WATERCOLOR
LANDSCAPES
STEP-BY-STEP
See a student's finished example at left.
Materials:
* Watercolor paper and paint
* Brushes and containers of water
* Paper towels, sponges
* Photos of landscapes to use as references
1. Discuss the method of washing in light areas (high values)
first. Explain that you will add middle values later and dark accents
last of all.
Talk about the concept of working from background to foreground, too.
2. Use large brushes to paint in light washes of sky and ground.
Add slightly deeper tones only where needed, while the paper is
still damp (if soft edges are desired).
3. Mix somewhat stronger, lower values for the middle ground,
and let the paper dry first if hard edges are required.
4. Foreground details may be the sharpest and most vivid in the
artwork, so use darker colors after everything else. Work them
into the dry painting if well-defined edges are wanted.
Scissors birds, Shoe birds
These two drawing projects are easy and fun. You'll
need paper, pencil, scissors, crayons or markers, and your sneaker!
Directions: On one piece of white paper, trace around your scissors. The
blades may be open or closed. Now squint your eyes -- can you imagine
bird eyes and
a beak there? Add a head, wings, body, legs and some pretty plumage. Finish
with brightly-colored markers or crayons.
Stamp your sneakered foot on another paper and trace around the footprint.
There's your bird's body! Notice the pattern that the sole made,
use that in making some fanciful feathers. Pattern is made by repeating
lines and
shapes.
Add a beak, an eye, wings, legs and tail feathers.
Note: Shoe-prints lend themselves to drawings
of fish, too.
Rubbings Reassembled
Texture is about how things feel to the touch, or how they look as if they
might feel to the touch. With this activity you'll enjoy finding many different
textures and taking rubbings.
You'll need:
*Crayons with wrappers peeled off
*White drawing paper
*Scissors
*Glue
*Colored construction paper (optional)
To do this fun and easy task, you'll also need something else -- terrific textures!
You'll find raised surface-patterns all over when you really look, indoors
and out.
Use dark-colored crayons with their paper wrappers removed. Lay your white
paper over a textured object, such as lace or burlap cloth or a ribbed floor
mat. Press with the whole length of a crayon (on its side), rubbing hard enough
to leave an imprint of the texture on your paper.
Many things in nature make nice rubbings too -- the shape and veins of a leaf,
for instance. Choose other crayons and other objects, and fill your page with
a hodge-podge of colors and patterns.
Next, from your page of rubbings, cut out all the shapes you need to build
a bird, a fish or even a person! Arrange the pieces (head, body, legs, feet,
fins or tail) on a sheet of colored or white paper. Glue them down and you're
done!
Your finished masterpiece might remind some people of a patchwork quilt! |
