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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

How to Paint Spring Trees



This post comes from a request by a teacher to do a Spring Tree version of an earlier post: How to Paint Fall Trees.

Very much the same with color changes. Please check out the Fall Tree post for more pictures on this technique.










Materials Required:

paint...I used cake tempera
paper
paintbrush
drinking straw
q-tips
painter's tape





Tape your paper down to your art board. I always tape off any painting work as it provides a nice clean-edged mat for presentation.

It works especially well for this project.

Paint in your sky. We are using watercolor paper so we can use a wet on wet technique. We wet the paper with plain water to start and then add our blue sky color at the top. We slowly work our way down with color...the paper will also pull the paint down. This is also called a gradient wash.

For the clouds we pull some paint off the paper while it is still wet with a kleenex. Just blot it off in a circular motion to get your cloud shapes.



Add some green paint to the bottom as well as a little yellow...you can also add a bit of pink.

Let your painting dry completely.

Mix up some dark brown paint...you want it to be ink like in consistency.
Place some at the side and start blowing your tree using the straw. We used an eye dropper to place our paint where we wanted but you can just drop it with your paintbrush or even a spoon.






Continue to blow your tree. Add extra paint along the way.





Let your tree dry.


I found the trees positioned off to the side made for a better composition.




Using a q-tip take some pink and green to dot in your spring blossoms and new leaves.

You don't need to fully coat your tree with these....you want only a few here and there to resemble a tree just starting to bloom or leaf out.









Let dry and then remove your tape.
There you have it a great Spring painting project that is easy to do for all ages.
Give it a try....of course in Canada we are still under the snow and won't see trees like this until late April/early May....we can still dream of Spring though.
take care
gail

31 comments:

  1. These are gorgeous! I love the "blow" painting technique. Can't wait to try this one out my own self...

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  2. Gorgeous! I am dropping by via Elizabeth Foss' site and I am so glad she linked to this. I have a preschooler who would LOOOOOVE to do this project and I am looking forward to trying it with her! Thank you!

    ~Tamie

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  3. Very nice! I'm going to get a straw and try it! Drawing little branches never comes out (to my mind) convincingly; this method takes out the control element and so maybe is more "natural"?

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  4. Thanks so much for adding me to your bloglist!!

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  5. GORGEOUS!! I am going to try this right now! I love it, love it, love it!

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  6. How pretty!
    Glad your son is fine-
    jenny.

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  7. they are really very pretty!!! and i know kids love it!

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  8. Spotted on The Crafty Crow...Wonderful project! Thanks for the great instructions!

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  9. Wow! What a fun blog this is! I just came across it! I think I may already be addicted!
    Beautiful work! Thanks for sharing! I am now a follower! I'd love to hear from you sometime at my Wildflower Studio! :)

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  10. You make it look easy. Will definitely try this on my spare time. Thanks for tutorial.

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  11. This is sooo fantastic! I too am in Canada and cannot wait to start seeing this stage in our trees outside! This is going to be our first project after spring break. Thanks for the inspiration.
    Grade 3/4 teacher in Manitoba

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  12. We did this project on Friday. It was really fun and the projects turned out great! Thanks for the inspiration! You can see our trees at http://homefrontlines.blogspot.com/2009/03/celebrating-spring.html

    Gerky

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  13. I would love to try this! Looks spectacular!

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  14. Thanks everyone. I hope everyone gives it a try!

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  15. love it, love it, love it! what paint exactly did you use for the tree?

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  16. We completed this fun activity for a poetry project. Check out our results.

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  17. Jenny: just use watered down tempura, you want an inky consistency that way it will flow when blown.
    Inquirer: looks awesome!

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  18. This is so awesome. Thank you for such a lovely tutorial. I did it yesterday with my 4 yr. old daughter and she did the complete project by herself and has a little masterpiece to call her own.

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  19. Did this project with my class....it worked quite well except our paint for the tree wasn't inky and runny enough so it was hard for the kids to blow our their trees. We ended up having to paint the branches on with some small brushes. They still looked wonderful though!! Thanks GAIL!!

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  21. thank for the idea, i ever got this technique long long years ago, and now you remaind me, iam gone teach this to my student, and i hope they gone love it, thank a lot, iam waiting for next idea for painting

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  22. Thanks a lot for this wonderful idea. My 3+ year old was supposed to make a painting for school tommorow and this idea saved our day ;-) She is not much into painting, but, this was so simple that even she could do it. The tip about taping the edges were also useful. Thanks once again.

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  23. My two sons loved doing this, especially the variety of methods (wash, blot, drop, blow, dot). Thanks for posting!

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    1. I am just beginning my art docent journey in my son's kindergarten class. Thank you for summarizing the methods so in five easy words. I am going to use them next week!

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    2. I'm going to use this technique with my partially sighted student, is so her and so tactile as she struggles to work neatly with paintbrushes and fine detail. she going to love the straw blowing.

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  24. Ive been looking through your tutorials and feel so inspired. thank you for sharing and giving us real clear step by step directions. I am working with Special Olympics and Im wondering if a bulb syringe or something of the sort would work instead of straws for those that cant blow with their mouths well- adaptive suggestion for other readers. Will let you know if I use this idea and how it goes.

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    Replies
    1. here is my post about Special Olympics and your great project. I made sure to give you credit on my artist evaluation forms and my blog!

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  25. Thanks so much - love the projects
    New Zealand

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  26. Just finished this project with my grade two class. It was a big hit with students and all the staff and parents have commented on it! I toned down tempera paint that our school had to get all the lighter spring tones. We had difficulty blowing the paint so instead used Q-tips to paint our tree branches and then used straws dipped in paint for smaller branches which worked well. I am always amazed at students creativity. Thanks for making teaching art so much fun... you website has given me confidence to expand my art lessons and explore the joy of art along with my class:)

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  27. Your SPRING TREES watercolor painting is perfectly beautiful, the beautiful colors offer a reminder of the glory of spring and perfect for me because this is simple enough for the elderly citizens with whom I visit! They will be thrilled to produce a work of art which they can proudly display at home or give as a gift. Thank you so much.

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