Category Archives: Easter

Easter Egg Decorating Project Can Teach Kids About Color

Educational Easter Egg Project Instructions:

1. Briefly explain to your students what primary and secondary colors are.

2. Take three clear glasses or plastic cups and fill them with water. Using food coloring, color one glass of water red, one blue, and the other yellow. (You will need about 20 drops of food coloring to make a bright color.) Reiterate to students that these are primary colors.

3. To demonstrate color mixing, have a student pour the primary colors (in equal parts) into another clear cup or glass; the three combined primary colors will create a dark brown/black hue. Explain to the students that colors mix together to make other colors.

4. Next, have a student mix equal part blue and yellow water to make green, red and yellow water to make orange, and red and blue water to make violet. Explain that orange, green and violet are secondary colors and are made by mixing primary colors.

5. By now you should have glasses of orange, violet, green, black, red, blue, and yellow water. These are the colors you will use to shade your Easter eggs.

6. Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to each cup of colored water.

7. Have students take turns dunking one cooled, hard boiled egg into each cup. (It is easiest to place eggs onto an egg spoon before dunking.) Have the students leave eggs in the colored vinegar water for at least 3 minutes before removing them. The longer an egg is in the colored water, the more vibrant the resulting hue will be.

8. Instruct students to remove eggs and gently place them on a wire rack or an egg carton. After the eggs dry, create an Easter egg display or let each student take an egg home.

Coloring Easter eggs is a fun, easy Springtime tradition. It is also an excellent activity for teaching kids about primary and secondary colors and color mixing.

Do you enjoy coloring Easter eggs? What is your favorite childhood memory of Easter egg decorating? Share with us in the comments box below.

Read more Segmation blog posts about art and color:

Having fun with Easter Eggcitement Art & Crafts

Color Symbolism in Medieval Christian Art

Color Theory Basics: The Color Wheel

Be an Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

Segmation

Join us on FacebookSegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iPad

www.segmation.com

Favorite Things About Spring

1 Reply

An old proverb promises, “No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.” After a long, hard winter, are you ready for spring?

While winter is a beloved season for some, most of us would definitely concur that cheery spring is a welcome change from the frigid dreariness of winter.

Segmation is certainly excited about the approach of spring. Read on to discover our favorite things about the season that thousands of people are inviting with open arms.

Reasons Why Segmation Loves Spring

There are so many reasons Segmation adores spring. Here are just a few:

Sense of Promise — Would you agree that spring carries a sense of promise that things will improve and problems will finally be resolved? In our opinion, spring is interconnected with a sense a promise. With that sense comes hope that newness is on its way. This newness can look like fresh flowers blooming, making plans for a new start in life or a career change, or even spring cleaning your home to cleanse it of winter’s doldrums. The sweetest promise offered by spring is the assurance that summer is just around the corner, waiting to make its appearance.

Beautiful Weather — Segmation’s very favorite thing about spring may well be the weather that it introduces. When spring comes, coldness and misery flee, making way for bluer skies, warm breezes, and walkways that are clear of ice and snow. It is the rare person who does not eagerly anticipate the opportunity to once again dress in light, non-confining clothing. Without a doubt, most people can hardly wait to bask in spring’s balmy atmosphere.

Baby Animals — Is there anything more pleasant than baby chicks, bunnies, horses, and cows? Isn’t it wonderful to take a drive in the country and see a mare with her foal? This explosion of new life is special and anticipated because it only takes place in springtime.

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables — Food that originates in a garden is not only nourishing to the body; it is also pleasing to the eyes. A bowl of fresh produce brings a sense of abundance and health to a home. There is no better way to announce the arrival of spring than by serving beautiful, fresh fruits and vegetables to your family.

More Daylight — Segmation dearly loves the increased daylight time that comes with spring. More daylight means more time to enjoy the outdoors. Also, it is a welcome feeling to wake up to a brightly lit morning sky as opposed to the pitch black that should be restricted only to nighttime.

What Do You Love About Spring?

What are some of your favorite things about spring? Do you love the flowers that shoot up from the earth, the restored greenness of grass, or the general feeling of hope that consumes the atmosphere? Comment below and let us know why you are excited about the approach of spring.

Read more Segmation blog posts about art and color:

Colorful Flowers to Plant this Spring

Welcome Spring with a Freshly Painted Front Door

Coloring Each Season with Healthy Food

Be an Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

Segmation

Join us on FacebookSegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iPad

www.segmation.com

Color Symbolism in Medieval Christian Art

1 Reply

———————————————————————————————————————

Color Symbolism in Medieval Christian Art Around 200 AD, color became a focal point in Christian art. In the beginning, each color’s meaning was taken from Ancient Greek and Roman interpretations, but soon the Bible became the color guide for Christian artists.

When the Roman Catholic Church began using color to represent liturgical seasons, five were chosen as standard: purple, white, black, red, and green. Years later, blue and gold were added. Later on, two more colors joined the list: vibrant orange, which represented courage and strength, and rich brown, the symbol of earth and humility.

These key colors and their variants are apparent in surviving pieces of medieval Christian art and religious iconography.

● Purple, a royal color since ancient times, is also associated with repentance. It is the liturgical color for Lent and Advent.

● White symbolizes innocence, purity, and virtue. To this day it remains the representative color for all of the Christian high Holy Days, such as Christmas and Easter.

● Black is regarded as the symbol of death and mourning, although in some instances it could represent power. Black is the color associated with Good Friday.

● Red is the color of Pentecost and symbolizes the Holy Spirit. During the Medieval period it represented the blood of Christian martyrs.

● Green glorifies the season of Epiphany. It celebrates fertility, nature, bounty, and hope.

● Yellow (gold) symbolizes hope, light, and purity. When combined with white, it is the symbolic color for the Easter season.

● Blue embodies heavenly grace. The Virgin Mary is often depicted wearing blue.

During the Middle Ages, color and light became important mediums for artistic expression. Color in particular was a vehicle for illustrating a higher reality, so shading was discouraged in favor of pure color. On canvas, human skin was not flesh-colored, but a pearly and ethereal white. Blood was a life-rich red, and skies and lakes were more cerulean than blue. Mixing paint became an art form in itself, as artists tried to reproduce the desired hues as clearly as possible.

Although there was a system in place for color symbolism, it was not set in stone. Artists yielded to a natural impulse and added their own interpretations while paying lip service to the original standards. In the study halls and libraries, theologians and philosophers assigned additional meanings to each shade in the artists’ palette. It can make things confusing for modern art historians, especially when you take into consideration that the color symbolism of religious art found its way into secular art too. But a strong enough core system was in place to allow reasonable interpretation to be possible even today.

Read more Segmation blog posts about color symbolism:

The Stories Behind Holiday Colors

Colors Red and Purple: A History of Emotion

Art in Ancient Egypt

Be an Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

Segmation

Join us on FacebookSegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iPad

www.segmation.com

Having fun with Easter Eggcitement Art & Crafts

Piero della Francesca – Early Renaissance Artist

4 Replies

Piero della Francesca – Early Renaissance Artist Pattern Set for SegPlay® PC released (see more details here)

There are still mysteries to uncover about the Italian Renaissance artist, Piero della Francesca. In fact, scholars have not yet come to a unanimous conclusion about when Piero was born, nor do they agree on whether or not he had gone blind prior to his death in 1492. Though he was painting during the same time period as many other famous and well known painters, Piero’s work has not found its way to the spot light until recently.

The reason for the lack of information surrounding Piero’s work, as well as his recent popularity, is largely due to the fact that many of his paintings, and many of the buildings he painted in, have been destroyed. What is known about Piero della Francesca is that he was not only a talented painter, but a man deeply interested in mathematics. It is this love of mathematics and its influence on his painting that sets Piero apart as one of the greatest Early Renaissance artists.

Piero della Francesca was born in modern day Tuscany, then known as San Sepolcro. His father was a tradesman and his mother’s family was part of the Florentine and Tuscan Franceschi noble family. Throughout his life, Piero was always tied to San Sepolcro. However, much of his life was spent traveling and he spent time working in Rimini, Arezzo, Ferrara and Rome.

Around 1439 Piero traveled to Florence to assist Domenico Veneziano in painting the chapel of Santa Egidio. It was here that he most likely came in contact with other well known painters and it is also probable that Florence was responsible for his deep interest in achieving accurate perspective in his painting. Florence would have afforded Piero the opportunity to study light and color in the work of other painters; lessons that became foundational to Piero’s style of painting.

Florence might also have been responsible for Piero’s interest in mathematics as well as other forms of art such as, architecture and sculpting. Many scholars believe that Piero was deeply interested in how other fields of study might influence his painting. Whether or not Florence was where this interest was sparked, it appears that Piero spent his life studying mathematics, light, color, architecture and sculpture, all in the effort to bring the proper perspective to his painting. This love of learning for the sake of perspective in his work is evident in all of his paintings.

Piero mainly painted religious works that are noted for their tranquility and precision. His paintings are characteristically full of bright colors and light. In addition, Piero made a habit of painting both architecture and sculptures.

His most famous work is “Story of the True Cross” which is a series of frescos he painted for the Bacci Family in Arezzo around 1457. These frescos demonstrate that Piero was a master at manipulating light in his paintings. As in many of his other paintings, these frescos appear three- dimensional because Piero combined shadow and shade to create depth.

“The Flagellation of Christ,” painted during the 1460’s in Urbino, is evidence of Piero’s love of architecture, but is also another example of how he utilized light in his paintings. In this painting Christ is essentially in the background yet, Piero manages to draw the eye towards Christ by manipulating the light and colors within the painting.

The “Baptism of Christ” offers an excellent example of Piero’s love of geometry. Each figure in the painting serves to balance the whole. Here again, light and color are used to draw the eye, as well as balance the painting.
Piero also painted portraits that are marked by their realism and sophistication. The background scenes of these portraits are often intricately detailed. Yet, as with all of Piero’s work, these details serve to draw the eye to the subject of the piece rather than overshadow. His paintings are known for the detailed backgrounds; for the care he showed towards aspects of paintings that the eye might never be drawn to.

In 1492, Piero della Francesca died in his home in San Sepolcro. He left his mark on the world in the form of paintings full of light and color and work infused by his knowledge of mathematics. He also left behind a series of treatise that mathematicians still recognize today. For this, Piero della Francesca will remain one of the most appreciated Early Renaissance artists.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piero_della_Francesca

If you liked this Segmation blog post, we know you’ll enjoy:

–Travel Like an Artist

https://segmation.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/travel-like-an-artist/

— Early Cave Art in Spain

https://segmation.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/early-cave-art-in-spain/

— Make Artist Famous with Hole-Punch Portraits

https://segmation.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/make-artist-famous-with-hole-punch-portraits/

Have fun and relax with beautiful online painting art. So fun and easy to use with no mess but just a mouse!
Be a Artist in 2 minutes with Piero della Francesca – Early Renaissance Artist from Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

Segmation

FREE Newsletter

Join us on Facebook

SegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iPad

www.segmation.com

3 Ways that Artists Can Benefit from Blogging

5 Replies

Free Trial Downloads for Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

Before the invention of photography, artists had to work from real life. How did that affect artists’ working habits?

The necessity of working from life meant that in order to paint a portrait, the sitter had to pose for hours, days, weeks, and sometimes months before the artist was finished. To paint a still life, the artist would have to make sure the set-up stayed the same day after day, and could only paint when the lighting conditions were the same as the previous day. For landscape painting, artists would have to finish as much as possible on-site and often complete the final painting in their studio, often surrounded by smaller studies that contained notes on which hues and values to place where.

The invention of photography – especially digital photography – has changed the way artists work. Thanks to the convenience of affordable digital cameras, artists can easily take a variety of high-quality pictures of whatever they want to paint, and then instead of working from real li

The main goal of art marketing is to get your art out there. The more people that know about you and your work, the better. Blogging is an excellent – and free – way to put you and your art in front of a wider audience. In this article we’ll take a look at how artists like you can benefit from keeping a blog.

What is a blog?

“Blog” is short for weblog – a word that was first coined in 1997 when the general public was still getting its feet wet with the Internet. At first, blogs were merely online diaries – personal accounts of people’s daily lives. As the Internet has matured, blogs have turned into so much more. Blogs are now powerful marketing tools that are used by corporations and individuals alike to promote their businesses.

How can blogging be used as an effective art marketing tool?

Blogs provide exposure. The search engines love frequent-updated blogs. Each update you post gives you another chance to be found on the Internet – by a gallery owner, a potential collector, or anyone who might be of benefit to you and your business in some form.
Blogs provide insight. When you blog about your art, you can write about everything from your inspirations to your struggles and everything in between. Blogs give gallery owners and potential collectors insight into your working process, which shows them that you are a serious artist.
Blogs facilitate connections. People who buy artwork online are more willing to purchase art from someone with whom they feel a connection. Blogging allows you to connect with your fans and collectors on a personal level – showing them that you are a real, live, trustworthy human being, as opposed to an impersonal collection of pixels on the screen.

These are just some of the many ways that artists can benefit from blogging.

One final note: remember that a blog is better as a supplement to your website, and not a substitute. While some artist blogs double as an online gallery and a blog, it is generally better to keep the two separate, so that it is easier for your site visitors to navigate from your new content in your blog to your static content on your website (such as your gallery).

Ready to set up your art blog? You can start a blog for free through WordPress or Blogger. Have fun!

Segmation

FREE Newsletter

Join us on Facebook

SegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iTouch

www.segmation.com

How to Photograph Your Art

6 Replies

Be a Great Photographer of Your Art in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

It’s important to take good photos of your Art for many reasons. Photos of your work will be used for several purposes:

To show your work to prospective galleries
To display on your website
To use on your business cards and other promotional materials
To serve as a record of what you have created

Back in the day, manual SLR cameras were the norm for taking high-quality photographs of artwork. These days it’s possible to take good photographs of your art using consumer-quality point-and-shoot digital cameras – the kind you use for everyday purposes. If you plan to print any of the photos of your art, keep in mind that the higher the pixels, the larger you’ll be able to print while maintaining a sharp clarity.

You can choose to shoot your artwork indoors or outdoors. If you photograph your work indoors, drape a black velvet cloth on the wall and hang your artwork in front of it, at level with the camera, which should be placed on a tripod for ultimate stability. Place two tungsten light bulbs inside two clamp lights and space them at equal points on either side of the camera, pointing towards the art at an approximate 45 degree angle. Then point and shoot!

These days it’s not necessary to create an indoor photo set-up to get decent pictures of your art. Many artists take photos of their artwork outside, because it is far easier than setting up a photo area indoors. By using a digital camera and a photo-editing program, you can almost always get good photos of your art even if outdoor conditions aren’t 100% perfect.

It’s best to take photos of your art on a sunny day, to bring out the best in your artwork’s colors, but be careful to position your artwork either at an angle to the sun or place your artwork in the shade so that the direct sunlight does not cause a glare. It may take some experimentation to get it just right, but the great thing about digital cameras is that you can take all the photos you want without worrying about wasting film.

After you’ve taken the photos and uploaded them to your computer, choose the best ones and edit them in a program like Photoshop or GIMP. In these photo-editing programs, you can adjust the image’s brightness and contrast, hues and saturation, as well as crop the image.

Thanks to digital photography and photo-editing programs, taking accurate photos of your artwork is easier than ever!

Be a Great Photographer of Your Art in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

Segmation

FREE Newsletter

Join us on Facebook

SegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iTouch

www.segmation.com

Exciting Easter Eggcitement Art & Crafts www.segmation.com

5 Replies

Easter Eggcitement Pattern Set for SegPlay® PC released (see more details here)

We invite you to explore the Segmation™ World and Easter Eggcitement!

Contemporary and traditional designs, decorations, logos, and even photographs work beautifully, and no artistic skill or technical ability is needed.

This set contains over 20 paintable patterns.

Easter Eggcitement

Have fun and relax with beautiful online painting art. So fun and easy to use with no mess but just a mouse!

Be a Artist in 2 minutes with Easter Eggcitement from Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

Segmation

FREE Newsletter

Join us on Facebook

SegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iTouch