Works of Value

Charles Sheeler, The Open Door.  1932

Georges Seurat, Lying Man, 1883

Jenny Odell, 144 Empty Parking Lots

Value

This month the art element I am going to highlight is value.



"Value is simply the artistic term for light and dark.  An area's value is its relative lightness or darkness in a given context.  Only through changes of light and dark can we perceive anything.  Light reveals forms; in a dark room at night we see nothing and bump into furniture and walls. What you are reading now is legible only because the darkness of the type contrasts with the whiteness of the background."


In the example on the right there are 11 values of gray going from white to black.

"The term value-contrast refers to the relationship between areas of dark and light.  Because the scale in the example is arranged in sequential order, the contrast between any two adjoining areas is rather slight and termed low-value contrast."  The crescent shape in the center of each value is the exact same color of gray.  It is interesting to see that this shape seems to change visually depending on the background.  It does make it hard to believe that the crescent shape on the top and on the bottom are precisely the same value.



Quotes taken from Design Basics, fourth edition, pg 212.

Color Ornaments

My cute neighbor who lives across the street from me came up with the idea of mixing the primary colors in ornaments for the class she is art mom for.  I loved the idea and yesterday she came over and we experimented in my kitchen.  

She bought these wonderful PLASTIC bulbs (isn't plastic such a blessing) and some acrylic paint in red, yellow, blue, white, and black.  She also bought some glitter.  

What we learned during our experiment was: 1.  It was much easier to get  the paint to swirl around the bulb if we rinsed it out first with water, because the water was able to thin out the paint a bit.  2. 

The glitter gave the bulb a speckled look.  (You can see that in the red bulb above.) 

I haven't followed up with my neighbor to find out how the kids liked it, but I noticed that when we were working together that we were having a blast.  I can't imagine that 5th grade class being sad during art this day.

Louis the Third, by Jessica Snow






I thought this was so much fun!
I have become a fan of 20x200.com this website features some of the new upcoming famous artists.  It also shows some great photography as well, but I like the art better. You knew that already.  Anyhow, if you are interested in checking it out and taking a little looksie, here you go! Have fun.


The artist featured above has many prints that are very fun and colorful.
Below are some more from her.

Curvilinear Time

In One Ear, Out the Other

Cascade

Links to Use

 If you find that I am doing a lousy job at teaching you exactly how to teach color I found a link that has free power point presentations right here. Check it out and see if it helps.

Different terms of color if needed are further explained here.

If you still feel a bit in the dark go here.  I looked at some of the art on here and I should warn you they posted art from some famous artists, now you must know that those famous artists sometimes use nudes.

Tie Dye

I was reading this morning in a little book that I have titled

  The Everything Book for Teachers of Young Children 

and I found something fun to share.

Thinking Thanksgiving. 

 

Tie Dyes

Make your own dyes using natural materials as Indians used to do.

For yellow use saffron, crocuses, daffodils or yellow onionskins.

For green use young grass, broccoli, or spinach.

For blue use blueberries.

For red use beets.

For brown use coffee, tea or walnut shells.

Place in an enamel pot and cover with water.  Boil 5 minutes (longer to make colors darker). Strain through a colander.  Cool.  Cut or tear pieces of white cotton (from an old sheet or t-shirt). Have children dip cloth in colors.  

I just thought that some of you might enjoy doing this as a project.  This is wonderful to work in with colors.  If you just did the red, yellow and blue, it could show the students what and how secondary colors are made.

In my speech class in high school a fellow student gave his demonstration speech on how to tie dye and I thought it was beautiful.  This could make a really cool quilt-like display for our Art Show coming in the spring.  

Assignment Ideas for Color

Idea #1. Colorful Ornaments

Last year I made salt dough ornaments and let the children paint them with their own designs.  I love seeing what they come up with.  This year I was thinking we could make a simple shape ornament with a cookie cutter or cup, then letting them use the idea of painting complementary colors next to each other in a design to intensify the brightness of the colors. Make sure to have an example you have made.

The recipe for the salt dough is:

8 cups of flour

3 cups of water

2 cups of salt

 Mix the flour and salt, add water, mix and knead until soft. (this takes muscle) Roll dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut your shapes, and use a straw or pencil to make a hole for the string.  Bake for 1 hour on an ungreased cookie sheet at 300, or place on wax paper and let them dry over night.  The time when baked varies depending on the thickness.

Idea #2.

After giving each child a piece of paper ask them do draw with only a black crayon something specific. (this could come from a book they have been studying or even a holiday refrence like a cornicopia or something that they would like to invent.  Talk to the teacher and see what they say.) Then have the children wet down their entire page and then water color all of the paper with only red, yellow and blue.






For more colorful art ideas your children can do CLICK HERE.