Autumn Collage Tree

This autumn collage focuses on squares and rectangles to give the tree a pixelated like appearance.

















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

-2 pieces of paper for painting
- square piece of heavier paper for background
- paint, I used acrylic but you can use disk tempera or liquid tempera (yellow,orange,red,brown,green,blue,dark blue,white)
- pencil crayons, wax crayon, and/or pastels
- glue
- scissors

PROCEDURE:

You want to start by painting the paper for your squares. I wanted colours ranging from light yellow to dark red.

For the first paper I start by painting the yellow on one side.(1/3rd) I even add a touch of white to my last strokes on the end to give me a really light yellow.
I then paint orange on the other side. (1/3rd)  In the middle I pick up yellow paint with my brush and a touch of orange and paint that middle tone in.  I like to see the brush marks so don't feel you have to have it perfectly blended.

For my second paper I paint one side orange and one side red. When I finish my red side I added just a touch of brown to my last strokes to give me that nice dark red.
 I paint in the middle tone with both colours.

Set papers aside to dry.

I used a square piece of heavier paper for my background.

I taped it to my art board so I would get that nice white border at the end.

Draw a few lines at the bottom for your horizon, somewhere for your tree to sit.

Paint in your sky.  I like a bit of variation in my sky so I made one area darker.  This is where my tree will be in shadow.  I like to see those brush marks so again don't feel like it has to be fully blended.

Paint in your ground area.  I made that same area darker.

I made my hill in the distance a bit duller, (add a little brown to your green) this makes it appear further away.

Paint in your tree.  Now most of the branches will get covered but it helps to give you a visual framework of where to put those leaves.

You'll have more control if you use some dry media for your smaller branches.  You can use pencil crayon, wax crayon, or even pastels.

I bought a bunch of twistable pencil crayons this year as I am so tired of having to sharpen a gazillion pencil crayons every time we use them at school. We'll see how they hold up.
I also added a little bit of grass strands in front of the tree, some shading down the trunk on the dark side, and some marks with white pencil crayon to show the texture of the bark.

When my papers have dried I cut my squares and rectangles. About the size of a fingernail.

You need more than you think as we will be layering our colours.

Just look at all that gorgeous colour!

Before we start gluing just remind yourself where we want the colours to go.

We want lighter values on one side closer to top and darker values on other side closer to bottom.
It also matches our background.

Now it's time to glue.  Start with your middle colours.  With older kids have them glue squares and rectangles straight up and down, (it helps with that pixelated look).

I know that younger kids will glue them more haphazardly and that's ok it will still look good.

Keep on gluing layering and overlapping.  Leave a little of the background showing here and there.

As you get to the end add those darkest reds and lightest yellows.

You can also cut some of your squares in half making some skinny rectangles to place here and there on your top layer.

Prop your collage up and take a good look at it from a distance......you can see where you need to add a few more lights or maybe some darks.

Add a few on the ground and that's it.




Another stunning autumn tree.


Gail

Owls in the style of Paul Klee

It seems every year I do a Fall owl project.

These owls are inspired by Paul Klee.




This one is on hardboard but you could use cardboard.

The wings are made out of corrugated cardboard and the beak is recycled foam.

You can also do a full paper version, this one is in the art journal.


















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- substrate, can be hardboard, masonite, cardboard, canvas or paper
- gesso for priming, optional
- acrylic or tempera paint
- corrugated cardboard
- recycled papers
- glue

PROCEDURE:

If you wish you can prime your substrate with gesso.

Take a piece of recycled paper, this is a large book page, paint with the colour you want for the body.

I also painted a red one for the head.

I painted the corrugated cardboard in shades of brown.  This will be for the wings.

I cut a beak out of recycled foam and painted it yellow.

I painted the background (substrate) in shades of blue.

I try not to let paint go to waste. I'll paint pages in my art journal or plain paper to use in printmaking to use up any excess paint.

This is the orange body paper. I turned it over and sketched out my body shape. Cut it out.

Add dashes of colour to the body.

Cut out some wing shapes from the painted cardboard and add dashes.

To cut out the head I took the red painted paper and turned it over. I traced the head and shoulders of the body on to it.

I turned it upside down and cut a triangle out of the forehead.



I then painted on the dashes.

To make the eyes I cut 2 round circles out of white paper,  I used my circle punch.


I then cut one out of some leftover orange paper.  I cut it in half for the eyelids.

I cut 2 smaller circles out of black paper for the pupils.

Cut a branch out of black paper.

Glue down all the pieces.

Add some shading and details with black and white pencils.

These china markers work on everything.  I buy them by the box at Staples.

That's it.

Gail

Bear Collage

I was working on Bear projects today.  This painted paper collage came together fairly quickly.



















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- brown kraft paper, I also buy rolls of 'Builders Paper' at the hardware store, it's like a heavy duty kraft paper
- background paper, I used 1 sheet of 9"x12" heavy white drawing paper
- scrap of black paper
- acrylic or liquid tempera in browns and black, disk tempera in yellow, green, and black
- glue
- a few pencil crayons
- scissors

PROCEDURE:

First you have to paint some paper for your collage.

I used brown kraft paper and painted   one sheet with brown and black acrylic. You can also use liquid tempera.


I also painted 1/2 a sheet with just brown acrylic.

I took a scrap of paper and did a quick brown wash on it.  (Take your brush that has the brown acrylic on it, give it a swish in water but don't clean all the paint out of it and then use that for your wash) 
I speckled on some black and grey paint.

Set your papers aside to dry.


This is what I ended up with.

Time to paint the background.  Take your piece of heavy drawing paper and paint some spots yellow with disk tempera.

Add some green to your yellow, mixing a bright lime green and paint in the rest.  You'll notice the green is brushed on vertically at random heights. This adds to the illusion of the forest.

Don't cover up all the yellow.

While the paper is still damp we want to add a few trees.

I'm using green disk tempera.

It's easier for me to show this technique on white paper.  You take your brush (a big flat one) and using the edge make a line by dabbing your way up.

Vary the heights.

Now add some branches.  Use the edge of the brush again but push down a little bit.  Try to make the trees a bit asymmetrical, they look more natural that way.

Fan out as you get to the bottom.

Put a touch of black paint on your green disk to mix a darker green.

We want to put in some dark sections.  Here's a hint: put the dark on only one side of the tree for shadowy bits.


Set aside to dry.

I took the paper I painted black and brown (the darkest one), turned it over to the unpainted side and sketched out my bear body shape.

You want to keep a corner intact and then its a rounded arch shape, (like a slice of bread).

Save the scraps..you'll need them for the ears.

Don't glue until you have cut all your pieces.

I wanted to do a grizzly looking bear so I cut an oval out of my medium brown paper. You could leave this one out if you wish.


I don't want too be too small so I measure it a little before I cut.

Time for the head.  Again I measure it a bit.  You could trace the size of the last piece on the back of your paper.

The head is upside down pear shaped.

Make 2 ears out of the scraps of the dark brown paper. (body)

Out of the light speckled paper I cut the muzzle of the bear.

With a scrap of black cardstock I cut out the nose.

Once you have all the pieces they way you want them you can start gluing.

Using pencil crayons I added a few details.

I tried out those inner black ears but changed my mind.

I also blackened one side of the head for more of a shadow.


That's it.

Have a great Labor day weekend everyone.



Gail