18. The Color Star – Foundations B

by | Jan 7, 2026 | Lessons > Grades 3 - 5 | 0 comments

Color

Each lesson Plan focuses primarily on one of the 4 Cornerstones of Art:
Drawing | Painting | Color | Style

OVERVIEW

Students will use a printed work-page to create a modified and expanded color wheel model. Our Color Star model applies the actual pigments that we use to the color wheel, and makes much more sense to artists than general color theory models. This is a great learning tool.

Grades 3 – 5

Week of January 12 – 16

1 Hour & 45 Minutes

Student Work

Lesson At A Glance

A brief overview of each step. Buttons jump to each section for detailed information.

1.Warmup
10 Minutes – Divide sketch book paper into 4 parts. In one part, artist’s choice in alike color oil pastels (warms or cools). Go over rules.
2. DEMO

15 Min – The Color Star

3. Set Up
5 Min – Set Up
4. Color Star

22 Min – Paint color star

5. Paint & Points

47 Min -Paint color star & Discuss teacher talk

6. Clean Up

5 Min – Everyone helps

READY, SET, GO!
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SCROLL & TEACH

LESSONPLAN

Each section is a different color. Read over once and then you can SCROLL & TEACH using any device you like. It’s designed to work best with your phone.

STEP 1. Warm up

Students will warmup with Artists' Choice
 
10 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how to stretch their creative muscles using color

M A T E R I A L S

  • 14″ x 17″ Sketch Paper
  • Oil Pastels
All materials are suggestions and may be modified as you see fit. We have tried many items, and these seem to allow the most versatility for the cost

1.1 draw

Students should get out their large sketch pad and oil pastels. They need a page that is divided into 4 smaller areas, so take a pencil and draw a line down the middle and across the middle, like a window.

In one of the areas, draw anything you like but color it with all the bright warm colors OR all the bright cool colors. Save the other areas for another day. As they work, talk about the 4 rules to review them… with a twist! (see the teacher talk below about making a mistake).

1.2 review

Tap to open a viewer so you can display the rules graphic, or use the printable version below.
Review the class rules.

Each rule is explained here. This is important because our rules are kind of different; maybe even weird (but awesome!).

Begin by asking if anyone can say the first rule (1. not too many rules!). Then try to get the other 3 rules, in no particular order, and correct the wording if needed. You can finish by displaying them or printing out the poster below.

1.3 Print

Poster

Class Rules

A copy paper sized poster to print and display.

PRINT

1 Page – Opens in new window

Open PDF

1.4 inform

Explain that the instructions are important for this project.
“Today, we are going to work on something that has a right way and a wrong way to do it. That means that you might make a mistake. It’s ok to make mistakes. Our 3rd rule is a little joke, and really means that in making artwork, you never waste your time when you do something you don’t like. A real mistake is something we try to prevent, but sometimes it just happens. If you do make a mistake today, just be ok with it, because I make mistakes too. We all do. Ask for help, and together we will do whatever we can to fix it – and be happy!”
Teacher Talk

Read verbatim or paraphrase

Advanced Student Lesson
CREATIONS - tap here to open

Our Creations lessons are for students who have completed the two years of Foundations and are ready to begin using all that they have learned to create new work. These more challenging versions of the same concepts and techniques are easily taught along-side students in the Foundations course. This allows for excellent review, and is encouraging for students to see progress from each viewpoint.

Use the Student Instructions printout below to distribute to your Creations students. Tap the image to open the PDF in a new window.

Line and Color Painting: Week 2

Overview: Advanced 3rd and 4th year students should review or get a new handout of the 6 Principles (next step). Choose any reference, from the prints above, or from other sources. Any work may be done as artists’ choice in oil pastels OR acrylic paints with the following parameters:

  1. Must be from photo reference or life, but the subject is Artists’ Choice. View the Pinterest board for inspiration.
  2. Must use line as a primary element.
  3. 3 – 5 thumbnails (very small 2″ or less) must be produced with written notes about first 3 Principles of Design and which thumbnails are showing each of them best.
  4. Should be at least 9 inches on shortest side.

If working in acrylics, the work should be done on canvas, as large as the student would like. This painting will be worked on for 2 weeks because the color star is next week for Foundations, and advanced students have already done this.

Print

Tap images to open Creations Student Instructions and Reference Materials in new windows

READY, SET, GO!
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STEP 2. D E M O

Students will watch a demo of the color wheel
 
15 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how their pigments fit into a color wheel model

M A T E R I A L S

  • Acrylic paints
  • Brush – small/medium
  • Palette pad
  • Water container
  • Smocks
  • Paper towels
Brushes should be nylon for springiness and durability. Round brushes are the most versatile.

Paint pigment list:

  • Napthol or Pyrrol Red
  • Hansa or Light Yellow
  • Pthalo Green (blue shade)
  • Cyan or Cerulean Blue
  • Ultramarine Blue
  • Dioxazine Purple
  • Magenta
  • Burnt Umber
  • Raw Sienna

2.1 Print

Journal

Color Star

Print on CARD STOCK paper and make enough for each student to have one

Hand out the Color Journal prints. Make sure every student understands that this is theirs to create and keep in their folder or binder.

PRINT

1 Page – Opens in new window

Open PDF

2.2 DEMO

DEMO color star to students.

Please learn the demo by watching the video. This week’s demo is ok to show, but has more teacher information than usual, so it’s longer than it needs to be for students. It will be best to do the demo yourself, which is always more interesting to watch.

The class should gather around and watch as you demonstrate how to fill in the color star. During the demo, fill about 3 areas, and make the following points:

  1. Do all of the colors one at a time, cleaning the brush well between them. All of the tube colors are labeled with a black banner, and will be used right out of the tube. The grey-labeled colors, and the smaller colors in-between, will need to be mixed. Usually the mixes are pretty easy and need about same amount of the two colors used to make it. The two browns in the center can be done last. There are a few hard-to-make colors that have formulas for you shown in the boxes with arrows.
  2. Begin with Violet and the rest of the purples. Then move down, doing Ultramarine next. There are numbers to follow that make it easier for mixing and not wasting paints.
  3. Use small amounts of paint. Spreading paint thin is much better than having thick paint. Get more if you need it though, and/or add a small amount of water.
  4. Use water to thin the paint some, so that it is not full strength and shows the color well. Cool colors are dark. Purple, Pthalo green, (pronounced “thaylow”) and Ultramarine are the really dark pigments, so these will need just a bit more water than the others, and are indicated with a star. Be careful to not make the colors light though. This is not watercolor. You just want to see the brilliance of the pigment and if it is thick, it will be too dark. Spread the darker cool colors really thin by wiping excess paint off your brush onto a paper towel.
  5. Do not add white to the colors. If it’s too dark, use a bit of water.
  6. Use a smaller brush with a nice point, and turn it or the paper to get a nice edge and into all the corners. Be neat and don’t cover up the labels.
  7. If the paint is dark or you’re getting either globs or dry-brush effect, add water. If it’s too light and pastel, add more paint.

If you have grades 6 and up, show how to fill each area as a light-to-dark gradient, using a little more water to make an area fade lighter. It doesn’t matter where the dark part is or the light part, just that there is at least some amount of value change. This will show the pigment range which is a better reference. Younger students should not be asked to do this, and even some of the older ones may have trouble, so make it optional, and keep the stress out of it. It’s even ok to try just a few areas with gradients, and some without.

How to use the Art Instructor Color Star. 

Tap the 4 arrows icon to enlarge the video to full screen.

Review the demo video and demonstrate to your students. (The Art Instructor was formerly, ArtSquish).

TIPS
If you have more than 10 people to show the demo to, have them make a close ring of seated students, surrounded by a ring of standing ones.

You can continue going around the color star for each class demo you make, adding 3 more areas for each class.

READY, SET, GO!
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STEP 3. Set Up

Students will set up for painting with acrylics.
 
5 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how to set up their work area for painting with acrylics.

M A T E R I A L S

  • Acrylic paints
  • Brush – small/medium
  • Palette pad
  • Water container
  • Smocks
  • Paper towels
  • Color Journals
Brushes should be nylon for springiness and durability. Round brushes are the most versatile.

Paint pigment list:

  • Napthol or Pyrrol Red
  • Hansa or Light Yellow
  • Pthalo Green (blue shade)
  • Cyan or Cerulean Blue
  • Ultramarine Blue
  • Dioxazine Purple
  • Magenta
  • Burnt Umber
  • Raw Sienna

3.1 arrange

Assist students with getting all their supplies together.

Once students have collected and laid out all their supplies, they can start prepping their palette pad. For this painting activity, white acrylic paint will not be used so it doesn’t even need to be out on the table. Students are only painting in small areas today so they don’t need to put out a lot of paint. Start with about half a chocolate chip of a color and if they need more, they can get more paint out. There are some formulas, and they can make too much paint if the chips are sized like regular chocolate chips. Students may want to use smaller chips for these special sections today.

READY, SET, GO!
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STEP 4. Color Star

Students will begin to fill in their color star
 
22 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how their pigments are arranged in a color wheel model.

M A T E R I A L S

  • Acrylic paints
  • Brushes
  • Palette pad
  • Water container
  • Smocks
  • Paper towels
  • Color Stars

4.1 paint

Help students begin the color star using their violet tube.

Be sure all names are at the top of the paper!

Once the color stars are drying on the drying rack, they will all look the same and it will be difficult to return each paper to the correct person.

The students should be careful to follow the numbers in order and save some of each color for mixing with other ones. This makes it easier to do and eliminates most of the duplicate color mixing.

If dividing into two 52-minute sessions: Part one ends after 20 minutes with a couple of minutes left for cleanup, and the next session is all set-up and finishing the color star.

READY, SET, GO!
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STEP 5. Paints & Points

Students will finish their color star and discuss colors
 
47 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know how their pigments are arranged in a color wheel model.

M A T E R I A L S

  • Acrylic paints
  • Brushes
  • Palette pad
  • Water container
  • Smocks
  • Paper towels
  • Color Stars

5.1 teach

Read the points below after everyone has settled into the routine and no longer needs much help.
“Colors are very complex. For instance, we have 2 kinds of blues, not one. We should have a different name for each, but we refer to them both as blue. There are thousands of different shades, but color wheels only show about 6 to 8 of them. People are always trying to come up with a system to make color seem easier. Systems are helpful and the color wheel has been the most widely used and helpful system than any other. Our Star is more targeted to actual pigments that we use, than most other systems, and it will really be a great tool to have. Make sure you keep it! Remember this though, while tools help us, practicing by using color and mixing is even more important, for artists to improve their understanding of color.

As you work on your star, you’ll notice that each of the main color families have 3 versions, and that the points of the star are split into 2 variations of that family.”

Teacher Talk

Read verbatim or paraphrase

READY, SET, GO!
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STEP 6. Clean Up

Everyone helps
 
5 Minutes

LEARNING TARGETS

Students know the importance of cleaning up.

M A T E R I A L S

  • Paper Towels
  • Cleaning wipes
  • Sink
  • Waste baskets
  • Well-lit spot for photos
  • Camera or phone-camera

6.1 clean

Students clean up their work area.

  • Wash hands
  • Put art supplies away
  • Wipe tables & toss trash
  • Remove any smocks (last)
  • Check for items on floors and tables

6.2 photo

Try to get photos of your student’s artwork. Find a good spot for quick lighting without highlights or shadows from your hands and device. Ideally in-between two strong lights on each side.

OBJECTIVES

  • Practice and improvement in managing acrylic paints
  • Understanding how colors relate to each other
  • Accomplishment in making a very important tool
  • Fulfillment by respect from you, the teacher

TROUBLESPOTS

Wrong Place – If a student puts the wrong paint in an area you can help fix it. First carefully wipe excess paint off with a paper towel. Then let it dry or use a blow dryer. Get out some white paint and use it to cover the mistake area. While it dries, skip that section and go to the next logical section. Come back at the end to finish, by painting over the white.

Thick paints – The cool colors especially, are so dark out of the tube, that you can’t tell what the color actually looks like. There are 2 instructions on the Color Star printout that address this. 1) Dipping the brush in water and mixing that bit of water into the paint will thin it out some. 2) Wiping the brush on a paper towel first will remove some paint, allowing it to go onto the paper thinner. However, you can get too much water, and have a light version of the color, which is not desirable either.

Hard to mix colors – There are 4 colors indicated with some formulas to address this. These are hard to get a good happy medium (pardon the pun), because one of the pigments used is so much stronger than the other one. The yellows are the most difficult of these. The bright yellow is pure tube color and very intense (not very suitable for using without mixing with other colors). The deep yellow next to it is almost a school bus yellow, but far enough away from yellow-orange that you don’t confuse it with that tertiary. The center yellow is in-between these two, so it will be a strong canary yellow.

The Bright Green is mostly yellow, because Pthalo Green is very blueish and extremely powerful. Yellow-green is also hard to make unless you clean your brush and use almost all yellow with a dab of the bright green.

Painting over the words – Be careful about the labels. The Color Star makes a better tool if you can read them!

ART WORDS

Gradient – When a color gradually changes from one color to another, or from dark to light.

Tint –  Traditional paint charts show white mixed into colors and these are called tints. Some colors shift hue when white is added, so other colors have to help compensate. Tints are therefore not as reliable a tool as they sound.

Shade – Another traditional term, a shade of a color is made by adding black. We do not encourage the use of this model. Ok, we actively discourage the use of this model! There are several problems. One trouble with this method is that black pigments are made in many different ways. When mixed with colors they are completely unpredictable to new artists. Many blacks will turn colors greenish. The biggest problem though, is how blacks make colors look dirty. Here’s a trivia question: “what group of painters is the most universally liked?” Answer: “The impressionists”. This group of artists never used black to make shades and shadow colors. Instead, they used opposites, which produce much more vibrant and realistic shadows and darker colors.

In two weeks we will do the opposites color journal.

Pigment –  When certain chemicals are mixed and manipulated, often by heating, and this will produce a substance that can be turned into paint. The substance is called a pigment. Adding pigments to oil produces oil paint. Adding to clear acrylic medium produces acrylic paint.

A single-pigment color means that only one pigment is added to the medium. These paints are usually more intense, and therefore a little harder to master. However, the reward is a much better understanding of color and much greater range and versatility than tubes of paint that have been pre-mixed with more than one pigment.

The single-pigment colors are seldom usable straight out of the tube, which is confusing for young artists. That’s why our 4th rule is, “mix your colors”, or “no tube colors”. We try to refer to them as pigments, instead of colors, to differentiate.

Today’s Color Star uses all of the pigments in addition to mixed colors, because that is the best way to understand the full range of the color palette we use.

 

There is no artist profile today. We want to focus on our Color Star.

 

CLASSROOM

PREP

Print enough Color Star PDFs for each student. Practice ahead of time so you fully understand the project.

What your room needs

Here are your printable lists and room prep instructions.

PRINT

Opens in new window

Open PDF

CLASSROOM

MATERIALS

  • Water container
  • Paper towels
  • Smocks
  • Color Star PDF

STUDENT’S

MATERIALS

  • 14″ x 17″ Sketch Paper
  • 2B Pencil
  • White erasers
  • Oil pastels
  • Blender sticks (stumps)
  • Sandpaper boards (to clean blenders)
  • Acrylic paints
  • Brushes
  • Palette Pad

PREVIEW

Week 22: Clay Sculptures and Drawing

 

Week 23: Opposites Color Journal

Our Color Journals continue with what might be the most important one we do in our full two years of Foundations. Each pigment in the color palette is matched with an opposite pigment or mix of two pigments, that produces the most neutral color possible. First the opposites create shadow colors of each pigment, and then they mix to a full neutral. We create 2 rich blacks, several grays, and 2 browns. Each mix is also used with white to create a lighter version.