LESSON PLANS FROM
6-12 / PAINTING
“BEYOND RED + YELLOW=OR ANGE”
Written by Mandy Theis Hallenius
OBJECTIVES
• Students will identify the characteristics of
chroma, value, and hue
• Students will practice observation skills
• Students will discover and apply color theory
• Students will increase their visual literacy by
practicing color mixing skills
MATERIALS
SUMMARY
In this lesson, students will increase their
visual literacy by breaking down the elements
of color into chroma, value and hue. They will
also explore the elements of warm and cool
colors. They will then practice identifying
these characteristics through a series of color
mixing projects. Classroom management
strategies for using oil paint in the classroom
will be covered at length.
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• Oil Paint (Cad Red, Cad Yellow, Cobalt Blue,
Titanium White, Cad Green, Cad Orange,
Purple, Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin, Lemon Yellow)
• Palette Knives
• Palettes
• Canvas Paper
• Linseed Oil
• Gamsol
• Auto Heavy Duty Paper Towels (they’re blue)
• Pizza Boxes (for storing wet projects)
• Metal trash can
“BEYOND RED + YELLOW = BLUE”
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Oil Painting in the classroom is often a daunting prospect for art teachers. Due to the
popularity of acrylics in recent times, many art
teachers have not had access to training in oil
paints.
There are many concerns about oil painting in
the classroom that keep art teachers away from
using it.
One of these is the concern that oil paint is unsafe for classroom use. Gamblin, a paint-making company, offers a great overview of classroom safety with oil paints on their website.
With their permission, portions of it are
included in the appendix of this lesson plan.
The full version can be downloaded from their
website at https://www.gamblincolors.com/studio-safety/guide-for-schools/
Some art teachers worry that oil painting is
too expensive to teach in their classrooms.
Although oil paint can be more expensive than
other art activities, it doesn’t need to be. There
are many art activities that require a very small
number of colors to execute. Additionally,
working on relatively small projects keeps the
cost of oil paint down and your supply lasting
much longer. Using oil painting paper instead
of canvas also keeps costs down. Providing
clear instruction on how much paint to put on
your palette at a time (I suggest to my students
to use a “dime at a time” and that they can
always add more if needed) is important. The
first few days of painting you need to watch
students closely when putting paint on their
palette, but once they have a general understanding of what “too much” is they are able
to consistently put the appropriate amount of
paint on their palettes.
Another common concern is how to manage
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6-12 / PAINTING
oil painting in the classroom. It is important to
put a system in place for setting up and cleaning up oil painting lessons. Once students have
learned the oil painting routine, it takes no
more time than other hands-on art activities to
teach oil painting in classrooms.
One system that is effective for teaching oil
painting in the classroom is to have students
work in painting groups of 6 students.
Each group gets a tote bag with one set of oil
paint, palettes, palette knives (which are not
real knives, are not used for cutting, and have
relatively dull edges - call them palette scrapers if your administration is uneasy about the
word “knives”), linseed oil, a roll of blue paper
towels, and Gamsol. (Canvas paper should be
passed out separately to keep it clean and otherwise undamaged.)Each student in the group
will have a specific job to execute as part of setup and cleanup. Setup chores can be assigned
based on the project. Below is a recommended
distribution of clean-up chores.
Student 1: collect, count, and wipe palette
knives
Student 2: Scrape palettes and wipe down with
linseed oil
Student 3: Collect the group’s paintings, place
in individual pizza boxes, and bring stack to
storage place.
Student 4: Inventory tote bag for all components (paint tubes, Gamsol, linseed oil, etc.)
Student 5: Collect and dispose of all used paper
towels in appropriate bin.
Student 6: If using paint brushes, this student is
responsible for wiping and washing the group’s
paint brushes. If using just palette knives, such
as in this particular lesson, this student can
assist the group where needed.
“BEYOND RED + YELLOW = BLUE”
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6-12 / PAINTING
“BEYOND RED + YELLOW = BLUE”
6-12 / PAINTING
STEP 1
STEP 3
Photocopy the template for color exercises
onto canvas paper.
Mix an orange using cadmium red and cadmium yellow. Then mix a green using cobalt
blue and cadmium yellow. Now mix a purple
using cobalt blue and cadmium red. Add these
to your color wheel half way on the lines of the
triangle.
BLUE
BLUE
RED
YELLOW
RED
STEP 4
STEP 2
Have students put only three colors onto their
palettes, cadmium red, cadmium yellow, and
cobalt blue. Using the back of a palette knife,
dab each color in a triangle shape on your canvas paper to align with the written color.
Now that there are mixed colors on the
triangle of the canvas, add cadmium green,
cadmium orange, and dioxazine purple to the
outermost circle of the canvas.
BLUE
BLUE
RED
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YELLOW
YELLOW
RED
YELLOW
“BEYOND RED + YELLOW = BLUE”
6-12 / PAINTING
BLUE
STEP 5
Compare the mixed colors that were made
first to the tubed cadmium green, cadmium
orange, and a dioxazine purple. Do you notice
that the tubed paint is more intense than the
mixed colors? That’s because of CHROMA.
The tubed cadmium green is more CHROMATIC than the cadmium green that is mixed
from cadmium yellow and cobalt blue. Chroma is a word that describes how intense a
color is.
BURNT
SIENNA
RED
YELLOW
BLUE
STEP 7
RED
YELLOW
STEP 6
Now lets look at an earth tone color, such as
burnt sienna. Burnt sienna is still a reddish-orange color, but it is much less chromatic, or
intense, than cadmium orange or the orange
that was mixed from cadmium yellow and cobalt blue. So far, the more chromatic colors are
placed on the outside of the color wheel, and
less chromatic colors are placed on the insdie
of the color whell. Ask students where in the
circle they think burnt sienna belongs. Use the
palette knife to place burnt sienna onto your
color wheel closer to the center of the circle,
but towards the orange side.
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Have the class look around the room and find
4-5 different examples of objects that are red.
Then, rank them according to how CHROMATIC of a red each object is from most to
least. For example, in the image below, the
handles of the pliers are a much more chromatic red than the red of the carpet, which is
closer to a burnt sienna color.
Repeat this process of ranking objects by their
chroma for both blue and yellow objects.
This practice will help your students to better
understand chroma.
“BEYOND RED + YELLOW = BLUE”
6-12 / PAINTING
BLUE
STEP 8
Using only your cadmium red, cadmium yellow, and cobalt blue, see if you can mix a true
neutral, known as a chromatic neutral. A true
neutral means that the color looks greyish, but
not green-gray or orange-grey, or blue-grey.
It should not appear to have any color in it.
Mix this neutral using very small bits of paint.
It will take some give and take between the
three colors to find the true neutral. If your
pile of paint gets too large, pull a small amount
aside with your palette knife and start mixing
colors into this new smaller pile in order to
save paint. Place this in the very center of your
color wheel.
ALIZARON
CRIMSON
RED
LEMON
YELLOW
YELLOW
STEP 10
BLUE
TRUE
NEUTRAL
RED
YELLOW
Now, take one the cadmium red and make a 9
step VALUE scale by adding titanium white.
What happens to the hue of the color as you
add white? Does it get warmer or cooler?
Make a strip with your values on your canvas.
Be careful to make your steps even. Because
white is a cool color, you should notice that
your red becomes more and more cool as it
becomes lighter because the proportion of titanium white to cadmium red becomes greater.
RED TO WHITE
STEP 9
All colors can be warm or cool, it depends
on the context. Look at alizarin and cadmium reds. Which one is warmer? Cadmium
red is warmer than alizarin red. Therfore, the
alizarin red can be placed towards the purple
side of the cadmium red. Evaluate the relative
warmth and coolness of lemon yellow and
cadmium yellow. Where do these new colors belong on your color wheel? Place them
appropriately.
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Often, in order to maintain the warmth of a
color when it is being lightened, classically
trained artists will add a tiny bit of a warm
color, such as cadmium yellow, to maintain
the integerity of the HUE. The hue is where
exactly the color falls on the outside of the color wheel. If a color gets cooler, it is changing
hue. In the next value scale, add a tiny bit of
cadmium yellow to your paint mixture as you
lighten it to maintain the HUE.
RED TO WHITE WITH A TINY BIT OF YELLOW
“BEYOND RED + YELLOW = BLUE”
6-12 / PAINTING
VERBAL ASSESSMENT
OBSERVATIONAL ASSESSMENT
1. How did your paint handling skills change
from the beginning to the end of this project?
1. Does the student demonstrate a clear understanding of value, chroma, and hue as they
relate to color?
2. If you could do your color wheel or value
scales again, what would you do differently?
2. Does the student use good paint handling
skills when completing their color wheel and
value scales?
3. What do you see other students doing that
you like?
3. Does the student apply any of the skills
learned in this lesson to other projects?
RUBRIC
3 pts
4 pts
5 pts
VALUE
Student needs to practice
more careful observation
when gradating between
light and ark on their color
value scale.
Student makes somewhat
equal gradations between
light and dar on their color
value scale.
Student makes equal gradations between light and
dark on their color value
scale.
CHROMA
Student needs to practice
demonstrating an understanding of chroma by
placing the most chromatic
colors on the outside of the
color wheel, and the least
chromatic colors on the
inside of the color wheel.
Student demonstrates an
moderate understanding of
chroma by placing the most
chromatic colors on the
outside of the color wheel,
and the least chromatic
colors on the inside of the
color wheel.
Student demonstrates a
firm understanding of
chroma by placing the most
chromatic colors on the
outside of the color wheel,
and the least chromatic
colors on the inside of the
color wheel.
HUE
Student incorrectly places
warm and cool versions
of colors in the correct
location around the color
wheel.
Student sometimes correctly places warm and cool
versions of colors in the
correct location around the
color wheel.
Student correctly places
warm and cool versions
of colors in the correct
location around the color
wheel.
CRAFTSPERSONSHIP
The color wheel and value
scales are not completed
neatly, with many extra
smudges, or rips in the
canvas. Paint is not neatly
applied.
The color wheel and
value scales are sometimes
completed neatly, with no
extra smudges, or rips in
the canvas. Paint is neatly
applied.
The color wheel and value
scales are completed neatly,
with no extra smudges, or
rips in the canvas. Paint is
neatly applied.
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“BEYOND RED + YELLOW = BLUE”
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Art Renewal Center
Online Image Museum
www.artrenewal.org
Gamblin Studio Safety Guide
https://www.gamblincolors.com/studio-safety/
guide-for-schools/
Lessons in Classical Painting
Juliette Aristides - Watson-Guptill Publications - 2016
Classical Drawing Atelier: A Contemporary
Guide to Traditional Studio Practice
Juliette Aristides - Watson-Guptill Publications - 2006
Lessons in Classical Drawing: Essential
Techniques from Inside the Atelier
Juliette Aristides - Watson-Guptill Publications - 2011
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6-12 / PAINTING
BLUE
RED
RED TO WHITE
RED TO WHITE WARMED WITH A TINY BIT OF YELLOW
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YELLOW