9th Grade — Elements & Principles of Design: Color

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

Look at the "Color" section of our reference chart. Find one object in the room that shows this concept.

🎯 Today's Big Question

What is color, and how do designers use it on purpose?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Define color using the class Elements & Principles of Art reference chart.
Identify color in at least 2 real design/art examples.
Create a small piece using only a chosen color scheme (e.g. warm, cool, or complementary) to set a mood.

🧰 What You'll Need

Elements & Principles of Art reference chart (posted/handout)
Drawing paper
Pencils, erasers
Colored pencils, markers, or crayons
Rulers

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Understanding Color

Do Now (5 min): find one object in the room that shows today's concept.
Mini-lesson (10 min): define color using the reference chart and 2-3 real examples.
Guided sketch (10 min): as a class, sketch a quick shared example showing color. Independent studio time, part 1 (18 min): begin your own paper piece exploring color.
Quick check-in (2 min): show a neighbor where you're starting.

Day 2: Finishing & Critique

Do Now (5 min): explain color in your own words, no notes. Studio time, part 2 (25 min): finish your paper piece, applying color intentionally throughout.
Self-critique (3 min): before posting your work, write your own "I notice / I wonder" sentence about it.
Gallery walk & peer feedback (10 min): post finished work; using the "I notice / I wonder" protocol, leave one specific sticky note on a classmate's piece naming exactly how they used color, not just a compliment.
Written artist statement (5 min): 1-2 sentences on how you used color, and whether the feedback you received matched your own self-critique.

🖨️ Print Your Handout

Word, picture, and definition for today's vocabulary, plus a place to write and draw. Available in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese.

Day 1: EN · ES · FR · AR · ZH
Day 2: EN · ES · FR · AR · ZH

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

Day 1

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

Day 2

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

📚 Key Words

Color: Colors come from the 3 primaries plus black and white, and have hue, value, and intensity.
Composition: The overall arrangement of elements and principles within a piece of design or art.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Finished piece scored with a simple rubric: correctly demonstrates color, shows effort/craftsmanship, and includes the 1-2 sentence artist statement.

Exit Ticket: In 1-2 sentences, explain how your piece uses color on purpose.

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📤 How You Submit This — For Credit

Your physical projects don't stay in the classroom past the day you finish them -- you're responsible for your own completed work, the same way you'd be responsible for it in any job. The one exception is your class notebook: it has its own designated spot in the room (ask your teacher exactly where), and most students leave it there day to day -- but it's yours, so if you'd rather keep it with you or bring it home to study from, that's your call. Either way, always know where your own notebook actually is. Before a finished physical piece leaves your hands for good: ask your teacher for one of the classroom cameras, photograph your finished (or in-progress) work, then plug that camera's SD card into a classroom computer and upload the photo into your portfolio folder. That uploaded photo, with a short caption, IS your submission for credit -- the photo is what gets kept and graded, not the physical piece.

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week (e.g. every Friday, or your class's last meeting of the week), photograph or save your best finished or in-progress piece from that week into your portfolio folder (a physical folder for now, or a Google Drive folder once one is set up) with a 1-2 sentence caption: what it is, and one skill it shows. In Grade 10 this becomes your Google Sites portfolio -- keep adding to it weekly from here on so you're not trying to reconstruct a whole semester of work at the end.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “Elements & Principles of Design: Color.” This project asked: “What is color, and how do designers use it on purpose?” I used Color by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🎓 ACP Exam Prep

This lesson connects to the Photoshop Adobe Certified Professional exam: Domain 1: Working in the Design Industry

🔗 Want to Learn More?

Elements & Principles of Art reference chart (Project ARTiculate)

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same wavelength-and-perception science your Physics or Biology class covers when explaining how the eye sees color.

Career Connection: Color theory is tested on the ACP exam and central to Fashion Design and Illustration alike.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Illustrate a science concept (photosynthesis, the water cycle) using a deliberate, meaningful color palette instead of default colors. Start here: pick three specific colors in the Swatches panel and write down why each one fits the concept before you start drawing.
Design a promotional flyer for a real school club using color psychology to match the club's personality. Start here: list the club's personality in three adjectives, then match each one to a specific color before you open Illustrator.