Language and Colour: Shade Mixing Challenge

This task highlights the important relationship between language and colour, and the benefits of using creative names to describe shades to help recall and mood building.

I have gathered 24 of the quirkiest paint colour names available on the market, and your students will have the task of imagining the colour that those names describe and painting out a swatch to match.

There is no right or wrong answer here, this is all about interpretation. During the task you might discuss how our own personal experiences, memories, culture and upbringing might effect the associations we make with certain words and colours.After painting their swatches, you can share the “answers” sheet and let your students see how close they were to mixing the original colours.

Later, your students should develop some of their own swatches and give them appropriately imaginative names. These could be random, or linked to a wider project theme. For example, a student who was recently using Alice in Wonderland as a starting point for a textiles project gave her colours names like “Mr Rabbit” and “Tea Party”.

A lovely task that slots into many subjects such as textiles and surface pattern, painting and colour theory. I would recommend 45 mins to an hour for this session, but it could take longer depending on how many swatches you ask your students to paint.

Hope you find this resource helpful!
Best wishes,
Hannah