Painting with soft pastels on black paper makes a beautiful image. It also comes with its share of challenges, which Third Graders at Willow Creek Academy discussed with Mentor Artist Suzanne Joyal as they prepared to add color to their poetry illustrations. Students contemplated words like self-control and restraint before they began to draw. They talked about using multiple colors to create richer images, and reflected on their knowledge of color mixing (soft pastels really are like paint, and it is just as easy to blend yellow and blue to make green). We again brainstormed on our design choices:
“What color is featured in my poem?”
“How will I show that?”
“What colors will add contrast to make my featured color POP?”