A Tape Tree Painting Tutorial and Where to Look for Clouds

Hello!
Today we are over at Kojo Designs participating in Kirstin and Delia’s annual series “Color Your Summer”.  We chose the color white again this year but decided to mix things up a little bit and share an art project instead of a sewing one this time.  (Just when you thought you knew us….)Summer means a lot of things around our house but one of those things is definitely art, art, and more art!  I’ve been teaching community summer art camps since before Simon was born and it’s just become part of our summer routine.  I love it!

So since the order of the day over at Color Your Summer is “white”  I thought I’d share another white loving art project over here as well.  Why not?

This one is simple (although not as simple as the one we are sharing over at Kojo’s) and never fails to make little artists happy.

All you need for this art project is white paper, tape (I used painters tape but you can use masking tape as well), water colors, and possibly a sharpie.

The first thing you do is place tape strips vertically (not necessarily in straight lines) across your paper.  These strips will be your future tree trunks.

(For younger artists I just let them use the tape straight off the roll or cut it in half for skinnier trees.  But for older artists I let them go crazy with the tape and cut it as wide and as wavy as they would like their trees to be.)

After the tree trunks are secured onto your paper it’s time to start painting.

We always paint either a night time sky or a sunset.

(Grace chose a night sky and Simon chose a sunset.)

Either one turns out nicely just as long as you cover the entire paper with color.

(And you can paint right over the top of the trees…just pretend they aren’t there and paint yourself niiiiiice sky.)

Now let your paint dry.

Once everything is nice and dry carefully pull off your tape to reveal some lovely moonlight white tree trunks.

Older artists usually like to add a little shadow detailing to their trees with dark brown and a skinny brush.

But younger ones are just as happy to add their details with a sharpie.

(Gracie’s trees are quaking aspens that are apparently home to a large squirrel population…as you can see by all the holes in them…)

 Either way it’s fun…and easy…with great results.

(And it’s perfect to do with a group of children of all different ages.)

Alright, so that is that.

If you want to check out another simple art project head on over to Kojo’s and see what we’ve got going over there.   And I’ll give you a hint…that project involves cloud watching…

See you there!

liZ