CREATIVE PROMPT

JUST ONE COLOR

The creative prompts in this book are designed to get the artistic energy flowing for you and the kids in your life. Don’t worry about creating a complete work of art with these exercises; just go for it without worries or fear!

This creative prompt demonstrates how a single color can feature various shades or values. A color’s value defines its lightness or darkness. Most color value charts start with the lightest value and work their way up to the darkest. Here, you will do the opposite: Start with one dark or bright color and use white to decrease the value of the color. Kids will learn the various shades they can create by adding more white paint to a color, making it lighter and lighter each time they make a mark on their paper.

Have kids set up their creative space by covering their work surface with a sheet of wax paper or a vinyl tablecloth and laying a piece of scrap paper nearby. Next, have them choose just one paint color. Squirt separate puddles of color and white paint on a paint palette or paper plate.

With a paintbrush in hand, have your child make the first mark on the paper with just the paint color, without adding any white. That mark will show the color’s darkest or brightest value.

Next, have your child add a bit of white to the color, then progressively more, making a different mark on the paper each time white is added. The last mark added to the paper will be the lightest color or value.