My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades...

Inspiration for this lesson comes from  these 2 posts at Fine Lines, here and here.


Tints!  Shades!  Mixing paint!  Monochromatic still life painting!  I loved the simplicity of Ms. Christie's lesson, and wanted the Sm'Arties to get in on it.

But first, a little homework from last time:

Their homework was to use one of Catherine Horvath's pictures as inspiration for another piece of artwork.  Aren't these pretty?

Now, on to tints and shades!  We defined "tint" and "shade" and painted color strips using only one color of tempura, plus black and white.

Then we defined "monochromatic," and using only our single colors plus black and white, painted a still life of our water cups.  I painted along so I could demonstrate how simply I was putting down the paint, how streaky the color could be, finding the light source and putting in a shadow.

Love how she interpreted the "shadow" as lighter than the table.  It looks more like a reflection, doesn't it?

The boys pointed out that not only was her picture monochromatic; she and her picture were monochromatic, except for that punch of her green bracelet.

One more note from our previous time.  I made a cell model for Science Geeks, too!  I based my design on a Find It game.  (Crispy introduced this game to us - it is addictive!  One of those may make it to our house this Christmas - don't tell!)  Mine was made in an empty mayo jar,  and contained organelles you had to search for, turning to move aside the cytoplasm (cut up drinking straws).  Let's see:  I can see the green nucleus and the yellow lysosome, and orange endoplasmic reticulum.  The gold lightbulb and the stamp...cannot recall what they are, and am not going to pull out Earthgirl's folder to find out.  Mama's perogative.