Day 14: Leaf Imprints
Before all the leaves turned too crunchy, we saved a few fresher leaves to use for imprints. We painted on the vein side of the leaves, covering all the parts lightly (or heavily, in the four-year-old's side of things). My son was actually just happy painting the leaves; however, when he saw my next steps, he started trying different techniques, too.
After painting the leaves (while they were still wet), I turned them over and pressed down with my hands to get contact with paint and paper over the whole surface area of the leaf. A brayer would be a great help in both applying the paint and pressing the leaf on the paper to make the print. Hmm . . . couldn't find my brayer today!
As I mentioned, my son put lots of paint on his leaves. I like how used lots of different colors and blended them together. Good color exploration going on! He also decided the paper needed more paint. He was watching me and started doing exactly what he'd seen me do!
My nature boy was happy with his results, but I think he liked the painted leaves leftover just as much!
Natural extensions of this would be shapes, trees, textures, color blending, etc. Try it on muslin or other fabric for a neat effect (though you might use paint intended for fabric). I just saw a sweatshirt last week with leaf prints all over it. Cute!