What’s the first thing you notice about a piece of art?
For many people, both kids and adults, it’s COLOR! So it’s no wonder that color is often the first element of art taught to kids at the beginning of their art journey. Teachers love to get kids color mixing!
The color wheel is super visual, and kids love the idea of two colors mixing to create something new. It feels a little magical!
But we want to inspire you to do more than TELL kids that blue and red make purple. This is the perfect opportunity to let little kids explore art and color with their hands. An interested mind retains information, and experiences teach better than a poster!
So let’s save the memorization for the times tables. Encourage kids to get their hands colorful and learn that color wheel through these three engaging artsy experiences.
3 Ways to Get Kids Color Mixing
1. Mixing with Tempera Paint
Provide ONLY primary paint colors – ask kids which colors are missing! Let them experiment mixing colors together and see if they can figure out how to make the three secondary colors.
Explain that the colors they create will be used to create planets for a solar system – either ours, or an imaginary one. Kids love rooting for planets (we see you, Pluto!), and giving their mixed paint a purpose makes it even more fun to explore.
2. Pointillism
Dots are not just for 19th century painters! This optical illusion effect is sure to shock and amaze even the most reluctant young artists.
Use two primary color markers and place dots of the two colors together on a paper. Show kids how the individual colors are clearly visible close up, but from further away, our eyes blend them into a new, secondary color.
The stripes of a zebra lend themselves perfectly to color mixing with pointillism.
3. Make Mixing a Challenge
Define the simple rules: Outline a picture in black, and fill in the picture with only the three primary colors.
Tempera paint sticks are great for this activity because they layer in ways that create subtle, pleasing color mixtures.
Our members love the Color Mixing Rooster project shown above. And YOU try this challenge with drawing moths, and using only primary color tempera paint sticks to add color. Watch the video below to get ideas of making moths as different as possible – with just 3 colors!
Click the video below to get kids color mixing with a fun challenge!
We would love it if you’d share your art project results!
Don’t forget to tag us at @soulsparklettes on social media if you do this color mixing challenge art project with your kids or students – we love to see what you create!
Join one of our Memberships!
This is an example of the fun we have inside the Glitterbombers Memberships. Chose the level right for your students – Glitterbombers (K-7th) or the new Glitterbombers HIGH (7th-12th). With either choice, you’ll have hundreds more art projects, videos, and resources at your fingertips for whatever you’re studying, or whatever art concept you’re ready to teach. Click here to join our waitlist and find out when we open next!
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