2nd grade Warm/Cool Paintings

After learning our 12 colored color wheel, the second grade classes learned that some colors remind us of WARM things.  The warm colors are the reds, oranges, and yellows.  Other colors remind us of COOL things.  The cool colors are the greens, blues, and violets.

Next, we learned how to create a wet on wet watercolor wash.  The goal was to get the colors to swirl around on the paper before sinking in and drying, giving the page a swirly tie-dyed look.  To do this, first the paper is soaked, then the very wet watercolor is placed on it.  The colors swirl around and make interesting color blends and shapes.

After the warm and cool watercolor washes are dry, students look at the swirly shapes, looking for exciting things in the WARM colored paper, and calm things in the COOL colored paper.  It is a bit like looking for shapes in the clouds on a lazy summer afternoon.  Finally, the found images are drawn in using a black marker or crayon.