Outside light and shadow play... with colour...

Yesterday I played with light inside... today I took the materials and a few more outside to see how it would work.

Here is a short film and then afterwards some images with reflections...

Things did not blow around quite as much as I was expecting, but it was not such a windy day and I was in a nice sheltered spot too. But the material need to be weighed down... the attempt att experimenting with the balloon and trying to take photographs was impossible on my own... that thing just wanted to fly!

a mixture of materials - a white surface made it easier to see... I experimented with different coloured paper too, but for some reason did not take photos.. too busy playing I guess

using a mirror to reflect the light... I was wondering whether I could bend a shadow, but I was not able to see that as it got so bright from the reflection...

but extra colour shadows appeared

when empty and the bowl was upright a lot of details came in the shadow... but when you put it upside down or put another one on top (to create a ball) the details went. I think maybe if I did this earlier in the morning when the sun was lower the shadows would have been different...

found a little rainbow in the middle of it all...

drawing on a see through umbrella with a chalk pen... this means it can easily be wiped off. This was hard to do alone as the umbrella wanted to do a Mary Poppins thimg and fly off... so I could draw and experiment but I could not take photos that really showed how the drawings on the umbrella made shadows... it could be fun with paints - not just to create shadows but also if a child held it inside another could paint on the outside... would be fun to watch.

recreated my indoor build outside. It blew down twice during the whole session, which really was not so bad, all considering, and they did not blow far. BUT if it is windy outside these small glasses will fly. You could always fill them with water and stack them... or even ice on a hot day...

the glass beads worked well... of course square ones stack... the round ones I had to hold on their side to make decent colours on the ground

I could change the colour of the plastic serviette ring... depending on what colour I ut behind...

I was fascinated by the size difference of the same cup depending on which direction it was standing... I would love to ask young children what their theories are about this and why they think that...

colour mixing in different ways

mirror play

more mirror play... I was trying to see how many shadows I could see... I got three... would have been handy with an assistant for this bit... as the mirrors kept falling... or that I had taken more heavy things outside for the mirrors to lean against.

as I was starting to tidy up I noticed that the shadow on my silver bag was of a total different quality... so I just had to play a little more...

details were easier to see on the more smooth surface - now when I placed a bowl inside a bowl I could see it more clearly...  The above shows three bowls, not two.

then I started playing with the colour paddles... even drawing faces on them with the chalk pen, which was easy to rub off and draw something new on. A short film of that will be posted on my instagram and facebook page later...

and I will leave you with a last colour mix...

David Hawkins - Messing about

you need to actually play in order to understand play.