Throughout elementary school we talk a lot about color theory- how to mix colors, how to change their value, and how they interact with each other in art. A monochromatic color scheme uses different values of one color. Students mixed white or black with a chosen color to make tints and shades. They were encouraged to mix 3-4 tints and 3-4 shades to make their paintings more interesting.
Movement in art is how an artist uses shape, line, and space to make a viewer's eye travel around an artwork. Kennedy fourth graders used shape and line to draw a movement design they would paint. Their lines and shapes could show movement that was jagged, bumpy, gelatinous... it was up to them!
After painting we added more movement to these works by changing the physical space they take up. Each student cut their paintings into strips and then glued the strips to have one, two, or three bumps that were not flat. We talked about making the location of the bumps match value changes in the paintings.
Between the illusion of the movement lines and the actual wavy action of the paper these works gave students a good beginning understanding of motion in art.