3rd Grade Fall Landscapes

This is a great lesson to start the year off with.
The materials you will need include crayons, blue 12x18" paper, fall colored paints, and brushes.


First I show the students a Thomas Cole landscape painting.

Another good artist to reference for this project is Folk artist Walt Curlee. Here is a great pumpkin patch painting he created:

 I ask them how the artist shows distance in their work.  After sharing out some answers I clarify their ideas into 3 guidelines for creating distance or perspective in art: Size, Color and Detail l:
1. Objects get smaller as they recede into the distance (as they get nearer to the horizon line)
2. The color of objects become less bright the further back they go.
3. There are less details in objects the further away they get.

Using these 3 principles I demonstrate how to draw and tree and landscape including various objects such as hills, trees, scarecrows, pumpkins, corn, tractors, barns, crows, pumpkins, and anything else they can think to include.  I really emphasize the idea of curvilinear shading, or shading in the direction of the natural shape of the object.  For instance, pumpkins use curving oval lines. 

Lastly students painted leaves on their trees using red, yellow, and green paint. 

What's great about this lesson is how simple, effective, and great the results are!