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?

Fall-ing for value painting

Please excuse the lame title. I'm kinda lame sometimes.

Anyway, when my husband proposed last April Fool's Day (that's a doosie of a story for another day), I booked a photographer right away. And right away, she referred me to Pinterest. I've been pinning like a madwoman ever since. And now, who isn't? I found this picture on another teacher's pinboard:

Sadly, it linked back to a Flickr account, which meant no explanation, no plan, nada. Last week, I decided to give it a go with my third graders, figuring out what to do along the way.

We began with 12x18" black paper. I went with black instead of white in order to better hide our initial pencil lines. Every kiddo drew three leaves, all connected, some overlapping. Each leaf was sectioned off with a few veins.

Tracing our pencil lines with bottled glue was... messy. Some kids got it, some kids not so much, but we got 'er done. The biggest issue was finding a good spot for 20+ pieces to dry, as all of my drying racks are slanted, which doesn't bode well for gloppy, drippy glue!

 

Once the glue was dry, we discussed color values. I gave each kiddo a piece of egg carton with white tempera as well as the color of their choice. Everyone mixed their own tints, then shared their cartons with classmates. Each leaf had to be its own color.

We'll be mixing shades next time. So far, so good! Thanks again, Pinterest, you wonderful and cursed black hole of free time.