How to Teach Children Shading and Blending Colors

The technique of shading is very important to a young artist and can be taught as early as kindergarten. I teach my kindergartners how to shade and blend during my bowling thematic unit to "make the pins look more real." Even the kids with fine motor issues learn to shade and blend the bowling pins and ball during this unit. Then they can use this skill in all of their drawings for the rest of the year. Here are some tips for teaching the shading and blending exercise.

Instructions

1. 

   Start with a simple picture of some bowling pins and explain to the kids that if the sun is on one side, the far side of the pins will appear darker.

2. 

   Show the kids how to get three different shades out of one crayon. If you press light you get light blue; if you press medium you get regular blue and if you press hard you get dark blue. Have them color the far side of the pin dark blue, the middle medium and the close side light blue.

3. 

   Teach them how to blend the colors together. I tell them to use a medium or light color until they can't tell where the dark ends and the medium begins.

4. 

   Have them color a sunset in the background, which teaches them even more blending skills.

5. 

   Have them draw moon shapes in the ball to show them where the dark, medium and light areas are.

6. 

   Have them switch the side that the sun is on so that they can learn to shade from either side. Give them sheets that contain just pins to reinforce shading.

Resources

• Rock and Roll Kindergarten