6th Grade Silhouette Paintings

Last year, I introduced a lesson about analogous colors and blending paint to my 6th grade students. It was very successful, and the students loved it! So of course I taught the lesson again this year. The students started by choosing two colors on the color wheel that they could blend together to make an array of analogous colors. Then, they painted one edge of their page with the lighter color, and slowly added their second color to their paint until the other edge of the paper was entirely the second color. The paint mixing was fun, and most of the students were successful. They enjoyed it! Then, I showed the students some photographs taken at sunset, where the subjects of the photos are silhouettes. We briefly discussed the science behind aiming a camera toward a light source, and how silhouettes are photographed. Then, the students used their iPads to look up ideas for silhouettes, and sketched out their final ideas on their analogous colored painting. They used a combination of black paint and black sharpies to complete the silhouettes. Here are some results from this year's students.