Expressive Stained Glass Trees

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, students will design a ‘Stained Glass Tree.’ This painting and design exercise involves drawing a silhouette of a tree and painting each section with semi-transparent layers of paint. The finished artwork will resemble a stained glass window, capturing light and emotion through the use of color and design. 

Lesson Objectives

• Learn how to apply a wash painting technique.

• Blend colors using the wet-on-wet painting technique.

• Explore how to express emotions through design and color theory.

• Understand the concept of a thumbnail sketch to plan an illustration.

Brainstorm

1. What emotions and feelings do you want your tree to express? 

2. How can the tree’s design convey those emotions?

3. What can you add to make your design more visually interesting?

4. Which colors will best express the emotions you want to portray?

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Thumbnail Sketching: In your small sketchbook, create several thumbnail sketches to experiment with tree designs. Be creative and explore different ways to express emotion through your tree.

2. Pencil Drawing: Choose your favorite thumbnail design and lightly sketch it in your project sketchbook. Make sure your design includes plenty of shapes that can be painted into.  Include a 3 cm border around the edges to frame your composition.

3. Inking: Trace over your pencil lines using black permanent markers to create clean, bold outlines.

4. Wash Painting: Use gouache paints to fill each section of your tree design. Experiment with blending colors using the wet-on-wet painting technique.

5. Blending Practice: Practice blending washes by transitioning from one color to white, blending two colors into each other, and combining multiple colors to achieve a cloudy or gradient effect.

Through this lesson, students will learn to express emotions and individuality through color and design, while mastering foundational painting techniques that mimic the beauty of stained glass.

Terminology

• Wet-on-Wet: A painting technique in which a layer of wet paint is applied onto another layer of wet paint to create blending effects.

• Wash Painting: A technique where paint is diluted and applied as a semi-transparent layer of color.

• Thumbnail Sketch: A quick, small sketch used to plan composition and explore ideas without corrections.