Tree of Life Steps

These are the steps for my Klimt Tree of Life art piece.  

I like the contrast of the dark paper with the golds and bright oil pastel colors.  So, dark brown is my color of choice, but can be done on what ever color you prefer.  I have the kids start out by drawing a simple tree, they can always add to it later.  I also let them choose to draw regular circular spirals, but they can also do triangular or squared spirals as well.  

Next they fill in the tree with liquid metallic watercolors.

Although this piece doesn't have two coats, they always look better with a second coat of paint.

Fill in any empty spaces with more spirals. 

Add in grass with several different green

oil pastels. 

Then add in color to the garden with more oil pastels. 

Then, use black and white oil pastels to add details to the tree.  The kids really enjoy looking at Klimt's Tree and trying to recreate some of the designs. 

The last step is to add a little copper to the background, to break up the space. This is typically a 3 day, project, with each class lasting 50 minutes.

These are examples of student work from a previous post.