The Colour Card Game

This paper is the outcome of a dialogue between two lecturers in the visual arts from universities in Queensland and Western Australia. The Colour Card Game is a tool for teaching creative colour exploration to a wide variety of students from different educational disciplines and from different cult...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Peacock-Smith, R., Green-Armytage, Paul
Other Authors: Dianne Smith
Format: Conference Paper
Published: The Colour Society of Australia, Inc. 2009
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/9760
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author Peacock-Smith, R.
Green-Armytage, Paul
author2 Dianne Smith
author_facet Dianne Smith
Peacock-Smith, R.
Green-Armytage, Paul
author_sort Peacock-Smith, R.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper is the outcome of a dialogue between two lecturers in the visual arts from universities in Queensland and Western Australia. The Colour Card Game is a tool for teaching creative colour exploration to a wide variety of students from different educational disciplines and from different cultural backgrounds. The aim is to engage students in a way that is not intimidating, requires no special skills or preparation, and with any value judgments coming from the students rather than from the teacher. The game is played with the commercial paint sample cards that are freely available from paint and hardware stores. The object of the game is to produce unusual colour combinations that ‘work’ (are considered creatively harmonious). There is an element of chance in the distribution of colour cards and opportunities for players to exchange cards that they find unworkable. At the conclusion of play the colour combinations are displayed and players vote for the ones they consider most successful. The game provides the opportunity to discuss different approaches to colour combination: reliance on one’s own judgment, application of established theories of colour harmony, making use of the findings of research and using chance processes to open up a wider range of possibilities. Students learn to look at colours with fresh eyes and to escape from personal limitations, prejudices, rules and the dictates of fashion. They explore unfamiliar areas of colour space and discover how colours actually interact. The game has been played successfully in the classroom and in social situations. Players enjoy the game; they find it challenging, stimulating and often revealing of personal tastes in colour. The paper describes the game’s development, purposes and applications within teaching context, variation of play and possible future developments.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T06:26:58Z
format Conference Paper
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T06:26:58Z
publishDate 2009
publisher The Colour Society of Australia, Inc.
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-97602022-12-09T05:23:40Z The Colour Card Game Peacock-Smith, R. Green-Armytage, Paul Dianne Smith Paul Green-Armytage Margaret A. Pope Nick Harkness This paper is the outcome of a dialogue between two lecturers in the visual arts from universities in Queensland and Western Australia. The Colour Card Game is a tool for teaching creative colour exploration to a wide variety of students from different educational disciplines and from different cultural backgrounds. The aim is to engage students in a way that is not intimidating, requires no special skills or preparation, and with any value judgments coming from the students rather than from the teacher. The game is played with the commercial paint sample cards that are freely available from paint and hardware stores. The object of the game is to produce unusual colour combinations that ‘work’ (are considered creatively harmonious). There is an element of chance in the distribution of colour cards and opportunities for players to exchange cards that they find unworkable. At the conclusion of play the colour combinations are displayed and players vote for the ones they consider most successful. The game provides the opportunity to discuss different approaches to colour combination: reliance on one’s own judgment, application of established theories of colour harmony, making use of the findings of research and using chance processes to open up a wider range of possibilities. Students learn to look at colours with fresh eyes and to escape from personal limitations, prejudices, rules and the dictates of fashion. They explore unfamiliar areas of colour space and discover how colours actually interact. The game has been played successfully in the classroom and in social situations. Players enjoy the game; they find it challenging, stimulating and often revealing of personal tastes in colour. The paper describes the game’s development, purposes and applications within teaching context, variation of play and possible future developments. 2009 Conference Paper http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/9760 The Colour Society of Australia, Inc. restricted
spellingShingle Peacock-Smith, R.
Green-Armytage, Paul
The Colour Card Game
title The Colour Card Game
title_full The Colour Card Game
title_fullStr The Colour Card Game
title_full_unstemmed The Colour Card Game
title_short The Colour Card Game
title_sort colour card game
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/9760