Printmaking and Leaves

Autumn is the perfect time to do a cross curriculum lesson by marrying printmaking and leaves.  I began the lesson with a 5 minute video about why leaves fall from the trees as the days get shorter in the fall (hint, it has to do with chlorophyll and photosynthesis). Then we took a hike around campus, touching bark, identifying the trees and collecting leaves and pinecones as we went.  

Our first art assignment, used the leaves we collected to make rubbings. The students would arrange their leaf or leaves with the vein sides up, lay a piece of copy paper or newsprint on top and rub the paper with the side of a crayon to reveal the texture and shape of the leaf. Rubbings are a simple form of printmaking and most households have all the supplies on hand. 

The second project was to make leaf prints by painting with tempera or acrylic on the vein side of leaves and then turn the leaf upside down and rolling it with a brayer or rolling pin. You have to be careful not to get uneven pressure through things like finger prints and it helps to place a piece of paper on top of the leaf as well to keep the roller clean. The same leaf can be used multiple times, although if more paint needs to be applied, use it sparingly so as not to fill in all of the gaps between the veins.

Finally we used stencils of various leaf shapes. Students placed a sponge in yellow paint to pat lightly, covering the exposed shapes. A sponge with blue paint dabbed around the edges creates green, and red paint sponged on the wet yellow creates orange. So students are learning leaf identification (biology), mixing of primary colors to create a secondary, (color theory), shape and texture (elements of design), and three different printmaking techniques (techniques and processes), in 3 hours of Art class.

Help the children in your life slow down and enjoy their fall through art making!

Leaf Collage

 One of my favorite things about teaching Art is that nothing is off limits in terms of other subject areas I can tap into for inspiration. This week's cross curriculum lesson touched on science. We learned about the seasons (specifically autumn), went on a walk across campus, collected leaves and learned the characteristics of each tree.  The goal was to find a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors (elements of art). Students reviewed when they tried their hand at leaf identification. There was an art history component as I shared, with them, the Earth Works of artist, Andy Goldsworthy, who often uses leaves to create his art.  Then each student choose pressed leaves according to size, shape, and color, to create an image.  Many of them made animals, but some higher level students created patterns, and some lower functioning students just practiced gluing leaves on the paper with out much thought given to arrangement.  Fall leaves, like cherry blossoms, come and go, and so if you don't get out and enjoy the colors and weathers soon, you'll have to wait another year before the chance comes again.

Autumn Paper Mural

Fall doesn't feel like fall with out golds and rusts to help us enjoy the transition. To introduce my lower functioning students to the concept of warm and cool colors I tied it into seasonal changes. Ginko trees turn yellow, maples turn red, and magnolia trees stay green. Students each made a couple of trees by coloring and stamping warm colored  paper, which was cut into simplified tree shapes.  Glue sticks turned paper into collages. Each student made one tree to take home and another to contribute to the giant banners that were laminated just in time to welcome the first day of Autumn.

Leaf Stencils

Fall has officially started and it is the perfect time to explore the many types of leaves before they're gone. I took my students on a "scavenger hunt" last week, for as many different shapes and sizes of leaves as we could find. While collecting leaves took up most of the class period, the art project itself only took a minute. We simply set a few twigs and leaves on a sheet of paper outside, and spray painted them and the paper around them. When we picked up the leaves, the shape was documented as negative space. The documentation of the leaves will last years after the actual leaves shrivel and turn to dust. I love the ephemeral quality of the finished products and the instant gratification of this project.   

My friend, Matt Forrest helped me teach the concept of stenciling on a deeper level by making silk screen of a few of our spray painted images. My students learned how to pull serigraphs (screen prints) with textile ink. While the ink was wet, my students dusted the images with flocking which gave a fuzzy texture. The second day and added process was worth it to make the images more meaningful for my students who see with their eyes.