C O L O R I N Q U I R Y

An investigation for educators

By Sally Haughey
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P r a c t i c e s

The Practice of Noticing

A practice of noticing is a practice of following
your interest. What captures you? What calls
your name? What delights you?

Our practice will be one of consciously noticing

and identifying colors. What colors? Those that
capture you. These prompts will build your
observation skills and fine tune your ability to
notice your own interests.

The Practice of Documenting

The next step is to document our interest. To
have traces we can look back at that inform us
of where our interests have been and see the
progression of our playful journey. We will be
using our cameras (phones work fine) to
capture our traces of noticing.

The Practice of Exploring

The next step exploring. This is where we play
with our expressive languages. This is where
we play with watercolors, pencils, markers and
collage to discover our own inner language of
color.

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T h e P r a c t i c e o f
N o t i c i n g

Prompt: Notice the colors that draw your attention.

Notice what gives you joy. What delights? What pulls your eyes?
Notice what colors jump out to you.

How to Begin

This month is all about practicing noticing what captures your eye. For some of you this
will be the most difficult month. Maybe you have not given time to what captures you and
delights you visually in your environment.

You will be training yourself to stop, breath and notice. To truly see.

But do not underestimate the power in this first prompt. It is priming your brain for the
inquiry of color. I am going to share a series of photos and I just want you to notice what
color your eyes notice first. Then does it spark?

Questions to Ask Yourself

What pulls your eyes?
What does it feel?
Are you interested? A little, a lot?
Are you curious?
What words would you use to describe how those colors feel?
How does the color spark curiosity and engagement in your interest?
What words would you use to describe the color?
What color peaks your interest?
Which color pulls you to touch it?

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Do you need help noticing?

These are gentle suggestions to help you notice the colors that interest you. Use these
only if you find yourself loosing interest, lacking inspiration or simply love the diversity of
perspective.

Daily Noticing Prompts

1. What color draws your attention in your bedroom?
2. What color draws your attention in your clothes closet?
3. What color draws your attention in your jewelry?
4. What color draws your attention in your living room?
5. What color draws your attention in your front yard?
6. What color draws your attention in your refrigerator?
7. What color draws your attention in your bathroom?
8. What color draws your attention in your book collection?
9. What color draws your attention in your clothes drawer?
10. What color draws your attention in your kitchen?
11. What color draws your attention in your workspace?
12. What color draws your attention in your living room?
13. What color draws your attention in your junk drawer?
14. What color draws your attention in a walk around the block?
15. What color draws your attention in your kitchen cabinet?
16. What color draws your attention in your coat closet?
17. What color draws your attention in the grocery store?
18. What color draws your attention in your hanging pictures?
19. What color draws your attention in your dishes and cups?
20. What color draws your attention in your shoes?

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P r a c t i c e
o f C o l o r
E x p l o r i n g
The Journal
I recommend you use a spiral watercolor
journal. This will allow you to play with
paint and art making in the journal itself.
It will expand as you add things to the
journal.
.

Process in Review
PICK A PHOTO:

• Pick a photo from your noticing prompt to use as your journal spark.

EXPLORE AND PLAY WITH COLOR:

• Play with the color in the photo that captivated you with a variety of mediums -
watercolor, markers, crayons, etc.

COLLAGE:

• Color hunt in magazines and online to grab things that inspire you further from the
original photo. Consider paper scraps, painted papers, whatever you have on hand.

REFLECT:

• Capture your feelings and why that color that caught your attention. Jot down words
that describe how the color feels to you in the context of your photo.

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 M y P e r s o n a l
P r o c e s s
T oh tei c Pi nr ga c t i c e
N o f
P r a c t i c e s
N
f o or t i c i n g
1.PTher Photo
o m p t # 1
Spark
I like to pick a photo
from my noticing
prompt to use as my
spark and adhere it into
my journal with double
sided tape or a glue
stick.

2. Color Play
I like to play with the color – in this case – pink. I don’t try to match the color but rather,
play. Here I did not have much time. Instead of saying I am not doing it - I do it very simply.
It is really surprisingly satisfying. You can doodle, paint patterns, or do what I did, make
patches of color.

3. Collage
I will go on a color hunt in magazines and online to grab things that inspire me further
from the original spark. Again, what I am showing is a page where I did not have much
time. I grabbed images from searching google. Printed and pasted them. If I had time - I
would have added words cut out from magazines. But it is better to do it simple than not at
all.

4. Reflecting
Finally, capture your feelings and why that color that caught your attention. Capture words
that describe how the colors feel to you. This is where we capture our own meaning
making. This will look different for everyone. Be true to your meaning.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2022 FAIRY DUST TEACHING