Monet Style Fall Trees

Monet Style Fall Trees

I do this lesson just in time for fall- of course.  My second grade classes have just started this.  Although, this year I am trying it a little differently.  These are pictures from last year and although I like the way they turned out I was looking for a way to incorporate the leaf rubbing into the overall look and finished piece.

Materials Needed:

Drawing paper (or tracing paper)

Tempera Paints: red, yellow, orange, green

Oil pastels: brown and black or brown paint (for the tree)

So here's how to make your Monet Style Fall Trees:

1. Draw or paint the tree on your paper, using brown oil pastel or brown paint.  A good way to make a tree is to start with the letter Y.  Then add some more Ys onto the tree for branches.  You may need to thicken up the tree trunk and branches so it looks a bit more natural.
2. Next, paint leaves by dabbing (Monet used dabs of paint) red, yellow and orange on the branches and around the branches.  You might even make a few leaves fall off the tree since it is fall after all!
3. Now, paint the grass around your tree.
4. Allow to dry.
5. During our next class we do leaf rubbing on a large piece of construction paper and use this to frame our paintings.

Here is how our paintings will be different this year.

• We are painting on tracing paper this year. Our tracing paper looks frosted; it's not clear. This will allow our leaf rubbings to show through and create a layered look.

 I will post photos of the new ones soon!  For now here are a few from last year....

Here is a detail of the paintings and leaf rubbings from this year.  This shows the thin paper that we used and the rubbings underneath.  I like the overall look of these.  More photos to come!