Coloring Advice

From kinder classes all the way through AP classes in high school, there is always a sense that I have to reiterate my advice on coloring. So often students add in their one layer of color and say, "I'm Done!" where I reply, "Nothing in this world is the exact color of a Crayon, you need to layer your colors." So I have plenty of examples around my room of what I expect of my students. I remind them, every day when the task is coloring, what my expectations are. My hope it they will eventually learn.

Obviously for my kinders, I am more concerned with completely coloring and building basic techniques, parallel strokes if possible, but as students age, I add more and more to their repertoire. When a young students fully understands my advice, I give them a tidbit of information so they can take it to the next level, and share their work with the class... then others begin to push their work too.

These are the techniques I teach. Keep in mind, one builds upon the last. So in the lower grades I may be happy with one or two of the beginning expectations, I expect more from my older students and these expectations appear in my rubric.

1. All over color
2. 2nd layer to cancel the first layer's texture
3. Layer color to "tune" it to a realistic tone
4. press harder with colors to create shadow, lighter for shines
5. Add highlights and shadows with color
6. Highlight with a warm color, shade with cool colors
7. Add textures
8. Add details

My only other "tidbit" is that I try to instill in my students to avoid the use of black in shadows. I tell them it deadens colors in general, and that most professional artists don't use much black at all. My story to them is that when I go to flea markets to hunt for treasures, I look at the shadows in the paintings. If there's black in the shadow, I know it's the work of an art student. If the shadow has color, like blue, or purple, I know it's a "real artist" that understand color theory. Though there are examples of people who use black very well, black in shadows is often a crutch, and professionals don't need to use it. 

This is a poster I made a few years ago that has also been helpful, but you can easily make your own by having kids make samples. They will have fun making the "bad" ones, but also learn quite a bit by making the "good" ones. It's helpful to have a discussion about what makes something good, and how can a poor example be improved.

Then walk around picking winning examples for your own poster.

If you have any tips or tricks, please post them below in the comments!

Midway through this video, a review of color pencils, the blogger actually does some good demonstrating of coloring techniques.