour survey.

http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit
An interactive artist’s toolkit to explore concepts such as line, colour, movement and more.

http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/study/study.html
Although this site is designed for younger children, it has a wealth of information on colour, as well as on other elements and principles of art. 

Use this lesson starter with the Graphic Design project to create a club flyer

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