Materials
Canvas, paper or cardboard- Paint
- Paintbrushes and a water bucket
- Painter’s palette (a paper plate works nicely)
- Cotton balls
- Clothes pins (optional)
Instructions
- Paint the background of your canvas a light blue color to mimic the sky. Remember that a thin, smooth layer of paint will dry more quickly!
- While your background is drying, mix together the primary colors to create a brown pigment for your tree branch. Brown can be a tricky color to make. We suggest making orange first (red + yellow) and then adding the *tiniest* bit of blue.
- Once you have created a shade of brown, paint a tree branch coming from one side of your canvas.
- While your branch dries, mix red + white together to make pink. Create two different shades of pink, one light and one dark, to add depth to your painting.
- To make the cherry blossoms, attach the cotton balls to the clothes pins and then dip each cotton ball into a shade of pink. If you don’t have clothes pins, holding onto the cotton balls yourself is fine.
- To make the cherry blossoms, dab the cotton balls onto your tree branch. Start with the darker shade of pink and then go over it with lighter pink. You do not have to wait for the dark pink to dry before adding the light pink.