Lesson: Overlapping Glassware

July 26, 2015 | By Rachel Zink

July is Printmaking + Color Theory Month at Arts For Life! Teachers have been concentrating on a variety of lessons designed to impress upon students the very important role color has in artistic composition. In this lesson, students explore the brilliant effects of layering color.

Goals:

Use paint to encourage discovery of color mixing.
Explore color theory while learning basic drawing techniques.

Materials:

Watercolor paper
Pencil
Black Sharpie, ultrafine
Primary watercolors
Paintbrushes
Color wheel

Directions:

Discuss primary and secondary colors, explaining color mixing by showing the color wheel.
Choose a collection of glass items to draw: light bulbs, vases on a shelf, marbles, beads, etc.
Draw the items overlapping each other. Cover the page with the items.
Outline the items in black Sharpie.
Begin with red watercolor paint. Paint one third of the glass items red. Let dry.
Paint one third of the items blue. If it overlaps red, it will turn purple. Let dry.
Paint the remainder of the items yellow. If it overlaps red, it will turn orange, and if it overlaps blue it will turn green.

Tweak It!

For young artists, trace simple shape templates and designate a shape to a color. For example: red = triangle, blue = circle, yellow = square.