Warm and Cool Hands-- Third Grade Art

Third grade used warm and cool colors and pattern to create these tempera paintings. The students viewed artwork by native people and how their hand print was not only a record of who they were or where they had traveled, but also a way to sign their art. The students each used their hand prints to sign their paintings.

Notice how the warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) advance and the cool colors (blue, green, and violet) recede? This color effect creates an optical illusion. The boys and girls loved this trick of the eye! The boys and girls also learned how to "let their paintbrush do the work" while working with the cake tempera, a new medium for the third graders.