Falling Leaves Watercolour Paintings

Grade 4-6 students made these lovely falling leaves watercolour paintings using liquid watercolours.

I was inspired by THIS post on Pinterest- no source is given.

I cut some manila tagboard (cheap!) in half and students drew a leaf of their choice on it. They needed to include a stem and draw the veins on. Once cut out, this was their tracer.

*I encouraged the older students (Grade 6) to draw a more challenging leaf, such as a maple or oak. Grade 4 students mostly drew the simpler leaves.

I cut 12 x 18" heavy white paper in half vertically. Students used their leaf tracer and traced it a bunch of times onto the paper. They need to overlap some of them and I also encouraged the used of a diagonal composition which helps give a sense of movement or falling leaves.

Once traced, the leaves and veins were outlined in Sharpie.

Liquid watercolors have become one of my favorite art media. They are not as convenient as regular palette watercolors but they are just so beautiful to paint with; much more vibrant (at least mine are).

Although I store mine in condiment cups that are placed in tempera puck trays, there is at least one spill per class. So I have cloths handy to wipe up spills.

The kids started off by painting the leaves using warm colours. 

They were encouraged to use the wet-on-wet technique and allow the

 colours to bleed together.

The next class, once the leaves were dry, they painted the background using cool colours.

Here are some of the finished ones- these are much more vibrant in person.

My new camera phone takes terribly dull and washed out photos!