A Tropical Island Sunset

This week we painted a tropical beach scene at sunset. 

We used soft pastels to cover the paper from top to center (the horizon line) with sunset colors and then reflective colors to the bottom of the paper. We learned that laying in the color works best with the pastels lying flat instead of using the tips.

Next, we poured white tempera paint into a bowl, dipped a finger into the paint, and smeared it back and forth over the soft pastels to blend the colors and create a lovely sunset-lit sky and its reflection in the water. 

After the paint dried, we sketched in a simple tropical scene with vine charcoal - just the landscape shapes in the background and the tree shapes. (Our braver artists skipped the preliminary sketch.) Then we filled in the shapes with thick black tempera paint, adding the palm tree fronds and a flock of birds with slightly thinned tempera.

Here are a few more that we did in an earlier summer art camp:

My sample

This is an expanded version of an Art for Kids: Ocean Scenes painting idea, in which black cutouts are used for the silhouettes (probably an easier option for younger children).