Fall Puzzle Trees

Well the trees are starting to change colour even though the weather is still amazing.

Time for another great Fall art project.

I've been thinking about these trees for awhile.  They even made an appearance in my wacky skyline a couple of months ago.













MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- old puzzle pieces
- paint in fall colours, acrylic or tempera
- wc paper
- painter's tape 
- disk tempera paint
- kleenex
- tacky glue


PROCEDURE:

Find some old puzzle pieces.  Try to find 2 different sizes if you can to give your leaves some variety.

Turn the pieces over to the plain side.
Paint in fall colours.  I used acrylic put you could also use liquid tempera.


Let dry.

Place your wc paper on an art board and tape around the edges.  This will give you a nice border at the end.

Paint in a blue sky taking the paint down to about 2 inches or so from the bottom.

I use these big brushes at school.

  
While the paint is still wet left a few clouds using a crumpled kleenex.

When the sky has dried you can paint in the ground.

I used green, yellow and brown.

When background has dried paint in a tree.  I used black paint.

You could also cut out a tree from black paper and glue in place or use pencil crayons and draw one in.




Let dry.

Arrange puzzle pieces and then glue into place.  You want to plan it out.  Smaller pieces look good at the top.

That's it.


See you next time.

Leaf Print Turkeys and Squirrels

Looking for a quick and easy Thanksgiving project, why not try leaf print Turkeys.

or maybe a Squirrel for those of you not celebrating Thanksgiving next Monday.



Full instructions are coming right up but first...........

Speaking of Squirrels check out this adorable one in this week's giveaway.  (I'm still having issues with the photos, are you listening blogger! but you can click on any to enlarge)



I just love the acorn!

And I can't wait to make this deer for the nature table.







 This week's feature book and giveaway is "How to Make Stuffed Animals" by Sian Keegan.  Another great selection from my friends at Quarry Books.

This book features large photos and full size patterns. (no enlarging!) All projects can be completed with "fat quarters" so you don't need alot of fabric kicking around.

There are 18 projects in all and wait till you see the fox and the fluffy sheep.


- 128 pgs.
- 300 illustrations/photos
- paperback, 8.5 x 10 inches
- suggested retail $27.99 CAN, $24.99 US

My kids have always enjoyed making stuffies.  We started out with tiny animals using wool felt and embroidery floss.

Here is my youngest at 6 sewing his frog.

Great projects for you or your little sewer to try.  Wouldn't these make great ornaments for a woodland themed Christmas tree?




Check out the end of this post to enter the giveaway.










But let's get back to the leaf prints:




MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- assorted leaves in different sizes, look for good veining on the back
- liquid tempera paint in Fall colours
- my template if needed
- cardboard, posterboard, or heavy paper for the background (substrate)
- white paper for printing
- coloured paper  (brown, yellow, red, black)
- brown kraft paper or paper bag
- scissors
- glue
- white pencil crayon
- embellishments, googly eyes, scraps of felt, twigs, pinecone

PROCEDURE:

Select your background.  Now you can use cardboard that you have primed and painted, coloured posterboard, or even wc or heavy paper.


Paint if needed.

If you are making the turkey find a round object to trace around.  This will be your guideline when making the feathers.

Take your liquid tempera and paint the backside of a leaf.

Following the circle you traced, lay the leaf paint side down and press.

Vary the sizes, types and paint colour.

For the squirrel make a stack from largest to smallest, you could even put a bit of a curve in it.

When the prints have dried, cut out keeping that fan shape.

Cut out the extra parts of the turkey out of the coloured paper.

You need a circle of Kraft paper/paper bag. a long pear shape for the head, a triangle of yellow for the beak, and a squiggle of red.

You can use my template if needed.

Glue into place on your background.  I used 2 googly eyes and 2 small twigs (for feet) to embellish my turkey.


Lastly you can add some black paper strips glued down to form a nice frame.

For the squirrel I glued down the tail first.

I traced out my squirrel shape with a white pencil crayon on brown paper. (see template).

I cut the shape out and added a few details with the white pencil crayon.

I then glued the squirrel body into place, added a brown felt ear, black felt nose and eye, and bits of a pine cone.

Add the black paper strips to finish.

That's it, a great Thanksgiving project.

Back to the giveaway.  If you would like to win your own copy of "How to Make Stuffed Animals" by Sian Keegan please enter by one of the following:

- leave a comment on this post
- like or comment on this link on my Facebook page
- send me an email at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca

Please enter by 11:59pm on Thursday Oct 4th/12 and I will make the draw Friday Oct 5th/12.

Only US and Canadian residents please.

Good luck everyone and be sure to try some leaf print turkeys or squirrels. Great decorations for Thanksgiving!



Disclaimer: Review copy of How to Make Stuffed Animals provided by Quarry Books.  All opinions expressed are my own.

How to Paint Abstract Autumn Leaves

This painting is part of an abstract exercise you can do with your students (Grade 4 and up).  Sorry for the pictures but blogger is not letting me enlarge the pictures in the procedure section of this post. Please click on any of them to see larger.









It is a great lesson to practice looking at and painting negative shapes.

In this painting the background gradually gets lighter enabling you to lift out some leaf shapes at the bottom. 

This one is a bit easier, no variation in the background.







I'm going to give you the complete
 "How To" , but first let me introduce this week's giveaway.

"Understanding Art: Impressionism" is a DVD series from my friends at Acorn Media.  It features my favorite art critic Waldemar Januszczak (click on his name for a preview of his style).  Mr. Januszczak is not your "stuffy" art historian.  He approaches his documentaries with enthusasim and humour.  Transporting you back to the 19th century, showing you the exact locations of many Impressionist paintings, describing the conditions, personalities, and what the artists had to go through to create their art.

This gives you a deeper understanding of what Impressionism is all about, why it came about, and you will never look at a Monet, Renior, etc. the same again.  Great if you are teaching this to your class.  I often get asked " how do I explain Impressionism to kids".

This DVD series includes 4 one hour episodes and 2 bonus programs on Manet (90 minutes) and van Gogh (146 min). 

There is some nudity so you need to preview before showing to a class,  but overall I found this series very entertaining as well as very informative, not something you expect in an art history series.  My kids enjoyed it as well.  My 14 yr old was thrilled when she found out I was reviewing this series.  We had caught a few episodes of Mr. Januszczak's Baroque series on the Knowledge Channel at the cabin and the kids were hooked. Unfortunately that one is not currently available for sale in North America, fingers crossed it will be soon.


If you are interested in winning your own copy of this series check out the full details at the end of this post.








Now back to our abstract exercise.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- watercolor paper or heavy sketch paper
- pencil and eraser
- disk tempera or watercolor paints in Fall colours
- plastic kitchen wrap, (Saran type wrap)
- salt
- art boards, painter's masking tape
- black acrylic or liquid tempera

PROCEDURE:

Take your paper and tape down to your art board with the painter's masking tape.

Gather your materials.

Paint a mottled background using Fall colours.


You can place some plastic wrap on it before it dries, smooshing a bit, to get some nice texture.  Leave plastic wrap on until it dries.

You can also shake a little salt on for the salt effect if you wish.

Let your background dry.

The next step is to make a good sketch on your now dry background paper.  You want branches and leaves.  Have some overlapping and crossing.  You need more than you think you do because, once you start painting in the darks you realize "I really should have added more".

Click on this picture to see larger.

Take some brown disk tempera or watercolor.  You want a watery mix as you are just doing a glaze.

Apply this glaze to all the leaves and branches that are behind other leaves and branches.  This recedes them, giving them a touch of shadow adding that depth to your picture.

You can also add in a few lines to make the veins of the leaves that are in the forefront.











Now for the easier version take some black acrylic or black liquid tempera paint and start painting in all the negative spaces, places where there are no leaves or branches.

For this more challenging version start painting in the background with black watercolor or disk tempera.  Continue to add layers to those areas where you want lots of dark.  The background is only lightly coloured near the bottom as it sort of fades out.









You can lift out a few leaves in that faded background by painting them in with plain water and drying your brush on a paper towel after each pass.  This lifts the colour.


Finally you can add a few splatters.

That's it.  Let dry, take off the tape and sign and title.

On to the giveaway.  If you are interested in winning your own copy of the DVD series, "Understanding Art: Impressionism" with Waldemar Januszczak,   a $59.99 value from Acorn Media,  please enter in one of the following ways:

- leave me a comment on this post
- like or leave a comment for this post on my Facebook page
- send me an email at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca

Canadian or US residents only please.

You have until 11:59pm on Thursday Sept 27th/12 and I will make the draw on Friday Sept 28th/12.

Good Luck everyone.

Disclaimer:  Review and Giveaway copy were provided by Acorn Media.  The views and opinions expressed are my own.

Plaster Leaf Prints

Here is a plaster leaf print project that is very easy to do with dramatic results.  I posted a similar one 2 years ago, Salt Dough Leaf Prints.

With plaster the results are very quick and you don't have to bake them for 2 hours.

Grade 6 cast their prints today and I have a troop of Cubs completing their prints tonight.





ooooh such Fall loveliness!


Don't let plaster work intimidate you it's really pretty easy once you get the hang of it.






MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- small squares of Burlap
- Plaster of Paris, (I buy mine at the Hardware store by the carton or the bag)
- old yogurt container for mixing, or 2 , or 3,
- stick or old spoon, I use a chopstick
- newspaper
- water
- a really nice leaf, not dried out but still pliable
- some acrylic paint in Fall colors
- Mod Podge,  acrylic medium, or white school glue

PROCEDURE:

Gather up all your supplies.

Cover you work space with an old vinyl tablecloth, art board, or newspaper.

If your leaf is thin and tears easily it might be a good idea to apply a thin coat of Vaseline on the back of the leaf.  This will ensure it releases from the plaster.

I use an old yogurt container for mixing my plaster.  After I mix and pour I let the excess set in the container and then crunch the container a little.  The old plaster just flakes off and I can then throw it out and reuse the container for the next plaster project.

If you are pouring for a class or making alot of these have several containers so you can continue to mix and pour while the excess plaster is setting up in the previous container.

Lay out some newspaper.  Put down your squares of burlap.


Have your leaves at the ready.


At school I did this with small groups calling up 4 kids at a time.  The rest of the class worked on painting Frescoes.

If you have never used plaster before do a little test batch to get your feet wet.

Mix up a small amount of plaster.  I use a disposable drink cup to pour the dry plaster into the container and then add your water.  It's 2 parts plaster to 1 part water but to be honest I don't measure any more.  You'll learn to get the feel of it as you go.

Mix frantically to get it nice and smooth.  It will be like thick buttermilk in consistency....keep mixing when it becomes like yogurt start pouring.

Pour out onto the burlap.  Pour out the 4 or so you are doing and then go right back and shimmy the burlap a bit to flatten it and release the air bubbles.

Place your leaves into the plaster.  You want them face up with the veins and texture side on the plaster.


Using your fingertips lightly press those edges down and make sure the whole back surface is touching the plaster.

See here is a leaf cast where a portion of the leaf wasn't touching leaving that gap.

Let the plaster set up for about 10 - 15 minutes and then peel back the leaf to reveal the print.

If some leaf bits remain just go back and take them out.

Here are the Grade 6 prints in process.


Let your plaster set up fully.  Let it dry for a day or so.

Fray the edges of your burlap a bit for a nice look.

Now you might just want to leave it white but if you want to add a paint wash you need to coat the cast with a thin coat of Mod Podge or acrylic medium first.  You could even use a thin coat of white school glue if need be.

Plaster absorbs paint like crazy, in order to get that nice wash effect you need to put in that sealer first.

Let dry.

Put a little bit of acrylic paint on your palette.  Add some water to thin it out and then paint in where the leaf left it's imprint.


If you make a mistake just rub away the paint with a moist paper towel and try again.....that's the great thing about having that sealer coat.

That's it.  A great Fall accent for your home .

Give it a try and I'll see you next time!