Nora Heysen   The Cedars 1911-1933  
  London 1934-1937
 
 
Education Material: Year 9-10 Art   The Chalet 1947-present  
The War 1943-1946  
Home
  Sydney 1938-1942
   

Colour Counting: A look at tones and shades

This activity relates to the National Profiles, Level 5, The Arts.

Lead up work

Students should complete tone and shade graphs using black and white to illustrate how tones and shades can change with the addition of white and black.

Activity

Refer students to Nora Heysen’s paintings;

Freesias, 1985
Flowers in a Delft Vase, c.1946
Spring Light, c.1938

Arrange students in groups of three or four. Ask each group to closely study one of the paintings to discuss how many different greens there are in the painting, how many different blues, how many different pinks and how many yellows.

Practical

Ask students to rule up a bar, 5cms high and divided into 10x2 or 3cm sections.

Paint one square in a pure primary colour and add white paint in equal amounts until the final square is white.

The aim of the exercise is that the first square will be pure colour, square five will be half pure colour and half white, the final square will be white.

Repeat this exercise with black.

Discuss with students how a pink object in a painting will not be a flat uniform pink (or blue or green). Tones and shades add volume to flat shapes on a canvas.

Level 5, National Profiles, The Arts

This suggested activity relates to Level 5 of the National Profiles, The Arts.

A student

  • Uses starting points such as observation, personal experience and research to express ideas and feelings
  • Makes visual art works by organising the elements and using appropriate processes, skills, and techniques
  • Analyses the works of artists by referring to and describing specific features, effects and techniques and using descriptive language and terminology to support this analysis
  • Discusses and understands the characteristics of visual art works made within a particular culture and in a particular historical period, and uses this knowledge in art activities