Lesson inspired by
http://josettebrouwer.edublogs.org/files/2009/02/img_2215.jpg
I was wanting to end the school year with some easy lessons and thought I could teach them to draw trees in a creative way. To me, the hardest part to teach when drawing trees is the branching off
(diverging thickness to thinness of the branches).
This assignment mainly focuses on that part of the tree branching off.
1. Begin with starting in one corner of the picture making lines that are far apart and gradually get closer together as they go down. Each branch should gradually diverge into another and then into another. Do this until it gets to the edge or goes off the edge of the paper.
FOCUS: main branch is the biggest & thickest one, the last branch is the smallest & thinnest.
where the branch stems from is the thickest part and it will always be smaller than the branch it came from.
2. Sharpie the branches.
3. Using a pencil, find a spot in the corner to begin drawing concentric circles. These circles should have the same center in common. This will be a sort of abstract light source. Encourage students to do this lightly. Go ahead and go through the branches and erase later.
4. Use crayons or colored pencils to use a variety of colors to fill in between the circles. Avoid coloring in the branches. OPTION for teaching color value... You can have students start with lighter colors on the center circle and get darker as they go out.
5. Use black and grey marker to fill in the tree branches. Try to get kids to color it in following the direction of the branch to appear to be bark like texture...
6. Fill in any paper showing in the tree with grey marker.
7. Use a white crayon to graze over the side of the limbs
that are closest to the light source (center circle)
OPTION TWO
Using Black Paper, white colored pencil, and construction paper crayons.
1. Same as above step 1
2. Same as above step 2
3. Use crayola construction paper crayons to color concentric circles.
I laid them out in value color order, using the
white on the center, then out to yellow, orange pink, green, blue, and violet.
(light to dark)
4. I used a black marker and crayon on the branches going the same direction of the growth.
Same lesson with markers only...
Concentric marker circles on value order
Being the art geek I am, I wondered if my colors really were in the correct value order....
I was off just a bit with the Iguana Green and green. They were darker than I thought. A fun way of checking is taking the colored pic and changing it to black and white.
Still prett even though vale is off ;)
FINISHED...
I have not tried this with my students yet, but when I do I will post the pictures.
YAY FOR NEW IDEAS!!!
