Leaf Dot Painting

Leaf Dot Painting
3 Class Periods

Leaf Dot Painting, Fourth Grade Art Lesson

Day 1: 
Have students choose an 8 x 10 piece of construction paper in a warm hue.  Students then select a leaf pattern.  The leaf pattern is cut and traced upon the construction paper.  Students are instructed to outline the leaf with a bold black line using a sharpie marker.

Day 2: 
Students viewed a YouTube clip on the culture and art style of Aborigine artists.  Students learned that Aboriginal art relates to nature, is painted in earth tones and is shown usually from a bird's eye view.

Students used paint in warm hues and white to paint dots within their leaf on the construction paper.  We used a Q-tip to create the dots.  Students were reminded to keep the dots in a line and to make sure there is a bit of space between each dot.

Dotting leaf with warm colors.

Day 3:
On the third day students cut their leaf out from the warm colored construction paper and glued it onto a cool hue construction paper (8 x 10 inches).  I next demonstrated to students how to begin with black paint and divide up the space around the leaf.  I told students to use the veins of the leaf as their guide and if large areas of negative space still existed, divide those in half.

Dividing up the negative space with black paint.

Students then used paint in cool hues to continue dotting the background of the composition.  We reviewed Aborigine art style characteristics.

Dotting the background.

Day 4:

You do not need a whole class period for this last step, but it can't be done till the paint dries from the previous step.  As a finishing touch have students mount their final piece of work onto a warm colored piece of construction paper (9 x 12 inches). 

Student Examples: