Yellow + blue = green

I took a nap this afternoon and ended up staying up way late to make the sample for tomorrow's project in arts and crafts at Juvenile Hall.

Last week I introduced the boys to watercolor pencils figuring the things I'm addicted to are probably healthier than what they choose -- and so maybe they'll reconsider their choices. At any rate, tomorrow we'll pick up where we left off with a second opportunity to try out watercolor pencils.

I also want to show the boys how artists make use of tape to make crisp edges. And we'll look at some very basic notions of color mixing. Very few boys in Juvenile Hall can name the primary colors and most do not know which of those to mix to create the secondary colors, orange, purple and green.

To make it more fun -- and gain more cooperation -- I decided to do some color blocking. They can tape off designs or random sections (the first part, how artists use tape) and then they can use their watercolor pencils as they are or to mix some new colors.

This project took me about 15 minutes. It will take them a full hour. It always amazes me how their sense of time is so different from mine!