Monochromatic Painting

Monochromatic Painting, Art 2

Well, its been an awful long time since I did my last blog post but I've got a plethora of new project pictures that I've compiled from an entire year of school. The first project on the agenda is monochromatic paintings. I really like this project because it's one where the students can choose almost any kind of content to include in their painting as long as they make it monochromatic. More advanced students can choose something more complex and struggling students can find something a little simpler. I find that when a student is personally vested in the imagery they're painting then they'll put forth more effort into the completion of the project.

Materials:

1. Acrylic paint (The ones I did last year were with tempera but acrylic would have been a lot better)
2. Variety of paint brush sizes. ( If you want consistent quality from your students then get a full range of decent brushes)
3. Water cups
4. Paper towels
5. Palettes
6. Thick painting paper 

Process:

1. I did a short practice assignment before beginning the actual project because this was the first painting assignment we did in my Art 2 class. I had the class complete 6 color value scales. These were 1 inch squares, 7 columns wide and 10 rows long. The fourth row was pure color and above that were shades of  the color and below were tints of the color. This assignment worked well to show students what colors they had to work with for their new project and how to mix them. 
2. I told students a few days before beginning our paintings that they would need to find a personal photograph that they or a friend had taken. 
3. I reserved some computers in the library computer lab. 
4. Most students brought their photos in on a thumb drive or on their phone. From there we put them on the computer and played with the setting until they had a monochromatic photo in a color they liked. If a student brought in a printed photo then we just used a scanner to get it into the computer. 
5. Once they acquired their photo then I let them choose what size grid they wanted to work with and they grided their photos and painting paper. 
6. Next they simply began painting their project using only shades and tint of one color. I will warn you against using tempera paint. We used tempera for these projects you see pictured below and got some nice results but it was a real pain in the butt. You can't really work in layers with tempera paint the way you can with acrylic, and layers are a real big part of these monochromatic paintings. The tempera paint seemed to absorb each layer you tried to put on top so it took tons of layers to get the shade or tint that you wanted to achieve. Just use acrylic paint.

Comment below and let me know if you have suggestions, advice, or tips for this art project.  ^-^ 

Student Examples

Practice assignment/ value scales

Complex Color Wheel

This was an Art II project. In this assignment students studied color theory. The assignment was to create a color wheel using only blue, red, yellow, and white.

Materials:

• Tempera paint ( red, blue, yellow, white, and black)
• paint brushes (big and small sizes)
• thick painting paper (square)
• scrap printer paper
• paper plates
• protractors
• rulers
• pencils

Procedures: 

Slideshow lesson with step by step instructions and video. 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cGzDJLJ1EWQswYjGqr4H8_VacaEIEHOZ4xLpq6n-zWM/edit?usp=drivesdk

1. Take the square painting paper and use the paper plate to trace a circle in the middle of the paper.
2. Use the ruler to find the middle of the circle. This step is very important for the rest of the process to work correctly. Make sure your students take their time with this part. If a student is having trouble getting things to line up later in the process its possible they didn't center their design in the beginning.
3. Use the ruler to draw a line through the middle to divide the circle in half.
4. Next, use the protractor to divide the circle into 30 degree sections.
5. Then take the scrap printer paper to trace one of those 30 degree sections. On the scrap paper, the students will create a template of their design. The design can be what the students want but they had to have at least 6 sections going down toward the center.
6. Once the student has their design drawn out then they use the template to trace their design over and over to create the complete circular design. Note that every time the students trace into one sections, they will have to flip the paper over to trace in the next section.
7. Once the entire deign is drawn out in pencil, the student will use their paint to begin mixing colors and painting in their designs. The goal is to create all of the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors on the outside edge of the design and then as the colors go towards the center of the circle, the students add white to create a gradual tint of the outside color.
8. The last step is to take black paint and paint all of the background. I find that the colors all pop and stand out more when you add the black background. 

My Example

Student Examples

Dot paintings

This was an art II project that dealt with how dots have been used in art history. For this we looked at three different uses of the dot. We looked at Aborigine dot paintings, George Seurat's pointillism, and Roy Lichenstein's Pop art. The project was to find a pop culture figure and illustrate them using only dots of paint. In the background they were to create an interesting design which incorporates at least two aborigine designs. I thought that my students might hate this project because it was going to be time consuming, but they ending up really loving it. 

Materials

• Thick painting paper
• Pencil for sketching out image
• Tempera paint
• Any sort of pointed stick (I used old wooden styluses from a scratch art project. You can also use the end of paint brushes)

Process

1. First each student had to choose their own pop culture figure to illustrate and they were responsible for getting a picture of their chosen person. 
2. Students must decide whether or not they want to paint their paper to give it a background color. It really depends on what they are painting as to what they should do with the background. Some may choose to leave it white. 
3. Lightly sketch out the illustration on the painting paper with pencil
4. Using tempera paint and a wooden stylus, students will use dots to create their image.

Student Art Examples