Colour Exercises
Our hands-on, experiential exercises introduce fundamental concepts for exploring colour in the 21st century. We don’t start with mixing paints! Instead, seeing and describing colours, recognizing how light and context impact how we perceive colours, and embracing colour as an essential part of our daily lives become the fundamental starting points. See our FAQ page for a discussion of our motivation and methodology (and note that we save mixing for the last set of exercises!!).
Colour Exercise Pathways
Pathways are organized into Clusters focused on a core colour concept.
Each cluster has a set of exercises designed to explore the core concept step-by-step.
Click on the exercise links below to go to the lesson plans for each exercise.
Jump-start Pathway
If you are new to colour, and want to see what the Colour Literacy Project has to offer, check out these Eye-opener exercises to jump-start you way into colour! They are all part of our colour exercise clusters shown below.
How many colours are in the rainbow? If your response is ‘seven’ - take a closer look!
The Character of a colour can be vivid, muted, pale or dark. Explore colour characters and expand your colour vocabulary!
Many colour studies begin with the colour wheel. We don’t! Jump into colour in 3-dimensions and expand how you see colour!
Build an orange cube (or use a uniform-coloured object) and notice how light affects the colours we see!
Do the colours match on both sides of this image? Explore why context is everything for colour!
Optical Mixing with Spinning Disks
Create unexpected mixtures using spinning disks!
Pathway One: Expanding from 2D to 3D
Cluster:
Hue Families
Describing Colours
Free Sort
Arranging Hue Families
Arranging Characters
Naming Colours in the Sorting Set
Cluster:
Colour Characters
Describing Colours
Household Sort
Character Associations
Odd One Out - Quiz
Hue Planes Model
Cluster:
Colours are All Around Us
Experiencing Colours
Surrounded by Colours
Scavenger Hunt
Colour Diary
Changing Colours of Nature
Pathway Two: Exploring Colour Perception
Cluster:
Lightness/Value and Chroma
Describing Colours
Achromatic vs Chromatic Sort
Lightness/Value Sort
Chroma Sort
Lightness Chroma Model
Cluster:
Colour Interactions
Perceiving Colours
Cluster:
Colour is Contextual
Perceiving Colours
Pathway Three: Comparing Mixing Processes
Cluster:
The Rainbow and Beyond
Perceiving Colours
Examining the Rainbow
Exploring the Spectrum
Afterimages
Non-Spectral Colours
Cluster:
Lights, Pigments, Eyes
Working with Colours
Simple Additive Mixing with Lights
Optical Mixing with Spinning Disks
Subtractively Mixing Opaque Media
Subtractively Mixing Transparent Media
Cluster:
Bringing it All Together
Working with Colours
Pathway Four: Exploring the Science of Colour
Cluster:
Properties of Light
Perceiving Colours
Supplemental Colour Exercises
These exercises are contributed by teachers at the post-secondary level.
Some exercises may be adapted for elementary and high school levels.
Click on exercises below to download.
Note: If you would like to contribute an exercise to be considered for the site
please click here for Word form and here for pdf.
Students prepare sequences of paint mixtures showing the intermediate colour steps that can be obtained from mixtures of various combinations of paints. The images are photographed and the teacher or student can then open the photographs in the program Image J and observe the mixing paths from various directions in CIE L*a*b* using the Color Inspector 3D plugin, wherever possible relating features of the three-dimensional mixing paths to the observed colour attributes.
LEVEL: Post Secondary, Advanced High School
CONTRIBUTOR: David Briggs
Students perform a hands-on ‘kitchen science’ experiment, where they prepare a natural pH indicator of red cabbage juice. They then test the acidities of various household substances, and document any colour change in the indicator that they notice. They write their results up using the scientific method, and further delve into the topic by writing a short essay on the fundamental principles of acids, bases, pH and indicators, which they can link back to their experiential kitchen science experiment
LEVEL: The pH Experiment is applicable to many levels.
CONTRIBUTOR: Robin Kingsburgh
This article by Saara Pyykkö describes how she transformed an MA-level experience-based course into an online version for Aalto University, Finland. She describes how a Colour Walk exercise was transformed for online learning, and also discusses useful teaching tools for the virtual environment. (Image credit: Task 4B, the sketch for the colour design, working process of Julia Lehto, MA student of textile design.)
LEVEL: Post Secondary, High School
CONTRIBUTOR: Saara Pyykkö
Note that our curriculum is a work in process, and we will be releasing new exercises in the months ahead. Please get in touch (via the CONTACT link below) if you would like to get involved in our curricular training. THANKS!
