Value painting: finishing up

One of the third grade classes just finished their value paintings and I wanted to share the results!

As a refresher, this project began when I saw a Pinterest pin that led nowhere.

I decided to have the kiddos do their pencil and glue lines on black paper instead of white. Then, we painted each leaf a different color, including various tints and shades within each color.

When the paint was dry, we cut around the contour of the leaves. And then I was stuck! I flat-out told the kids that I wasn't sure how I intended to have them finish their projects. Together we looked at some options and decided to mount the leaves onto a colored sheet of paper. Even with the bright fadeless color options, something was missing. Finally, we went with the following: a 10x16" piece of colored paper mounted onto a 12x18" black piece, with the leaves on top.

(Disclaimer: My iPhone and art room lighting don't do the bright colors justice, and I intentionally over-cropped the bottoms to cut off student names.)

This is a light blue background--silly phone.

What a difference a little black frame can make! The kids were so pleased with their paintings, and for winging it, I was, too. From start to finish, this took us four 45-minute class periods, with a little time leftover on the last day.

I really like the black lines between the leaves, though I know that the black paper did affect the way the tints went on. Thoughts?