Fall Fun: Warm and Cool Colors Leaf Study

This fall art lesson was always a big hit with my students

 when I was an elementary art teacher. 

It was a nice way to talk about the different shapes of leaves,

warm colors (red, orange, yellow, gold, tan) 

and cool colors (green, blue, violet, silver, gray),

as well as explore complimentary color combinations. 

We would start with a fall leaf gathering walk.

Then, we'd work on a piece of black construction paper folded into fourths or quarters.

Sketch one leaf in white chalk in each square (rectangle). 

Then, using oil pastels color two leaves with cool colors

and the other two leaves with warm colors. 

This is a good project to practice blending and mixing colors.

Color the background with the opposite color combination, 

so if you have a warm-colored leaf you would color a cool-colored background

and for a cool-colored leaf you would color a warm-colored background.

Here's an example of the leaves in progress, notice how it takes

a while to build up the layers.

Close-up of the intersecting backgrounds. 

Happy Fall Art-Making!

Fondly,

pink and green mama,