Nature’s Palette – Class 7 Arts Chapter 16 Notes & NCERT PDF

Class 7ArtsChapter 16NCERT book: Kriti - Arts Class 7

Notes and a simple summary of Chapter 16 of the NCERT Class 7 Arts book, with the official chapter PDF, flashcards, an MCQ quiz and an AI tutor for your doubts.

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Chapter 16: Nature’s Palette (Visual Arts)

Introduction

Colour is an important element of visual art. Colours are visible because of light, and when light changes, colours look different: a bright red tomato looks dull and dark in a dimly lit room; with too much light everything looks white; with no light everything looks black. Artists show these effects by making tints, shades and tones. Nature showers us with colour every day — a rainbow displays the entire range of colours the human eye can see.

Key Ideas

Seeing colour differently

Not everyone sees colour the same way. People with colour vision impairment (commonly called colour blindness) may see red as brown, or find it hard to tell blue from green.

Many artists and designers with vision impairments have excelled by finding creative solutions. Be sensitive to how others see colour.

The colour wheel

Primary colours — yellow, red and blue. They cannot be made by mixing other colours.

Secondary colours — made by mixing two primaries:

- Yellow + Red = Orange

- Red + Blue = Purple (violet)

- Blue + Yellow = Green

Tertiary colours — made by mixing a secondary colour with one of its primaries. From green: Green + Yellow = Yellow Green; Green + Blue = Blue Green. The six tertiaries on the wheel are yellow-green, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet, red-orange and yellow-orange.

Tints, shades and tones

Tint — a colour mixed with white (lighter).

Shade — a colour mixed with black (darker).

Tone — a colour mixed with grey. Make grey by mixing black and white.

Start with small quantities of black or white and increase gradually to get at least four gradations.

Technical tip: change the water in your bowl and rinse your brush well after mixing each colour to get the tints, shades and tones you want.

Colours in Indian painting

Paintings have been made on rocks, walls, clay, palm leaf, paper, fabric, wood, metal, glass and more.

Natural colours come from soil, minerals and plants. They fade with too much light, moisture and touch.

The chapter's timeline runs from cave paintings and Harappan painted pottery to the Ajanta murals and the miniature traditions.

Miniature paintings

Generally small in size; in India first made on palm leaves. From the 12th century CE, artists used paper.

Themes: religious texts, mythology, nature, portraiture and court life.

The word miniature comes from minium, a red pigment used to draw outlines and write text in medieval manuscripts.

Colours were mixed with gum from the Babul tree, which acts as a binder.

Natural sources of colour:

- Bright red — sindhoor or vermillion

- Earthy red — geru or red clay

- Yellow — yellow stone or cow urine

- Green — malachite (copper carbonate)

- Blue — lapis lazuli / indigo

- Black — carbon

- White — khariya or white clay

Gold and silver were hammered into very thin gold leaf and silver leaf.

Brushes were made of soft hair from camels, goats and cows, and hair from the tails of rats, squirrels and mongoose.

Activities in the Chapter

16.1 Extend the colour wheel — name the tertiary colours and the colours mixed to make them; then paint your own wheel using only red, blue and yellow to mix every other colour.

16.2 Make colour tones — four gradations each of tints and shades of two colours, then tones using grey.

16.3 Plant study in colour — sit at least two feet from a stem or flower, make quick sketches from two angles, draw one slowly and in detail, then colour it with matching tints, shades and tones. The book shows an illustration from *Hortus Malabaricus* ('Garden of Malabar'), which recorded thousands of medicinal plants of the Malabar coast in the 17th century.

16.4 Decode the palette of a miniature — study an 18th-century Rajasthani miniature showing Tansen, his guru Swami Haridas and Emperor Akbar at Vrindavana; discuss the season, mood, shades of green and placement of the biggest tree.

Key Terms

Primary colours (प्राथमिक रंग) — yellow, red, blue

Secondary colours (द्वितीयक रंग) — orange, purple, green

Tertiary colours (तृतीयक रंग) — secondary + its primary

Colour wheel (रंग चक्र)

Tint (हल्की छटा) — colour + white

Shade (गहरी छटा) — colour + black

Tone (रंगत) — colour + grey

Pigment (रंजक) — substance that gives colour

Binder (बंधक) — gum that holds pigment together

Miniature painting (लघुचित्र)

Malachite (मैलाकाइट) — green copper mineral

Lapis lazuli (लाजवर्द) — blue stone

Geru (गेरू) — red clay

Gold leaf (सोने का वर्क)

Care for Art Materials

Clean brushes, palettes and tools with soap after every use.

Close paint tubes, bottles, sketch pens and markers with their caps.

Store materials in an organised way so others can find and use them too.

Connect to Your Life

Watch how a fruit changes colour as it ripens, or how the sky changes through the day. Can you name the tints and shades you see?

Common Mistakes

Using ready-made green or orange in the colour-wheel activity — every colour must be mixed from red, blue and yellow.

Confusing tints and shades: white makes a tint, black makes a shade, grey makes a tone.

Adding too much black or white at once — increase in small amounts.

Not changing the water, which muddies the colours.

Let's Reflect

Recognise the moods, emotions and seasons shown through colour in an artwork. How many sketches did you make in your plant study, and what would you improve?

💡 Key Learning Points

✓Colours are visible because of light; changing light changes how colours look
✓Primary colours (yellow, red, blue) mix to make secondary colours; secondary + primary gives tertiary colours
✓Tints use white, shades use black and tones use grey
✓Miniature paintings used natural colours from soil, minerals and plants mixed with Babul gum
✓Careful observation and a colour wheel help artists match colours in nature

👨‍🏫 Teaching Tips

→Show a tomato in bright and dim light to demonstrate how light changes colour
→Give students only red, blue and yellow for the colour-wheel activity
→Model tint and shade gradations on the board, adding white or black a little at a time
→Discuss colour vision impairment sensitively; invite students to share how they see colours
→Bring samples of geru, khariya or indigo if available to show natural pigments
→Take students outdoors for the plant study so they draw from real stems and flowers
→Use the Tansen–Haridas–Akbar miniature for a class discussion on mood and season

📋 Assessment Questions

Can the student name the primary, secondary and tertiary colours and how they are mixed?
Can they make four gradations each of tints, shades and tones?
Can they match natural sources to colours used in miniature painting?
Can they observe and colour a plant using the right tints and shades?
Can they describe the mood or season shown by colours in a painting?

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