Color Theory, Hearts and a New Book for the Art Room

With February inching closer and closer I have to decide whether to do a Valentine theme art project.

 I don't acknowledge many holidays in the art room, but a while back I was given this cool book and I am thinking that now would be a good time to share it with you and my students.

Author Eric Telchin has taken over 3000 photographs of hearts he sees in his world around him. Some of them are published in his book, See a Heart, Give a Heart.

The possibilities for an art teacher to expand on this book are absolutely endless and I know many of you will think of ways to use it in your rooms.

I thought about taking the thought, "create a heart" and having students use what they know about color theory to make the first part of their HEART ART. This version has students drawing a one inch border and then using cake tempera to mix and make squares of analogous colors in a grid arrangement.

 This could be done at any grade level using whatever color theory you are teaching -- primary, secondary, warm/cool, etc.

Illustrating the use of analogous colors, this grid starts with yellow. The next square adds green to the yellow to make yellow-green. The next square is pure green, the next blue-green, the next blue, the next (starting row two) is purple, and so on .....

Then, using painted papers left over from another project (done long ago) kids cut out a heart and glue it on top of their painted grid. Voila!!

This one uses a photocopy of music score. First it was lightly painted with a thin wash. When dry three hearts were cut. You can see where little snips were cut around the large heart. The edges were curled by winding them around a pencil. The smaller hearts will get the same treatment.

This is such a fun idea to play around with. Actually, after reading the book, I found myself looking for heart shapes in nature any time I took a walk. It can get to be addicting!!