Their trees need to show space by using foreground, middle ground and background correctly. The students will be using masking tape to make their trees.
Once they finish taping their trees they will use watercolors to paint their sky. If you look at the sky closely, you'll notice it had a marbled texture. This texture is created by using salt. When the watercolor paint is still wet sprinkle some salt ontop and the salt will absorb some of the paint! So cool, so simple!
The ground will be left white, so it looks like snow, except they will be painting shadows for the trees. After the watercolor had dried they will peel off the tape to reveal a white birch tree. Then students will draw black horizontal lines to complete their birch trees. They will also paint half of the tree a light gray to show value
When we create this landscape, I also like to talk about how important the Birch Tree is the Native Americans. The birch trees are a very important part of the Native American culture, especially the Ojibwe tribe. Native Americans use the birch bark to make containers, wigwams and canoes.