Mini Monets

To start off the Colors and Values session in November, I always plan a fun way for the artists to mix their own secondary colors from pairs of primary colors. I read the book, Mix it Up by Henri Tullet to get the artists excited about a different way to mix colors. We painted two circles on each side of a strip of paper. I introduced the impasto painting technique, where paint is applied thick and heavily. Then we folded the paper in half and gave it a good rubbing or ‘smashing.’ When the paper is opened back up, the artists not only mixed the secondary color, but they could see the two tertiary colors with it. Red+Blue= Purple (Red Violet and Blue Violet). Blue+Green=Yellow (Blue Green and Yellow Green). Red+Yellow=Orange (Red Orange and Yellow Orange)