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ART/ENGLISH

Colour glossary

Curriculum links

English National Curriculum
Art: 1c, 3a
English 2: Reading 5a, 9b
Literacy: NLS Year 6: Reference texts

Approximate time required: 1 hour

Resources needed

Per group:

2 sets of 15 different paint sample colour strips - usually available from DIY stores
Glossary cards from the Colour Glossary

Suggested organisation

Whole class for discussions and the game, then mixed ability groups.

Carrying out the activity

Discuss with the class the the use in the past of words for colours to describe or distinguish things. For example:

• Walk along the brown earth track up the hill.
• The sky is turning dark blue, as night is coming.
• Fetch me some of the herb with the dark green leaves.
• Put some wood on the fire, it is no longer glowing red.
• The children play a game in which they have to discover who has a sample of the same colour as they have. This is intended to generate and highlight the need for language that describes colours in a precise and technical way.

Distribute one paint sample colour strip to each pair of children so that somewhere in the room are two pairs each with the same sample. They must not allow other pairs to see what they have.

Give them a few minutes to choose one colour from their strip and discuss together how they would convey to someone (as if over the phone) the colour they have chosen.

Pick one pair to start, by describing to the rest of the class the colour they have chosen, without mentioning the code of the colour or the name, if it has one.
For example, they might say; 'This colour is a pale shade of red, but it has a blueish look to it'.

The pair who think they have the same colour strip can indicate by raising a hand and, when asked, can identify the strip by its code/name and guess which actual colour was chosen.

When the colour has been correctly identified by another pair of children, that pair choose a colour from their own strip to continue the game.

This game can continue as long as desired. The teacher reinforces the idea that special language is needed to convey specific colours, such as those on the children's colour strips.
Make a list of some of the additional words children have used to describe their colours in the game. For example, light, dark, shade, dull, bright, clear, murky, happy, sad, tint, tone, etc.

Distribute the Colour Glossary cards. Ask the children to read them carefully. They then discard the cards which have definitions they do not understand . Using the remaining cards, they order from 1-5, the top 5 most useful and frequently used words when describing colours in everyday language to other people.

Plenary

Compare the Top 5 lists from the groups to find out what the children have chosen and make a tally or chart by writing the words on a board with scores beside them. Groups that have kept cards that others have discarded can try to explain the vocabulary to the class, using their own words and any appropriate props.

The class now try to arrive at an agreed collective list of the "Top 5 Colour Words".

Collect other vocabulary, not already in the glossary, which has been used to identify the qualities or properties of colours during this activity (but not the names of colours) and make a wall display of them for class use, reference and spelling practice, eg. dull, vivid, pale, etc.

Explain to the children that agreed definitions of these words, plus many more, are vital to the colour industry, to ensure that precise colours are made to suit a wide range of customers.

Note: Children can see the primary ink colours by looking at the test sheet of a colour printer. Also, show children this photograph, printing out the primary colours.

Finally, children are shown the photograph below of an industrial colour-mixing machine used in industrial laboratories. They can be asked some of the following questions (answers are in the Background Information):

• What do you think the machine does?
• How do you think it works?
• How many years do you think these have been used?
• What do you think they did in industry before they had these machines?
• Do you think all colour-making companies will have these machines?

Background information

Companies and customers have to have a common understanding of the colours they want to discuss together and so special technical language is used.
Many of these words are descriptive (adjectives). There is also a need for companies to understand the materials they are working with, so naming words (nouns) like dye, ink, paint and pigment have to be commonly understood are used too.

Artists also use the same vocabulary but in a less technically precise way.

Hue, value and saturation (vividness of the colour) are the most important words for any colourist in industry for identifying any one particular colour. They are used to define a precise colour according to various three dimensional scales of identification, such as the Munsell Colour Tree.

Most major countries have colour identification systems, but they aren't interchangeable. There is a system of British Standard Colours, which meets the needs of science, art and industry.

Up until the 1950's colours were matched by eye, and by trial and error, but now more precise methods are available. Many of the modern systems involve computer technology.
Colour matching computers can be found in many DIY stores now to mix colour batches of paint for customers.
Automated colour-mixing: These machines automatically pipette (measure out) the required quantities of each ingredient into the mixing vessel. They are used in industrial laboratories to test new colour recipes and to test the quality of the colour recipes currently in use, to ensure a high quality for customers.

Each ingredient is connected to the mixing vessel via a narrow tube. These machines have only been used in industry in the last few years. Until then, scientists working in the laboratory manually pipetted the mixtures. In some smaller companies today, manual pipetting is still the means by which colour-mixing is carried out.

It is now common practice for colour manufacturers to give colours a code and only give it a name in order to attract customers.

Below are some specific definitions of terms used in the colour industry, which are not always used in the same way in everyday parlance. These are not all intended for use by the children but may help adults, if these words come up in discussion during colour related activities.

Additive colour - Red, green and blue lights projected onto a screen together produce white light.

Complementary - Pairs of coloured lights which added together in the right
colour amounts make white light, or pairs of pigments which mix together to make a brownish black. Also, the colours resulting from mixing two of the primary paint colours together.

Hue - Distinguishing one colour from another, although they are similar. For example, crimson, vermilion and pink are all hues of the colour red.

Saturation - The strength or vividness of a hue. His term is used by dyers to describe the purity of a colour. For example, red can increase in saturation from pale pink to vivid vermilion.

Spectrum - The coloured image formed when light is spread out when passed through a prism, producing the colours or of the rainbow.

Subtractive - The production of colours by mixing dyes or pigments. For
colour example, yellow, magenta and cyan printing inks (the primary subtractive colours) together produce brownish-black.

Extensions / links

Literacy
Challenge the children to compose a short anecdote on how a colour they have their chosen from a colour chart got its name.

English
Study more words used about colours in the activity Naming Paints

English
More able children can be challenged to explore definitions to more complex vocabulary used scientifically in the colour industry, such as those provided in the Background Information.