Tissue Paper + Watercolor Fall Leaves

These are cut out tissue paper leaves outlined with a gold marker, and enhanced with just a bit of watercolor paint. Can you tell I just can’t get enough of fall art projects?

1. I used my “How to Draw a Maple Leaf” post to create a paper template, and traced it on the tissue paper (mine was an American Greetings® brand from the drug store). I found it helped to cut out several layers at a time. I cut out various sizes and other simple shapes of leaves to make my collage more interesting.
2. Using a glue stick, I covered large sections of white card stock paper, and layered the leaves on top. I used a purple glue stick and found that any extra glue did dry clear and smooth so don’t worry about using too much glue.
3. I took a gold Sharpie Poster Paint marker and traced around each leaf, and added some veins inside as well. Loose tracing is OK as it adds a casual look to the art.
4. My new favorite watercolor paint is Crayola’s Watercolor Mixing Set. It has a very pretty cyan and magenta color, along with a darker navy. I used a generous amount of cyan paint to fill in the background, and then just a small, watery amount to add more color inside the leaves.

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Watercolor Resist Tree Collage

I learned an interesting paper lesson today. I always thought that only REAL watercolor paper could bring about bright and colorful watercolor painting. My 5th graders just finished an eye-popping collection of fall tree collages, all using regular white card stock paper (for the leaves). The difference was using good liquid watercolor paints, not my usual homemade variety. Good scrapbook paper for the background was also key. Standard issue construction paper just doesn’t have the visual punch.

SESSION ONE: The students started with a letter-size 65 lb. white card stock paper, and placed it over a sheet of plastic needlepoint mesh. They shaded the entire paper with about 3 or four different crayon colors. The students painted over the entire paper with slightly watered-down Dick Blick liquid watercolor paints and let it dry.
SESSION TWO: My scrapbook collection of paper had a variety of blues and greens. After choosing a background blue paper, the students were to cut a wavy strip of green for their grass, and several tree trunks out of black paper. All were glued down in place with a glue stick. After the trees were complete, scraps of the watercolor paper were used to cut and glue small “leaves” that were falling down.

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Layered Fall Leaves

You can show students how to overlap leaves and blend colors with oil pastels, and have very lovely picture as the result.
1. I tend to think of the maple leaf as the classic fall shape, and made templates out of chip board with the stem left off. Give each student one leaf and ask them to trace at least two leaves that overlap. Ask the students to choose which leaf is on top, and explain that all the lines inside that leaf must be erased. They can then add some leaves going off the page, and some veins as well.
2. All of the pencil lines are to be traced with a thin black marker.
3. Ask the students to use at least two oil pastel colors in each leaf, overlapping as they go along. Oil pastels are the best for blending colors together, so the goal is to not have any "hard" edges between the colors.
4. Lastly, the background needs to be colored in with a contrasting color.

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How To Draw a Fall Tree

I found this project on Artsonia.com, and I love how it makes students think of trees as a series of branches, and not just a fluffy shape that sits on a stick (not a bad place to start, but can be left behind at some point).

1. Ask the students to draw a large "Y" on their paper.
2. Show them how to add smaller "Y"s on each side, alternating as they go up each branch. To make the "Y"s the most realistic, they should be directed toward the sky somewhat, and not at 90 degree angles.
3. When the lines are complete, they need to be thickened. The fattest part of the trunk should be at the bottom, and all the lines should gradually get thinner until they end in points at the top.
4. Lots of fall colors can be colored around the branches. I used my favorite Portfolio oil pastels here.
5. The background may be added, with grass and shadow and sun and clouds.

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Fall Watercolor Tree Collage

This was recently a very successful project for 3rd to 5th graders. I like the contrast of the soft watercolor against the crisp cut leaf edges.
Week 1. Give the students two 9" x 12" sheets of paper and watercolor paints. Instruct them to paint one sheet with a green grass base and blue sky. Dabbing the wet sky with a dry paper towel can create a soft cloud effect. The remaining sheet is to be completely painted in splotches of warm colors - red, orange and yellow.
Week 2. Give the students a rectangle of black construction paper to cut out a tree trunk silhouette with branches on top and roots on the bottom. This gets glued to the blue and green (sky/grass) paper. The remaining splotchy paper gets cut into small triangle shapes and glued to the tree, sky and ground.

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Scarecrow Painting

I found this idea of a watercolor scarecrow over at Artsonia.com. If anyone would like credit for the idea of drawing him in this closely-cropped fashion, please let me know. I love how my students could easily make a large detailed face, but still include faraway fields and trees too.

1. Students began with an 11" x 15" piece of watercolor paper. I wanted them to get set up with the outline of the body and head before they started customizing, but being that I had many kinders (this was an afterschool class) I knew they would tend to make the shapes very small. To compensate, I had students make their own guides. I had each one align an extra 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper with the bottom of the watercolor paper, and use the top as a guide to draw the horizontal arm line.
2. To make the head, I had cut and folded 5" squares of newsprint into quarters. A cutting line on one side showed them where to cut to turn the square into a 5" circle. This paper circle was placed and traced on top of the arm line, near the right side of the paper.
3. The students drew the arm opening on the left, making sure the body would be centered under the scarecrow head. The rest of the drawing details were added and traced with a dark crayon.
4. I told my students they could color in small shapes in their picture with crayon and the big shapes with watercolor.
Note: I had great results with the project, I think due to the fact that the students were set up first with drawing the large body shapes. It is also the third time now that I have used my new Dick Blick Liquid Watercolor set, and I absolutely love the results. SO colorful and such a nice palette to work with. I’m a convert now and know what is going on my next teacher “Wish List”.

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Fall Tree Painting

The basic concept behind perspective is learning that the further away objects are, the smaller they appear. This painting idea comes from one of the Usborne art books, all of which I am very fond of.
1. The students need a set of watercolor paints and good brushes (including small thin ones for detail work). They can start by painting an off-center tree, with trunks and branches. Remind them that trees tend to make forks and split off again and again as they grow up.
2. Colored leaves in varying sizes are painted next. Some may be left on the tree, some floating away or even off the page, and a few extra large ones. Some details may be added with the brown paint used for the tree.
3. If you have time, let the tree and leaves dry before proceeding. The grass may be painted next, taking care to go around the leaves.
4. Finally, a sky fills in the background.

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Contour Fall Leaves

Contour drawings are made with just lines, which also add a bit of visual energy to this picture.

1. I started by making a sheet of line drawings of different leaf shapes, which you can access here. Give the students one print of these leaves, and one matching-size blank paper. Have the students trace several leaves on their paper (if they can see through their paper) or use carbon paper to transfer the lines.
2. Once the blank paper has been filled up with about 3 leaf shapes, they are to be traced with black marker and colored in with colored pencil.
3. Lastly, each leaf is traced around with a colored pencil, following the edges of the original, and expanding as they proceed. As the shapes grow, they will eventually bump into the other leaf shapes and the students will have to decide which ones are in front and which are in back.

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Watercolor Crayon Resist Leaf

This is so simple but really makes a beautiful image. There's a texture rubbing involved, which is a good trick for young students to learn.
1. I had some donated corregated cardboard that came on a long roll. I think you can purchase this at any moving company, you just need to be sure to get the kind that has the open bumps on one side. Cut the cardboard into rectangles that are at least as large as your drawing paper.
2. I started the students with blank drawing paper, about 9" x 12", and large cardboard leaf templates. To add more educational value, you could have many different leaf shapes. For example: maple, ginko, birch and oak all have interesting shapes. Show the students how to trace them onto the paper, and then add some veins on the inside. Hand out dark crayons and ask the students to trace all of the leaf lines, pressing hard to cover the pencil.
3. For the rubbing, the students put the corregated cardboard under their paper (bumpy side up) and rub inside their leaf with the side of a peeled crayon. Encourage the use of warm colors, just like most fall leaves.
4. Pass out warm watercolors (red, yellow, orange) which may be painted over all of the inside leaf, including the crayon rubbing. Pass out cool watercolors (blue, green and purple) for the students to paint in the entire background as they please.

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Pastel Indian Corn

Fall is full of colorful imagery, be it pumpkins or leaves or corn. For some reason, glue drawing on black paper with chalk pastels, seems to bring out the best qualities of all these materials.

1. On a 9" x 12" piece of paper, show the students how to draw a long rounded rectangle for their ear of corn. Save room at the top, where leaves are added. Horizontal and vertical lines are added for the ears of corn, and some kind of background may be added.
2. When the image is drawn, all the lines need to be traced with white glue. A yarn-size line of glue is ideal, but the blobs end up looking great too. Let glue dry until clear.
3. Using chalk pastels, show the students how to color in their image, taking time to rub the chalk into all the nooks with their fingertips. The chalk will stick to the paper, but rub off the glue.

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Line Pattern Leaf

This is a study of patterns that could be simplified for kinder and 1st grade students. I drew my leaf and filled it in, but a large template to trace might help younger students get started.

1. If you make leaf templates from some kind of posterboard, I would make them large enough to fill a 9" x 12" paper. Stems could be left off and just drawn in, to keep things simple. To begin, the students trace the leaf in pencil near the top of the paper.
2. A stem is added at the bottom, and veins are drawn up the center to divide the leaf into many shapes.
3. The students are to fill in each section of the leaf with a pattern. Challenge them to think of as many different patterns as possible. I used a black ballpoint pen on my sample, but a very thin black marker would look nice too.

CA Visual Arts Standard: Kindergarten
2.1 Use lines, shapes/forms, and colors to make patterns.

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Fall Leaf Butterflies

This project was inspired by Lois Ehlert’s beautiful book “Leaf Man”. A little technology, namely stock photography and a color printer, helped me to make dozens of flat, easy-to-cut and glue leaves.

1. If you are so fortunate as to live near some fall foliage, you can take the real thing to a color copier and make lots of prints of multiple leaves. Or if you are like me, nowhere near any maple trees, you can go to www.gettyone and search for “leaves, close-up”. Download the preview images, which are free, and print out on a color printer. I splurged and used photo paper as the color seems to be about 10 times brighter when I do.
2. Young students can cut out the leaves leaving about an 1/8" of white around the outside. The reason is that intricate leaf shapes can be tricky to cut right on the edge, but because the background will be white, it will look OK. Older students can be more precise and cut out the leaf exactly.
3. The leaves are then to be cut in half right down the middle, along the spine. The two sides are then glued down with a little space left in between. A body and antennae are cut from scraps pieces, or from leftover stems.

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Textured Fall Leaves

One of the California Visual Arts Standards for 1st graders deals with adding texture to art. I made these paper towel leaves to give this painting some very real bumps and wrinkles.
1. I used Bounty paper towels (I like the spongy look to them) and cut out about 3 large leaves and 4 small ones. Mix up a small amount of 50/50 water and glue. Dip the leaves, get them completely wet, and spread them on watercolor paper as desired. Let dry overnight.
2. Choose one crayon for each leaf and trace around the edge, pressing firmly. Add a stem at one end.
3. I made some extra watery watercolor from my tube set, and painted the inside of each leaf. Dabs of different color in each leaf can add some more interest. When complete, paint the sky. Some splotches are going to pop up from the glue and water, but I think they add to the un-fussy look of the picture. Finally I used a small stiff brush to add brown vein lines on each leaf.

CA Standards of Visual Arts: Grade One
2.7 Use visual and actual texture in original works of art.

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Fall Pastel Landscape

This kind of loose, simple landscape lets chalk pastels do what they do best – make smudgy, soft shapes.

1. Give the students a narrow sheet of construction paper, and instruct them to draw a ground line 1/3 of the way down. (Skip the pencil and just draw directly with the chalk.)
2. Next they should draw 3 round circles for the trees and fill them in with fall colors. Rubbing with fingers softens the shapes.
3. The sky background should then be colored and blended in.
4. Add clean dark lines for tree trunks.
5. Divide the ground area into three sections, color and smudge to soften.

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Line Art Leaves

I tried something new with this project. I told my students that contrary to the popular belief, there was not going to be a prize for finishing first, but rather this time there would actually be a prize for the student who finished last. (Their homeroom teachers usually had some kind of reward system already set up.) It actually worked out well as I saw a lot of slow and careful work being done, especially from those that always seemed to rush.

1. I had large tabloid paper and large cardboard stencils of three different kinds of leaves (oak, beech and sassafras.) Each student was asked to trace at least two of their favorite leaves, and then draw the veins inside. The veins should divide the leaf up into large sections.
2. When they were happy with their drawing, they switched to Sharpie markers and traced all their lines. Within each leaf shape, they were asked to draw a pattern of lines or shapes, changing whenever they got to a new section. Both leaves were to be entirely filled in.
3. When complete with the inside, they were to trace what I call “energy lines” around the outside until the paper was filled. I emphasized throughout the project that nothing was to be filled in. I think it made the student’s think more. . . and made my markers last longer too.

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Symbols of the Season Drawing

There are seasonal symbols that work not only for Halloween, but fall and Thanksgiving as well. I’m planning to have students divide their paper into a grid, and draw and color symbols that will proportionally fit each rectangle.

1. I find that I tend to divide areas into thirds a lot when I am trying to draw grids. In this case, I will ask students to first draw a border in pencil near the outside edge. If they mark the top line into thirds, they need to draw a vertical line down on their the left on the right mark.
2. Next they will look at the larger rectangle they made, and draw one horizontal line to divide it into thirds. The same is done for the narrower side, with a horizontal line drawn across it somewhere to mark off a third. What is left should be a grid with a large space, two medium, and one smaller square. More or less. It is, after all, still elementary school!
3. You could talk about all the symbols that are out and about for all the seasons coming up. If faces are left off of pumpkins, artwork can easily turn into Thanksgiving art. I drew a few fall items that fit my grid, traced them in black and colored with oil pastels. I’d like to try this idea as a crayon and watercolor resist too.

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Ceramic Halloween Pumpkins

This project comes from Ellen at Clayworks Studio. It's basically making two pinch pots and blending them together. My kids grade 3-5 loved making these and the success rate was very high!

1. Give each student a piece of clay about the size of a small apple. Instruct them to remove a small piece for the stem and set aside. The rest of the clay is to be split into 2 sections.
2. After warming and softening the clay with their hands, each of the 2 sections needs to be turned into a ball and then into a smooth pinch pot. The goal is to have 2 bowls that roughly match each other in size.
3. Discuss how any time clay pieces are to be blended together, they need to be scored (scratched) and "puttied" together with slip (clay mud). Roughen up the edges of each bowl with a fork, wet with slip, and gently push the two bowls together. Use clay tool to blend together and hide seam.
4. A small stem is to be formed from the last piece of clay. It also gets scored and slipped on what is determined to be the top of the ball. Encourage extra blending on stem base as they are prone to fall off otherwise.
5. The students then hold the pumpkin in their hands and use a round tube, such as a jumbo-size pencil to push in ridges. If they rock the pencil from the stem to the bottom, rotate, and press again, they will form what look like the ridges of the pumpkin. Names may then be scored onto the bottom.
6. The next day, I had students draw lightly on the clay what they wanted their faces to look like. I kept it simple with only allowing circles, triangles or squares (no teeth!). It takes a sharp knife to cut out the faces, so I did it for them with an xacto knife.
7. When the clay is no longer cool to the touch, do a bisque firing with all the pumpkins. Have the students paint the pumpkins with glaze, and fire again.

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