Fourth graders began this project by creating their own color wheels. We learned about the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, by mixing them ourselves. These paint swatches were cut into pizza slices and arranged to create the color wheel.
Then students completed an exercise where they had to identify the three primary, secondary, and tertiary colors in Wayne Thiebaud’s* iconic painting of gumball machines.
Finally, students returned to their color swatches and used them once again to create an image based off of Wayne Thiebaud’s paintings. They could choose to either make a gumball machine or a series of ice cream cones, combining cut paper with oil pastels.
*Wayne Thiebaud is a west coast painter best known for his colorful images of sweet treats. These paintings utilize a technique called impasto, in which the paint is applied very thickly.
