One of the pleasures of Mix It Up! is that the colors seem to change while you're holding a book. Hervé Tullet's printed prompts invite you to imagine the mixing. Then, if you'd like to find out what happens with actual color on actual paper, you can set the book aside and make a small experiment of your own.
Let the book be a book first
Read through it together before bringing out wet materials. The interaction happens through the page and the reader's imagination; paints aren't part of the book. Our interactive-book comparison looks more closely at that difference from tactile books.
For the making part, choose a separate surface, protect it and bring out paper suited to your medium. Put the reading copy somewhere dry. That leaves you free to work with color without trying to keep one hand on a book at the same time.
Give each mixture a little room
Our eco-kids finger paint comes as powder to mix with water, and its listed age recommendation is three and up. Prepare it using the package directions; it isn't ready-mixed paint.
Start with two colors. Make a mark of each on its own, then put a little of both in a third space and see what happens when they meet. Leaving those first two marks visible gives you something to compare with the mixture. You can repeat the idea elsewhere on the sheet with another pair.
Some combinations may be more interesting than others. Keep a little space around each so the whole page doesn't become one mixture immediately. If you want a record, an adult can write which colors went into each patch. Or let the sheet remain a page of experiments, with the nicest surprise somewhere in the middle.
A crayon version has its own possibilities
OMY's nine gel crayons have broad tips and strong color. They give you a different way to put marks together without the powdered-paint preparation. Try separate patches and overlapping marks on suitable paper, following the crayons' guidance.
Their behavior won't necessarily match the paint, which is part of the point of trying a different material. Our crayon texture and color sampler takes that idea further.
For the wet version, the powdered finger-paint setup guide covers preparation and putting materials away. The connection to the book can stay loose: begin with curiosity about two colors, then follow what your own materials do.
Leave a comment