Birch Trees Project

The kids really liked this project.  It was my take on a project I saw at a faithful attempt.
Despite having many steps it actually only took about an hour to complete (including drying time with the help of the Arizona sun).

This project included:

Tape and rubber cement masking

Oil pastels

Watercolor

Salt texture

Paint scraping

The Step-by-Step:

Use tape to mask where the trees will be. Be sure the tape touches the top of the page. Trim the bottoms different lengths (good time to talk about foreground, middle ground and background).

Drip or paint rubber cement across the page in wavy wind-like designs (to be rubbed off later.)

Use oil pastels to draw some detail lines on the ground. Most of the kids choose greens for grass. Ella used browns to create a rocky ground.

Using a wide, flat brush, paint the sky with watercolor working back and forth in rows of different colors. Use plenty of water and paint wet-on-wet so the colors blend together.

Paint over the ground to fill in around the oil pastels. 

When the ground is dry, paint diagonal shadows under the trees.

Sprinkle sea salt on wet paint for texture.

Let it dry. Be patient.

Peel off tape and use a rubber cement pick-up to remove the rubber cement.

Dip the edge of a stiff card (like a credit card) in black paint. 

Carefully place the card on the edge of a tree and drag it across.  I had the kids practice this technique first on another page to figure out how much paint was needed and the best way to swipe the card.

Our Birch Trees: