Waldorf watercolor tutorial THE TREE IN AUTUMN. The experience proceeds respecting a sequence of actions that helps the child to reflect on the condition of the tree in this season.
It is very important not to show paintings already made. If we ask the children to follow a certain sequence of actions without showing models, the personality of each child will be free to express, and the result will be surprising because there can be no two alike paintings, or two identical green, or two identical brown, etc. …
Waldorf watercolor tutorial THE TREE IN AUTUMN
Material required
– watercolors of any brand in tube or bottle (not tablet) in the following colors:
lemon yellow,
golden yellow,
ultramarine blue,
Prussian blue,
vermilion red.
The colors should be diluted in jars. In the Waldorf school we use Stockmar watercolor, which are beautiful, but it is not essential.
– a brush with flat tip and bristle of any kind, provided soft (otherwise the child may scratch the sheet and we risk that the activity is not experienced as a complete success)
– a tub and a jar of water
– a sponge that will serve to smooth out the wet sheet on the table, and then to dry the brush (much better than rags or paper towels)
– a sheet of sturdy paper, the watercolor paper is naturally the best (the shoddy papers, when wet, can form lumps)
Waldorf watercolor tutorial THE TREE IN AUTUMN
How to set up the lesson
Immerse the paper in the tray, then lay it carefully on the table with the help of the sponge.
You have to avoid the formation of air bubbles, because otherwise the paper may curl.
then have to be put on the table all the necessary material, if you want it this way: it is the best to avoid accidents:
and you can start…
We can say to the child that will paint a tree in autumn before, or we can simply say that we will make a “painting” and he’ll discover it when he paints.
With the ultramarine blue begin to bring down the light from the top down (be good mimes in these cases helps); it can be said that the light always comes from above, and that this is a light a little mixed to cold and moisture.
Since children have not seen the painting already done, everyone will find his gesture, (short, long, irregular, vertical or rounded etc …) it is important that each brush stroke going from top to bottom, with no turning back, but each time pulling the brush from the paper …
Take the color in several stages from the jar. At the end, the ultramarine blue is on the whole sheet.
Now, without washing the brush, add to the element air the earth element, using the Prussian blue. We can say that a support base, solid, lies beneath the air, mimicking a horizontal path with the hand.
And when the child made his “strip” blue, we say to him that the two were always talking to each other, and that blue does not remain lying there, but starts to go a bit toward the light.
Now we can say that they are the sky and the ground. But so it seems a polar landscape, instead we want a landscape that remembers the summer sun. In fact, in the fall and winter the earth is warm even though the air is cold, which is why the farmer sowing wheat and many animals will dig burrows to hibernate … so we can tell the children to wash very well the brush, dry it on the sponge and then take the golden yellow (once) and make him play on the sheet with Prussian blue.
Then re-wash the brush and make it play also with the lemon yellow.
Now it is clear that we are in a grass.
And we can tell the children to take a bit of red vermilion, again without washing the brush, because the seed is the memory of summer and its heat for the plant. And we ask the children to plant this seed.
Now it is very important never wash the brush, and not take more red: you only use the red of the seed, which is mixed with the other colors on the sheet.
The seed in the ground meets heat, light and water, and so opens: one part goes down (the roots), then you put the brush on the seed and descend, always pulling and never go back:
and one side starts to go up (always from the seed upward, without turning back). Naturally blending red blue and yellow forms the brown, and there will be two identical brown…
And what does the trunk? It takes nourishment from the roots and brings it up at the branches …
if using only the colors that there are on the sheet, of course, the branches become more and more thin and clear, and do not need to tell children to draw them in this way.
Now let’s say this is a tree that has already lost all its leaves, but instead we want to remind us of when, before falling, they were still there, although they were not as green as green in spring.
Always without washing the brush, take a pinch of golden yellow and remember together with the tree when the sun was still a bit bright, and make the foliage. The leaves naturally sprout from the branches, do not come on the tree flying or bouncing off the ground …
… then remember also the warmth, taking a pinch of red, and then work the foliage without taking other colors …
