Of Mice and Color
Mr. Johnson’s elementary art classes (kindergarten, first and second grade) have been hard at work on their first art project. Their first project was based on the book Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh. It is a story about three mice that explore the magic of color and have surprising results. For this project, students drew three mice and then colored them in either cool or warm colors. A background of a neutral color was added. The technique that we used to show texture is antiquing so the students had to layer on the nine different shades in each family. This has to be very thick or the designs and colors will disappear when they are painted over with black paint. The black paint is then dobbed off leaving them to look old, thus the name antiquing. For presentation the students then matted their artwork. The students studied the following design elements of Art: Color (cool – warm - neutral) and Texture (antiquing.) The mice artwork may be viewed in the new addition of the grade school.
