Contemporary Evergreen Trees Mixed Media Collage

I found this pretty winter lesson HERE on the wonderful Dutch Art blog "Kids Artists" run by Jacquelien.

I modified the lesson a bit- instead of using bleeding tissue for the trees, we created textured paper using salt sprinkled over liquid watercolours. This took one period.

Here's all the paper dried the next day. 

Wiping off the crusty dried salt is a bit of a pain. 

UPDATE: now I use a stiff large nail brush to brush it all off! 

Each paper turns out so different with a beautiful crystallized effect. 

The next class students painted their backgrounds using either regular pan watercolours or liquid watercolours. They painted snow on top using white tempera paint.

While their backgrounds were drying, they used rulers and drew a variety of 

sizes of triangles on the back of their salt paper. 

These were cut out and patterns added using a gold or silver marker.

Then they glued them onto their background, making sure to overlap to create a sense of space.. 

Some Grade 4 - 6 results!

up close detail

Candy Canes in Oil Pastel

I first posted this lesson way back in 2011 HERE.

It's a great lesson in shading and how to turn a shape into a 3D looking form. 

On scrap paper, Grade 7 - 9 students drew a candy cane shape- most said this was the hardest step!

They then traced it onto grey construction paper and added diagonal stripes.

They use white to add a strong highlight in the middle and then blend away with their chosen colours. This year so many of my students went with the classic red and green colour scheme for some reason.

Once finished, these were cut out and glued onto black paper. 

Some of the Grade 7 - 9 results: