In Home Entertainment: (Abstract) Winter Tree Silhouette

We've been spending a lot of time using our IKEA MALA paints lately -- it's a relatively compact set that includes vivid watercolor cakes, two little cups for water, and two brushes. The colors come out nicely saturated and, despite their small size, they've lasted a long time around our house thus far. Just in case, mom threw them in our suitcase when we went to New Jersey for the holidays. And on one of her marathon pinning sessions over the break, mom came across this neat project for painting winter tree silhouettes. We decided to try it one day when Cam was taking a nap. We didn't have any masking or washi tape, but we made some electrical tape work for us (we would recommend masking, painters, or washi tape if you've got it -- it was hard not to rip the paper off with the electrical tape).

First we looked out Nona's window and spotted lots of bare, winter trees. Then we talked for a while about how the trunk starts off big and then branches out smaller and smaller. Mom tore pieces of tape for me and I started making my tree on heavy watercolor paper with the tape. Then I decided, not surprisingly, that I wanted to make more of an abstract tree. And then not a tree at all. Mom did one next to me just to show me what she had had in mind. Once I had my shape as I wanted, I painted all around the white space on the page. Well, that's what mom tried to get me to do. But, I insisted on not painting around most of the tape. Not surprisingly, mine came out much cooler.

And I actually asked to make some more the next day, but once mom pulled out the tape, I didn't want to make a tree at all. I wanted to use a few big pieces to block out a large spot on the page. Mom suggested we make a painting for Auntie V who had an accident recently and wasn't feeling so hot. So that's what we did. At first I insisted on using a lot of black, so mom (again) worked on a more brightly colored one next to me. Then I decided I wanted her to help me, but still insisted that using black was "more cherrier" than hers. I'm pretty sure Aunt Veronica would agree.

our model

perfect

mom showing me what she had in mind

and me telling her i like my idea better

couldn't let the paint dry

some post-tape removal filling in

yea, i guess that's a tree

day 2

mom and i liked working on the paintings together - i told her she could only paint "As" and "Vs" on mine though

 i snuck a little black on mom's

we let the paint dry this time

then painted our message