B. Drama / D. Visual Arts · Drama and Visual Arts

Visual Arts: Colour and Texture

D1.3 D1.4 D2.2About 35 minutes

Learning goals

I can name the primary colours: red, yellow and blue.
I can mix primary colours to make secondary colours: orange, green and purple.
I can tell warm colours from cool colours and use colour to show a feeling.
I can feel real textures and show texture in my art with rubbings, prints and drawing.
I can use paint, crayons and collage to make art.

Words to know

colour
What we see when light bounces off things, like red, blue or yellow.

primary colours
Red, yellow and blue. You can't make them by mixing other paint colours.

secondary colours
Orange, green and purple. You make each one by mixing two primary colours.

warm colours
Red, orange and yellow. They remind us of fire and the sun.

cool colours
Blue, green and purple. They remind us of water, ice and shade.

texture
How something feels (or looks like it would feel): rough, smooth, bumpy, fuzzy, soft.

rubbing
Art made by putting paper over a bumpy surface and rubbing it with the side of a crayon.

collage
Art made by gluing pieces of paper, fabric or other things onto a background.

A colourful world

Look outside in the fall. The maple leaves turn red, orange and yellow. In winter, the snow looks white and the shadows look blue. In spring, the grass turns green.

Artists use colour to make their art bright, calm, happy or spooky!

A maple forest in fall with red, orange and yellow leaves on the trees and covering the ground. — In the fall, Ontario forests turn red, orange and yellow. Which of these colours are warm colours? AI-generated image

Primary colours

The three primary colours are red, yellow and blue.

They are special: you can't make them by mixing other paints. But you can mix them together to make lots of new colours!

Mixing two primary colours makes a secondary colour: red and yellow make orange, yellow and blue make green, blue and red make purple.

Mix these primary colours	To make this secondary colour
red + yellow	orange 🍊
yellow + blue	green 🌲
red + blue	purple 🍇

Mixing primary colours makes secondary colours

Mixing tip

Start with the lighter colour and add a tiny bit of the darker one. To make green, start with yellow and add a little blue. Blue is strong, so a little goes a long way!

Mixing all three primary colours together usually makes a muddy brown.

Warm and cool colours

Warm colours are red, orange and yellow, like fire and the sun. They can feel happy, excited or hot.
Cool colours are blue, green and purple, like water, ice and a forest. They can feel calm, quiet, cold or sometimes sad.

Artists choose warm or cool colours to show a feeling.

Warm colours (red, orange, yellow) feel hot and lively. Cool colours (blue, green, purple) feel calm and cold.

Texture

Texture is how something feels when you touch it, or how it looks like it would feel.

Real texture: you can really touch it, like bark, a fuzzy mitten or smooth ice.
Drawn texture: an artist draws lines and dots to make something look rough, furry or bumpy. You can't feel it, but your eyes can tell!

Thing	Texture
tree bark	rough, bumpy
a mitten or toque	fuzzy, soft
ice on a pond	smooth, slippery
a pinecone	bumpy, prickly
a cat's fur	soft, furry

Textures you can find in Canada

Drawn texture: short little lines look furry, circles and dots look bumpy, and long gentle lines look smooth. You can't feel it, but your eyes can tell!

Worked example

Example: Mixing secondary colours

You have red, yellow and blue paint. You want to paint a pumpkin for Thanksgiving and a pine tree. What do you mix?

A pumpkin is orange. Orange is a secondary colour.
Which primaries make orange? Red + yellow. Start with yellow and add a little red.
A pine tree is green. Which primaries make green? Yellow + blue. Start with yellow and add a little blue.
Paint the pumpkin orange and the tree green!

Orange = red + yellow for the pumpkin. Green = yellow + blue for the pine tree.

Just for fun

Funny but true: Mix red, yellow and blue paint all together and you usually get a muddy brown. Yum... mud soup! (Please don't eat the paint.)

Worked example

Example: Making a texture rubbing

Let's make a leaf rubbing to show texture.

Find a leaf (a maple leaf works well) and put it on the table, bumpy side up.
Put a thin piece of paper on top.
Peel the paper off a crayon. Rub the side of the crayon gently over the paper.
Watch! The veins and edges of the leaf appear like magic.
Try warm colours for a fall leaf: red, orange and yellow.

The rubbing shows the leaf's real texture (its bumpy veins) on flat paper. Using warm colours makes it look like fall.

Hands-on activity

Colour and texture collage

You need: red, yellow and blue paint (or crayons), paper, glue, and bits of textured things: tissue paper, fabric scraps, cardboard, foil, cotton balls, sandpaper.

Mix paint to make orange, green and purple. Paint a little square of each. Label them.
Go on a texture hunt with crayon and paper: make rubbings of a coin, a floor mat, tree bark, a cheese grater (have a grown-up hold it) or a basket.
Make a collage of an animal or a place. Glue on textured materials: cotton balls for snow, foil for ice, fabric for a coat.
Choose warm or cool colours for your background to show a feeling.
Tell your grown-up: "I used ___ colours because I wanted it to feel ___."

Your turn

Name the three primary colours.

What do you get when you mix yellow + blue?

What do you get when you mix red + blue?

Which two colours make orange?

Is blue a warm or cool colour?

Touch a towel and a spoon. Describe the texture of each.

Make a rubbing of something bumpy in your home. What did you choose?

More practice: warm-up

Is red a primary colour?

Is green a primary or secondary colour?

Name a warm colour.

What texture is a snowball? Soft and fluffy, or hard and icy?

What colour are maple leaves in summer?

More practice: on your own

You want to paint a calm, quiet picture of a lake at night. Warm colours or cool colours? Why?

You only have red and yellow paint. Can you make green? Why or why not?

Draw a teddy bear and make its fur look fuzzy with lines. How did you do it?

What is the difference between real texture and drawn texture?

Sort these: purple, yellow, orange, blue. Which are primary? Which are secondary?

Challenge

Ben mixed red, yellow and blue all together. What colour did he probably get? Why?

Plan a picture of a campfire in the snow. Which parts would you colour with warm colours? Which with cool colours?

How could you show the rough texture of tree bark in a painting without touching real bark?

Check your understanding

Quiz

Which are the three primary colours?

Red + yellow makes ___.

Which colour is a secondary colour?

Which is a cool colour?

How would tree bark feel?

What is a collage?

To make green paint, you mix ___.

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Grade 1 students explore the elements of design, including colour (primary and secondary colours, warm and cool colours, colour to show feeling) and texture (real and drawn). They use a variety of materials and techniques: drawing, painting, printmaking (rubbings and simple prints) and mixed media (collage).

How to help:

Use washable paints and an old shirt. Let your child discover mixing for themselves before you explain it.
Collect textures on walks: leaves, bark, pinecones. Make rubbings at home.
Ask "How does that colour make you feel?" about picture books and your child's own art.

Common difficulties:

Muddy colours. Mix on a plate with only two colours at a time, and rinse the brush between colours.
Too much blue or red. Start with the lighter colour and add the darker one a little at a time.
Thinking texture is only what you touch. Show how artists draw fur, bark or scales with lines and dots.