Fall Trees Version 2

I was looking at my Fall Trees project and wanted to try a variation.

Bright blue sky with vibrantly colored leaves on the trees...this is what we came up with.


Ryan, age 10, completed this beauty.

We tried white for our tree trunks to look like an aspen or birch but I found it too winter like....( future Jan. project)....so I think we will stick with black.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:
- watercolor or tempera paints
- watercolor paper
- painter's masking tape (optional)
- drinking straws
- cotton swabs or Q Tips
- acrylic or liquid tempera paint in fall colors

I like to tape off my watercolor paper with painter's masking tape to give me a clean white border on my finished project.

It makes for a nice presentation on the bulletin board at school as well.

Draw in a horizon line in pencil.  For more info on horizon lines see my lesson here.

Paint in a sky with watercolor.  You want a nice graded wash so I get the kids to first wet the paper with plain water and then add some color.  You want it darker on top and fading as it reaches the horizon.

Paint in the ground on the bottom half of your horizon.
  I tried a sample without a horizon just sky and it seemed the tree needed the extra color around the trunk of the fallen leaves.

Leave to dry.

Mix up some black paint to an inky consistency (you could also use India ink).  Using a paintbrush paint in the beginning of the trunk from the ground.

Using an eyedropper (save the ones from liquid medicine) drop in some paint and have the kids blow in the rest of the trunk and the branches.

Continue to add paint where a branch is needed and continue blowing until you are happy with your tree.

Leave to dry.

Dab into acrylic or liquid tempera with cotton swabs and add leaves to your trees.

Include some fallen leaves on the ground.

Less tends to be more in this case.  You don't want to overdue and lose the branch detail on your trees.

Here is Jeff's, age 7, version.

I plan on doing these with Grade 2.


Take care and we will be back with more art adventures soon!

UPDATE: Here are the Fall Trees (version 2) that the Grade 2's completed this week in time for Parent/Teacher interviews! Click on to see larger if you wish.  Great job Grade 2!

Painting Aspen Trees

I was looking for more applications for the tissue paper texture technique I described in my last post.....thinking about what the texture reminded me of,..... when I thought tree bark.

So here is the result. Please click on the picture for a close up view.

Now you could easily vary the background and do it in a variety of mediums...pastel, colored pencil, colored paper collage..etc.

Here is this version.




Materials Required:

tissue textured paper as described in this post
watercolor paper
watercolor of tempera paint
paintbrush
scissors
glue
pencil
masking fluid (optional)






Prepare a tissue textured piece of watercolor paper following the directions in the previous post.


Let dry.










Turn over and draw some tree trunk shapes in pencil running down the length of the paper.

Now Aspen trunks tend to be narrow and fairly straight...no big curves.















Cut out your trunks.










Take a piece of watercolor paper for your background and tape off. Add a few pieces of tape to your tree trunk....this is just temporary so you can trace in where the trunk will be. Don't worry if the trunk is too long for your paper we'll deal with that.







Using pencil lightly trace where you have put your trunk...before you lift it off the paper....mark cutting lines at the top and bottom of the trunk. Trim to fit.







Also mark on the back of the tree its location and put a corresponding mark on the background. This makes it easier later on when you're gluing the trunks on the background.








Try to make a nice placement without them looking perfectly lined up....I placed them a little off kilter.











Paint your sky.







While the sky is drying I painted in my foreground...paint right over where the trees are going in. I also added some mask at this time..I wanted some aspen trees in the distance so I masked out some fine lines for the trunks.


Let dry.






While the background and mask is drying you can start painting your tree trunks...I placed 1/2 the trunk in shadow using some blue and brown mixed together.








Add some dark scarring on the trunk...some fine lines..make them a bit concave to depict the roundness of the trunk.








You can also add some splatter.

Click on picture for closer look.








I placed my trunk on the picture to get an idea of where I wanted some supplementary branches.






Make sure you carry the branch into the trunk area marked off on your background...you don't want to have any gaps.

When everything is dry you can remove the mask..add a little extra shading in the masked area if needed.

Remove the tape around the edges.

Now you are going to glue down your tissue textured tree trunks...say that fast 3 times!!!

I'm using tacky glue but you could also use acrylic gel medium. Do Not Use A Glue Stick...it won't stay stuck.

With the tacky glue I'm scraping it with an old plastic card to make sure I get it to the edges and only have a very thin layer.

Carefully put into position.

When your trunks are in place you can place a piece of wax paper over your painting......

And then place some books to compress it flat while it is drying.

That's it....I think it turned out pretty good...now I considering all the possibilities for this technique.

At school I can easily see myself doing this with the kids..I might just change the background.

Give it a go and I'll see you next time.

gail