LESSON PRESENTATION INSTRUCTIONS
VALUE
DINOSAUR SILHOUETTES
Lesson Objectives: Students will learn about value by painting a watercolor sky from dark (low value) to light (high value). Students will learn proper watercolor technique.
Time Required: 1 hour
Artist: Claude Monet, Sunset in Venice (available online)
Materials:
Watercolor paper (taped to a piece of cardboard
with blue painter’s tape)
Watercolor paint: Black, purple, blue, red, orange, and yellow
Paintbrushes
Water
Paper towels
Salt
Black dinosaur cut-outs (template available in Kindergarten Sample folder)
Glue sticks
Chalk pastels: white, yellow, peach
Presentation:
Discuss the concept of value: the more light in a color, the higher it is in value. The less light in a color, the lower it is in value. There can be value changes within a single color, or among different colors, i.e. yellow is higher in value than black. This project focuses on the differences in value among the colors.
Procedure:
- Pass out watercolor taped onto cardboard. Write names on the blue tape.
- Using only water and a paintbrush, wet the entire piece of paper. (wet on wet technique)
- Add yellow across the top of the page using smooth, back and forth strokes.
- Add in a stripe of orange underneath and paint into the yellow so no white shows through. Continue with red, purple, and blue, and ending with black at the very bottom. Immediately afterwards, while the paper is still wet, sprinkle salt over the blue, purple, and black sections. The salt will absorb the paint, leaving behind a speckled sky.
- Let dry. (This is a great time to give the presentation.)
- Glue on the dinosaur silhouettes with Elmer’s glue.
- Use chalk pastel to create comet streaks in the sky.
