Light and Color

We have officially entered the world of color!

This photo is courtesy of one of my seniors in our Art One course. 

I'll explain how she made it in a moment.

Much of this introductory lesson is adapted from Exploring Visual Design.
Through our first activity, I attempted to emphasize the importance of color. With the desks in groups of four, I placed a black and white photocopy of an image at each set of tables and asked the group to discuss what was in the image, what the story might be and what the mood or emotion is that the artist is trying to convey.
After a few minutes of discussion, I asked for them to make predictions: What color would each item be? How might the story change?
Then I gave students the color copy and they compared. I loved hearing the ohhhs and ahhhs. Color made a huge difference?

But where does it come from? What is it?
I enlisted the help of someone a little more qualified:

From the video we learned about light, white light and the reflection and absorption of color. We briefly talked about neutrals as well.
Next, we played around with light and the reflection of light and color. I borrowed some gels from the drama teacher and allowed students to use the camera on their phones plus the filters to see what happens when certain colors are filtered out.

This doesn't seem like much, but the blue is greatly intensified. Plus, extra kudos for composition.

The wizard was part of our drama production last year. Looks menacing with an extra layer of green!

Same subtlety as the blue and interesting composition.

Probably one of my favorites. Great composition.
Seems like everyone had fun, just hope students actually learned something.