4th Grade Tints and Shades, Value Scale

"Cool Skies and Fireflies"

This project is always a hit. Students love to create this beautiful background using tints and shades. We also discuss VALUE SCALE with this project! 

I have done many different things over the top such as an owl on a tree branch with construction paper, the sillohette of a tree etc. This year we used Georgia O'Keeffe's painting titled, "The Lawrence Tree" as our inspiration. This also allowed us to discuss Point of View. We began by discussing Warm and Cool colors, then lead into the rest. 

I decided to have students focus on cool colors so the title "Cool Skies and Fireflies" popped in my head, and so it was BORN! 

This project hits: 

Tints/Shades

Value Scale

Point of View

Warm/cool colors 

An artist

AND we had a discussion over O'Keeffe's painting so we also rolled art critique into this project! 

On 12X12" paper--

Day 1:

First we started by painting a white circle for the moon. 

Then students slowly added the color to the white to create a very light tint, each ring adding a little more. I asked them to create 4 tints. I said, "FOUR IS A MUST, FIVE IS A PLUS!" They took this as a challange and many created 5! 

Students then added a ring of plain color to seperate the tints from the shades.

From there they slowly added black to create shades and I asked them to try to create 3. 

Day 2:

Discussed O'Keeffe and The Lawence Tree via powerpoint 

Demoed how to create whimsical branches over the background

Created yellow "fireflies" using the back of the paint brush dipped in paint

Students finished independently 

Comment with your email if you would like me to send you the powerpoint I made for this project. :) Its short and sweet and ends with a critique.