1. Monochromatic Fall Leaves
Presentation modified and prepared by Alice Finch 2013
1st Grade Art Project
West Mercer Elementary Art Enrichment Program

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3. Lesson Overview Lesson: Color Name: Monochromatic Fall Leaves
Time: 60 minutes + 15 minutes
The paint needs to dry before the sharpie vein lines can be drawn in. It is best to do the second session the following day as the paint tends to be very generously applied.
Medium: Tempera
Volunteers: 5-6 adults
Project Overview/Skills
 Students will learn about tints and shades and use tempera paint to create a piece of artwork using a monochromatic color scheme.
Large Print Suggestions
72 Kokoschka The Mandrill
170 Vincent Van Gogh Self Portrait
172 Vincent Van Gogh Sunflowers
228 Georgia O’Keeffe Yellow Cactus
Vocabulary
Tint
Shade
Monochromatic
Source - West Mercer Art Docent Program, 2009

4. Monochromatic Leaves Materials
Paintbrushes (small and medium), 1 per student
Tempera Paint
White, black, red, blue, orange, purple and green
Muffin papers, 2 per student or white paint trays (with lots of little indentations around the edge)
Water color paper 9x12 size
Black Crayons
Pencils (from class)
Squirt Bottles (optional, but useful for distributing paint, one bottle per color)
Fall Leaves
Leaves with simple shapes will be easier for them to trace (such as laurel, birch or any other oval-shaped leaf). Maple leaves will be more difficult. Make sure the leaves are not dried out.
Painting Prep- cover the tables with butcher paper
Scrub brush- for cleaning up the paint trays.

5. Paint Prep Mix shade here Mix tint here
The trick is to disperse the paint in small amounts, something that is very hard to do from the big bottles.
In the center of the paint tray, pour silver dollar sized puddle of the PURE color.
In one of small indentations, fill it half full of white
On the other side of the tray, fill another one half full of black. They really only need a tiny bit of black as it makes the shades dark very quickly.
They can scoop some of the pure color into an indentation next to the white/black to do the mixing.
They still need to wash their brush after the shade and before the tint.
At the end when they are filling in the background, they may need a bit more white.
PLEASE USE THE SCRUB BRUSH TO CLEAN UP THE PAINT TRAYS.
Mix shade here
Mix tint here

6. Let’s read a book about trees.

7. What does monochromatic mean?
Mono = one
Chromatic = color

8. Monochromatic Art Why would the artist choose to limit his/her colors?
How do the different color choices make you feel?

9. Monochromatic Paintings
Georgia O’Keeffe Flowers

10. Question? + = Color + white = tint
What happens if you add white to a color? =
Color + white = tint
Begin by asking the students what they think would happen if white is added to a color (light blue circle will appear with 2nd click)
you can give them an example, and demonstrate with paint
What would happen if you kept adding white? (lighter blue circle will appear with 3rd click, lightest blue color will appear on 4th click))
You create different colors from the same pure color.
These different, lighter colors are called tints. (“color + white = tint” will appear on 5th click)

11. Another Question? + = Color + black = shade
What happens if you add black to a color? =
Color + black = shade
What would happen if you added black to a color? Would the color change? How? These different, darker colors are called shades.
 same click sequence for shades

12. Today’s Project Paint monochromatic leaves
Mix your own tints and shades

13. Tints and Shades

14. Step 1 – Tracing the Leaves
Trace 8-10 leaves

15. Project Notes
Contact the teacher to determine whether the children will be allowed a short time outside to select a leaf to use for this project, or whether the teacher would like you to provide the leaves. Leaf size should not be much larger than their hand or it won’t fit well on the paper (no big-leaf maple leaves, for example).
Encourage them to choose leaves with a simple shape (even if the students collect leaves, it’s a good idea to bring in a collection of simple-shaped leaves as a back-up if a student selects a leaf shape that is too difficult for them to trace). 
Each student should use pencil to trace his/her leaf about 8-10 times on the paper.
Encourage them to make some of the leaves at angles, some leaves upside down and some leaves going off the edge of the paper (so just part of the leaf is traced).
They don’t need to make a perfect outline of the leaf--if they get the basic shape that is okay.
Each leaf painted in a tint or shade should get progressively lighter or darker. So add white, paint a leaf, then add more white, then paint another, etc.

16. Step 1 – Outline in Black Crayon

17. Step 2 – Painting the Pure Color
3 leaves

18. Step 2 – Painting the Shades
2 or 3 leaves

19. Step 3 – Painting the Tints
2 or 3 leaves

20. Step 2 – Painting the Background

21. Step 3 – Drawing in the Stem and Veins
Ask your teacher if they will have the students finish this part without your help. If not, after the paintings are dry, arrange for 3 volunteers to pull the students out in the hallway to complete their painting. This should take about 30 minutes.
After the paint is dry, the students should use black sharpies to outline their leaves (tracing over the black crayon outline).
They should use the sharpies to add details such as veins and stems.

22. Step 3 – Drawing in the Stem and Veins
This slide is for the instructor and helpers. It is worth pointing out that different leaves have different types of venation.
If you want to show this slide, you can ‘unhide’ it on the slide show tab
Since children will have a smattering of different kinds of leaves, you can encourage them to actually look at the vein structure of THEIR leaf rather than just make it up!

23. Display
Once the project is finished, student work should be mounted on black paper and displayed either in the classroom or in the designated area in the hallway.
If there are some who have not finished, please check with the teacher on how they would like to proceed.
Do not assume that it ok to continue the project after the allotted time.