We made our own paint chips to help gain a hands-on understanding of color shades and color mixing.
What you need:
- watercolor paper or white card
- Painter's tape or masking tape
- watercolor paints (we used Ooly brand)
- paint brushes
- water
- a few paint chips
- scissors
- Painter's tape or masking tape
- watercolor paints (we used Ooly brand)
- paint brushes
- water
- a few paint chips
- scissors
How it works:
Next time you are in your local DIY store grab some paint chips. They are a great resource for color work, especially when working on shades of colors. To prepare the watercolor paper I cut each A4 piece into three and added three strips of masking tape. You can add more or fewer sections depending on the age of the kids you are working with.
Once everything was prepped we looked at the paint chips and had a chat about the different shades. I asked my 5 yr old son how he would be able to make different shades which led to discussions about using black and white to make colors lighter and darker.
For the first few paint chips I gave him complete freedom and he chose to use different shades of single colors from the watercolor set.
He then decided to try and mix colors to create shades, using a base color, and then adding white and black. He found this a little more tricky but gave it a good try. He also then decided to try and find the lightest and darkest colors in the set, and one in-between.
2 year old baby sis was able to join in, although she opted for more of a gothic palette.
Big bro also decided to experiment if he could combine different colors on the same paint chip to show shading.
We left the paint chips to dry and then simply removed the masking tape. A little of the watercolor paper did lift off with the tape but not much at all.
As you can see they turned out pretty cool! I love how clear the different shades turned out.
For the ones where my son chose to show shades but using different colors it also worked really well. He was able to describe the colors he chose and how it made darker and lighter shades on his paint chip.
We are going to punch a hole in these to make a color shades booklet to have in our play room. I'm sure it will get lot of use by both kids, and of course is extra special to them because they made it!
Once everything was prepped we looked at the paint chips and had a chat about the different shades. I asked my 5 yr old son how he would be able to make different shades which led to discussions about using black and white to make colors lighter and darker.
For the first few paint chips I gave him complete freedom and he chose to use different shades of single colors from the watercolor set.
He then decided to try and mix colors to create shades, using a base color, and then adding white and black. He found this a little more tricky but gave it a good try. He also then decided to try and find the lightest and darkest colors in the set, and one in-between.
2 year old baby sis was able to join in, although she opted for more of a gothic palette.
Big bro also decided to experiment if he could combine different colors on the same paint chip to show shading.
We left the paint chips to dry and then simply removed the masking tape. A little of the watercolor paper did lift off with the tape but not much at all.
As you can see they turned out pretty cool! I love how clear the different shades turned out.
For the ones where my son chose to show shades but using different colors it also worked really well. He was able to describe the colors he chose and how it made darker and lighter shades on his paint chip.
We are going to punch a hole in these to make a color shades booklet to have in our play room. I'm sure it will get lot of use by both kids, and of course is extra special to them because they made it!
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