Glue Line Watercolour Pumpkins

Grade 6 students created these glue line watercolour paintings. These were inspired by a 2005 lesson from Arts & Activities magazine called "Glue, Hue and Contour, Too" by Art teacher Paula Guhin. Her original lesson involved drawing plants from observation- I've simply changed it to pumpkins for Fall.

See my other glue line pumpkin project here. It is done on black paper with chalk pastels.

In this lesson, students needed to demonstrate an understanding of contour lines, wet-on-wet techniques of watercolor painting and warm and cool colours. 

They observed, from life, mini pumpkins which I bought at the grocery store. I buy mini pumpkins because, well, they're both super cute and, more importantly, alot less heavy to transport

as opposed to a bunch of large pumpkins!

First, they practiced drawing them in their sketchbooks, and then 'drew' them on heavy white paper (large watercolour or heavy white paper is best- don't use construction paper- it won't work) with white glue straight from the bottle. Add vines, grass, etc. We didn't draw them first with a pencil- otherwise the pencil lines have a tendency to show through the glue when it's dry. So that's why students really practised drawing beforehand in their sketchbooks- so they would be confident enough to draw free-hand with the glue without following a pencil line.

Note: it's quite difficult to draw small details with the glue- it just bleeds together into a blob- so keeps your shapes fairly big and simple. Using large paper (at least 9 x 12" or larger) helps.

I really emphasized the use of curved lines for the lines separating the segments. 

Some students had a tendency to draw these straight, so watch for this.

After students have drawn it with glue, they might notice some of their glue lines have 'beaded' up and separated. Simply pass over the lines again to re-connect them all. 

Actually, the thicker the lines, the easier they will be to see the next day.

Let dry on a flat surface (we use the floor) overnight and the next day

the glue lines will have flattened out quite a bit.





Once it's dry, outline all the glue lines with a fine point permanent marker. The glue lines can be tricky to see, so it's a matter of tilting the paper towards the light or feeling for the lines with your fingers. Students quickly get the hang of it. Remind the kids to work slowly as the marker has a tendency to 'skip' over the glue lines if you trace too fast.

Finally, paint with watercolours. I demonstrated to students how to achieve a 3-D looking pumpkin using lighter shades in the middle of the pumpkins. Encourage colour mixing and having the colours bleed together with water.

Ta da!