Autumn birches

What do you need?

• drawing sheet
• masking tape
• tempera 
• stencil brush
• charcoal
• chalk pastel 

Instruction
Look at photos of birch trees and discuss their distinctive features: tall white trunks, the greyish-black lines caused by the horizontal peeling of the bark and the many warm colors in the leaves. Show that you can still see the individual leaves in the foreground, revealing multiple distinct colors, whereas further away colors blend more and more into a single shade.

Explain how to use a stencil brush: do not mix the colors beforehand, but dip the brush into multiple colors at the same time and then gently stamp it. Practice this on a scrap piece of paper first.

What should you do?

1. Apply several strips of masking tape vertically onto the sheet in various lengths. 
2. Draw a horizon line. 
3. Stamp the bottom in several autumn colors, merging into one color near the horizon line. 
4. Stamp the remaining leaves in the trees. There may be green there too! 
5. Let dry.
6. Color the sky with chalk pastel. 
7. Pull the masking tape off carefully. 
8. Draw with charcoal the specific birch dashes.

Artworks made by students of grade 4.