Atmospheric Perspective Paintings–Fifth grade
Watercolor is a strange medium: it’s something you can start as early as kindergarten, and yet it is difficult to master even as an adult. That being said, it is one of my favorite mediums to work with, and I try to review it with students at whenever I can throughout the semester. With this lesson, we begin with a basic review of watercolor techniques with a “worksheet” of sorts. You can watch my tutorial for this part of the lesson below!
Once this is finished, students keep this as a reference for this and future projects. Finally, we’re ready to learn about atmospheric perspective! Atmospheric perspective is when something farther away looks lighter in color. We also discuss other properties of perspective such as scale: the closer an object is, the darker it is; the further an object is, the lighter it is. Students use these rules to help them with their final paintings. My short-but-sweet presentation on this can be found here. Finally, it’s time to paint! Students use the tutorial below for instruction.
For a finishing touch, we splatter paint white tempera on top for our winter scene! Not only is this a great (and secular) holiday project, parents tend to like it quite a bit on Artsonia. Student work is featured below!
