Watercolor Landscape

This watercolor starts with light pencil drawing of the lines of ground, mountains, and sky.  The pencil lines are guidelines for the watercolor layers.  Students must paint each layer of the painting without the colors mixing.  They must leave a thin, white space of paper between colors.

We usually talk about abstract art. We discuss that abstract paintings can look like different things to every person.  I ask questions to try to open their minds to some appreciation of abstract art.

Rolling Landscapes

I don't tell the students what we are drawing when I give them the directions for this artwork: Hold your paper portrait and make 7 wavy lines, letting your natural top-to-bottom hand motion create the rolling hills.  Turn your paper landscape and draw 3 mountains.  Add 5 trees (no lollipop trees), 3 patchwork fields, 1 barn, 3 animals, and 1 fence. (barn, trees, and animals must be smaller than mountains)

I often let the students do anything else extra creative as long as their drawings have the few required items.  These suggestions help younger students be creative and help them to fill the page. We finish with marker outlines and colored pencil.