Friday Finds: Explore Art Color Focused Projects

A Look Back.....
To go with Wednesday's complementary color project, here's a few explore art projects we've done that focus on colors.

Jean Arp inspired "chance collages" focusing on primary and secondary colors.  Let your kids rip and toss paper to learn color wheel relationships!

Robert Delaunay inspired collages using tissue and contact paper.  A great lesson on the artist and how primary colors make secondary colors- hands on as kids layer circles and then lift it up to see what colors they made!

Playdough recipe , playdough is a great every day medium that let's kids get hands on and explore both color and texture.

See more art projects and lessons under EXPLORE ART section!

Explore Art Projects: Complementary Hand Prints/ Thankful Tree

Today's post is Part II of Complementary Colors.  Make sure and read Part I for a brief overview of the color wheel and complementary colors.

Complementary Handprints

For an art project to incorporate complementary colors I had Cy make handprints.  We used four different colors of paper, red, blue, green and purple.  If I did this project again I'd use only the 3 primary colors for paper.

I explained to Cy what complementary colors were, the colors opposite of each other on the color wheel, while we looked at a color wheel.  I picked a color and asked him to find the opposite color or complementary color on the color wheel.  Then we moved on to the paper.  I got out the paint we were going to use and laid out all the pieces of paper.  


Cy then had to find the complementary color in paint for each piece of paper.  He lined them up getting ready to make our hand prints.

I actually painted Cy's hand with a wide brush to then let him print it on the paper.  Only in part because his washable paints were running too low to pour out on a plate and let him smoosh his hands in.  Similar to finger painting this is a great hands on art experience!

He got a few hand prints on each piece of paper and we set them aside to dry.

Thankful Tree

I wanted to do something with these complementary hand prints to extend the lesson and fun.  What better than a Thankful Tree with the handprints as the leaves.  (now my husband might disagree because the tree landed roots in our living room)

Taking a roll of the brown packaging paper I unrolled enough to trace Cy's body laying down.  He was the actual tree.  He laid down and extended his arms up just like branches. (that is the dog in the corner wondering what in the world are we doing)

I traced him and then went back in for some tree bark details, running lines throughout the tree.  And cut it out.  Cy picked a corner of the living room and up went the tree with a little tape.

With the tree up we went back to the complementary hand prints, cutting each one out to then be our leaves.  I took 5 of them and wrote out a letter of Cyrus's name so he could then arrange them in order.
 
I rolled tape on the back of the hand prints and Cy got to put them up.

We also added a few more paper shapes for leaves to write down things we are thankful for.  Cy came up with toys, nice things, teachers, helping mommy, crayons, and family. Gotta love it!

Working art concepts into your child's art making can be as simple as painted hand prints, matching crayons or just a discussion about colors and their relationships as they are working.  Get Hands on Art, develop an appreciation for art, your little artist and quality time spent with the two.

Enjoy! Next week Hands on Art goes Pop. With turkey hand prints inspired by Andy Warhol see you Wednesday.

Explore Art: Hands On Art November

November's theme for Explore Art Projects is

Hands On Art

a month of projects focusing on everyday fun art with your hands

First up is finger painting.  You might be a little hesitant to let your kids dive right into finger painting it is a little messy and it may appear to be uncontrolled.  But I urge you to give it a try.

Cy has been doing a lot of finger painting projects in Pre-K and it reminded me of how much fun it can be and how much it has to offer young children.   

 Finger painting allows children to explore both art making and art materials, it encourages self expression and creativity, works on tactile exploration, hand eye coordination and fine motor skills.

Here's a few project ideas to try with your kids, don't worry about the mess, jump in and have fun.  For materials use children's washable paint or tempera paint and use thicker paper like watercolor or poster board.

Project #1:  Monochromatic Finger Painting, pick one color to start with and allow your child to explore how they can make markings with their fingers.  Using one color will allow your child to focus on how they are using the medium, how it feels and what it looks like when they put it on the paper.

Project #2:  Color Finger Painting, this next project offers them a variety of colors to finger paint with.  This will help your child learn colors and see what happens when colors are mixed together, primary/ secondary colors.

**Finger painting is a great project that lets children focus on the process of making art.  They are not worried about how to hold a paint brush, how to get the paint on it and make the correct marks on paper.  They are using something they know well and use everyday-- their hands!**

Project #3: Finger painting a subject, pick a subject or topic for your child to finger paint.  Once they have explored and done a few finger paintings this is a great project to graduate to.  They can experiment at how to look at the world around them and re-create things on paper- creating art.  Cy recently painted pumpkins in school.

Tips for Finger Painting with your children:  Remember to keep an open discussion going with your child as they are creating art.  Talk to them about how the paint feels, ask them about how they are using the paint to make a picture on their paper.  

If they're using more than one color it's an excellent time to have the name their colors and talk about what happens when you mix certain colors together.  Also encourage your children to explore how they are finger painting.  What happens when they move their hand, arm real fast with wide strokes verses keeping their fingers, hand in one section moving back and forth only a little bit. 

This is a time for them to let loose, have fun explore art and express themselves with Hands On Art!