Year 3 - Art and design
Paint a rainforest
The Rainforest: drawing and painting
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
Pupils will learn about different artists who used forest scapes as their subject. They will create rubbings and make a collage from objects they have collected, before making observational drawings and developing and realising their own rainforest painting.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to sketch a rainforest composition and apply a range of painting techniques.
Key Notes
- Arranging features of a rainforest in the foreground, middle ground, and background creates a balanced composition
- Different painting techniques such as stippling, sponging and blending can create texture
- Practicing with different brush sizes (small, medium, large) creates varied effects
Vocabulary To Learn
- composition: how the images or elements are arranged within an artwork
- texture: how something feels or how something looks like it would feel
- sketch/sketching: making quick and simple drawings to show ideas or the things we see
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- Pupils might use the same brush size for the entire painting.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Arranging features of a rainforest in the foreground, middle ground, and background creates a balanced composition. Different painting techniques such as stippling, sponging and blending can create texture.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'composition'
how the images or elements are arranged within an artwork.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: Pupils might use the same brush size for the entire painting. Correction: Demonstrate how larger brushes are best for covering big areas like the background, while smaller brushes are ideal for details like leaves, veins, or animal features. Provide examples of how different brush sizes create varied textures and effects.
More Lessons In This Unit
- Artists who use the rainforest as inspiration for their artwork Study Guide
- Collage skills using the rainforest as inspiration Study Guide
- Draw the rainforest: studies of plants and leaves Study Guide
- Explore the shades, textures and colours of a rainforest Study Guide
- Make frottage leaf studies Study Guide
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