At Penn Treaty, we started off class with a demonstration of making prints of a leaf using a variety of colors, which led to an introduction of the color wheel. We went into full details on not only the definition but which colors are primary, secondary, and tertiary through a demonstration of mixing the paint so they could see a transition to the next set of colors and their placement on the color wheel. Next, we talked about how mixing complementary colors would cancel each other out creating a neutral color or brown. We showed them which colors complement each other through a demo. Finally, we used the gray scale as an example to explain how tints and shades work when adding white lightens up a color and adding black would darkens it up.
The students had the option of painting a fall theme image using cotton ball or a paint brush or do some prints of a leaf. We started them off using tempera paint for this project so they could dabble and explore and eventually, transition into using acrylic paint for a mural at the end. I would like to take a moment to talk about the conversation I had with one of the students because he took the time to show me multiple sketch books of his drawings and a lot of them were really good. The thing that was most impressed with was the way he described the back story of each character and what his motivation was to create them. I also showed him my childhood drawings and first ever art kit from my mother. I told him a story about how my mom thought I was tracing characters until she saw me drawing one and brought me the art kit from Atlantic City. The reason why this stands out to me is because this was an opportunity for me to not only mentor and encourage him to keep making art but to make a difference in life as a whole.