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Masking Magic
In this two-week lesson, 3rd- 5th grade students learn about painting techniques that include watercolor masking, crayon resist, and spattering and sponging with tempera paint.
Targeted State Frameworks/ Content Standards/ Benchmarks:
Standard 2- Students know and apply elements of art, principles of design, and expressive features of visual arts
- Students identify, understand, and apply elements of art & principles of design to create works of art
Standard 3- Arts materials, tools, techniques, and processes
- Students grow in the areas of observation, eye/hand coordination, spatial relationship awareness, critical thinking/ problem solving, and technique: use of medium and tools
Student Objectives/ Learning Outcomes:
Students will review principles of design: pattern and repetition. They will observe teacher demonstration of painting techniques to be practiced. Students will compose a design that demonstrates their knowledge of the principles of design studied, overlapping, as well as learned painting techniques. Students will also review and practice the concepts of background, middle ground, and foreground and how they are affected by atmospheric perspective as well as shadows and shading created by a light source (the sun).
Process
Week One (1 Hr.):
- Students/ teacher will determine which project to do: beach scene or aspens. (I suggest entire class do the same thing).
- Using masking tape, “mask out” their project
- Aspen trunks (leaving room at top and bottom of page OR
- Beach umbrellas by tracing around pre-cut templates of beach umbrellas (students must learn to complete closest/ largest umbrella first, and then portions of subsequent umbrellas that would be partially visible).
- Outline.
- Beach umbrellas with permanent markers and use crayons to create patterning in the beach umbrellas. Students can add beach toys, sand castles, etc.
- Students creating aspens will then mark out background, middle ground, and foreground— crossing over the masking tape will not harm the design.
- Students watercolor the background, middle ground, and foreground (or as in the beach scene, the sky, water, and sand as well as the beach umbrellas).
Week Two (1 Hr.):
- Aspens:
- Carefully remove masking tape.
- With permanent marker, draw in knots and wood lines of aspen trees. Students may observe actual pictures of aspen trees.
- Students also shade determined side of aspens based on the sun’s direction and use a permanent marker line and grey marker to determine a middle “shade” value.
- Using tempera paint, students will sponge in Fall aspen leaves at the top and with brushes, create grass in the foreground.
- Fallen aspen leaves are splattered on the ground with an old toothbrush (make sure to cover up the tree trunks).
- Beach scene:
- Before removing masking tape, finish watercolor and splatter sand colored tempera paint in the foreground.
- Remove masking tape.
- Using a ruler, students shade a determined side of umbrella pole based on the sun’s direction and use a permanent marker line and grey marker to determine a middle “shade” value.
Age Group
Grades 3-5
🖍️ Materials
- white art paper
- pencils
- watercolor paints
- sponges
- masking tape
- crayons
- permanent markers (fine & regular point)
- grey water based markers
- tempera paints
- pre-cut umbrella templates
- old toothbrushes
- rulers
Shared by:
Delane Ingalls Vanada
Art Educator @ Colorado Springs, CO