Submitted by Rebecca Engelman, an art educator at Cathedral School in Bismarck, ND.

Objectives

• Instruction on the structure of trees.
• Emphasis on how the tree gets smaller as it grows and branches and twigs.
• Observation of how snow sets on branches.

What You Need:

• Variety of colored construction paper in shades of blue.
• Assorted brown crayons.
• White tempera
• White glitter
• Paint brushes

What You Do:

1. Have students choose a shade of blue paper for their background.

2. Students draw trees on their blue paper starting at the bottom of the tree.
   • Use a brown crayon and press hard.
   • Make the branches reach towards the sky.
   • Make sure that branches get smaller as they divide.
   • Select another shade of brown crayon and layer it over the first brown. (Gives the tree a sense of texture)

3. Use thick white tempera to paint snow on the top-side of the branches.

4. Add snow to the ground, around the tree.

5. You may use an old toothbrush dipped in white paint to spatter snowflakes on the background.

6. Quickly sprinkle white glitter on the wet tempera paint to make the "snow" glisten.

Recommended Books:

Drawing for Older Children and Teens
A Creative Method That Works for Adult Beginners, Too
by Mona Brookes
Applying the same principles but with higher-level material and more sophistication than she used in her bestselling Drawing with Children, Brookes clearly and comprehensively teaches readers everything they need to know to draw for themselves.

Biography:

Comments:

~Marianne Galyk