I don’t know about you, but sometimes I’ll see a color and think “That would probably taste really good.”

Well today we are going to learn about colors, but also end up with something tasty to eat. But what are colors? Why are there so many? What can we learn about how artists use colors? Let’s dive in and see.

What is color?

Color is caused by different qualities of light reflected or emitted by an object. To see color, you have to have light. When light shines on an object some colors bounce off the object and others are absorbed by it. Our eyes only see the colors that are bounced off or reflected. So when we look at a banana, our eyes are seeing those yellow light waves bouncing off of the yellow banana.

Why are there so many colors in the rainbow?

When we look at a rainbow, we are seeing additive color. The colors in the wavelengths of light combine to pure white light. Our eyes aren’t quite that fast and we see those colors: red, blue, yellow, violet, green.

But what about when we are mixing paints for a painting?

When we mix paint, we are using a subtractive method—We are subtracting light. We can start with the primary colors—Red, Yellow, Blue and create the other colors. If we mix all of those colors we are going to get a dark color.

Most people organize colors like this:

• Primary —Red, Yellow, Blue | Mix two different colors to create a secondary color.

• Secondary—Purple, Orange, Green,

• Tertiary—Red Purple, Blue Purple, Yellow Green, Blue Green, Yellow Orange, Red Orange | When you mix a primary with a secondary you get a tertiary color—some colors have more or less of their primary color.
  

How do artists use colors to make art?

Artists might use colors in all sort of ways when they create a painting or a sculpture. Colors can talk about our emotions or personalities. They can create a feeling or mood in an art work as well. Some artist will pick a color and work with it exclusively. Let’s look at some of the ways to use color:

• Warm/Cool Colors: Colors can be warm or cool. Warm colors can be red, yellow, orange and Cool colors would blue, purple, green. Using these colors can show emotion like red for anger or blue for sadness, but can also set the scene for an environment. What colors would you use for a beach painting?

• Emotional Colors: Sometimes colors can be symbols for emotions. Red could be anger or love, purple can be important, and yellow could be excitement. An artist might use color to help the viewer read an artwork.

• Organizing Colors: Some colors look better together than others. Artists can organize colors in schemes. Some color schemes might be complimentary colors like Red and Green or Blue and Yellow—these are colors that are directly across from each other on the color wheel. Or maybe analogous colors that are three colors next to each other, like blue green, green, and yellow green.

Now that we know a little more about color,
let’s look at some art.

Today, we are going to look at sculptures by Michaelane Walsh (pictured above). These sculptures are made out of clay and were part of a larger installation of 50 Mickey Mouse ice cream sculptures to make up an American flag. Walsh uses color to show and celebrate diversity—differences and similarities—of people in America. Let’s take a closer look now:

• Let’s look and think about the sculpture—What are all the parts that we see? What do we think it is made of? Describe the textures and colors using adjectives.

• What does the sculpture depict? What sort of memories or emotions do you think of when you look at these sculptures?

We’ve been thinking about color a lot—
how about we combine our art project with a treat!

We are going to make our own version of the Michaelane Walsh art out of cupcakes. I made mine from scratch, but you should use what you have in the cupboard—these would be fun out of any kind of cake mix.

Supplies:

• Cake mix

• White / Vanilla / Cream Cheese Frosting

• Food dye / Natural dye / kool aid

• Jellybeans / M&M’s / etc.

• Cardboard or popsicle sticks

Steps:

1. With adult supervision, prepare your cupcake mix—follow the instructions carefully!

2. While your cupcakes are baking take a couple of bowls and put a little bit of white frosting in each. Using your food dyes, think about what colors your want to create. If you want to make pink, use one drop of red food coloring. Want a purple? Use a couple of drops for red and blue each. I made three colors for my cupcakes—Pink, Teal, and purple.

3. Once your cupcakes are out of the oven and cooled, we are going to assemble! Take three cupcakes. Using a knife, cut off a little of the cake on one side, making a flat side. Do this on two cupcakes—It will help the ‘ears’ fit on the head better.

4. Arrange your cupcakes—Place the ears on either side of the top of the head.

5. Looking at the picture, decorate your sculpture with two colors—remember we want this to look like a mickey mouse head.

6. Add the candy for the nose and eyes. If you had something like a gummy worm or twizzler, you could use that for the mouth, if not, a little bit of frosting on a knife will give you a nice smile.

7. Cut your cardboard to look like a popsicle stick or use one if you have it. Place it sticking out of your cupcake.

8. Enjoy! Send us your creations over social media for everyone to see! Tag us @lsumoa on Facebook and Instagram.

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