Art at Hosmer: Fall Leaves Watercolor Resist

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Fall Leaves Watercolor Resist

Recently 1st grade artists looked at fall leaves and noticed that the green leaves change to red, orange and yellow when it becomes fall. We noticed that these are all warm colors. We began by looking at real leaves, as well as photographs of leaves, that have changed color during the fall. Students drew several large leaves on their paper, using oil pastels.

Then we painted them using watercolor paint in warm colors -- red, orange and yellow. The oil pastel lines of the leaves show through the watercolor paint which demonstrates resist, an effect students learned about last year in kindergarten.

Students also learned about a watercolor technique called wet-on-wet, which involves painting the paper with water first and then dropping or painting with watercolor on top. The watercolor blooms or spreads because the paper is already wet which creates a blurry effect. Students enjoyed experimenting with this technique, and many found its effect "magical"!

The following class, we added some lines with white oil pastel to the background and then painted the background with cool colors of watercolor paint. Students experimented with wet-on-wet and also learned about another watercolor technique: using salt sprinkled on top of the wet paint. The salt absorbs the color from the paint, creating a white spot underneath as it dries and making a interesting texture.

Students enjoyed combining some of the watercolor techniques they learned about during this project. After our artwork had dried, the salt was brushed off and students were excited to see the effects of the salt, as well as the wet-on-wet. Below are examples of our warm and cool color fall leaves: