Once you've learned the simple technique of botanical printing, you can move on to some experimentation.

NOTE: 

To celebrate Autumn, squeeze out a bit of acrylic paint in the season's colors onto a coated paper plate.

You can use any number of shades. I applied brown, orange, red, yellow and green.

With a small sponge, dab the colors onto the vein side of the leaf, in  a random order.

Make sure to cover the whole leaf, but do not apply the paint heavily. 

As explained in Part 1, gently place the leaf, paint side down onto a sheet of white paper. Cover with a catalog page. Press and smooth over the entire leaf.   

Lift the page and leaf . You then have........

In all my experiences of teaching arts enrichment classes, this art project has to be one of my all time, absolute favorites.

Look closely at all the varied leaf shapes in your yard or in a local park. You will see a cornucopia of inspiration for botanical printing.

Botanical printing  is so simple that it can be done with children as young as 

2 1/2, but provides such beautiful results, that it is a much satisfying creative activity for adults as well.

So before all the leaves are gone for readers up north, here are the super easy instructions and supplies needed:

Squeeze a little bit of green paint onto the coated paper plate.

Lay one leaf, vein side up, onto a page from an old catalog or magazine.

Apply paint evenly with the sponge to cover the entire leaf.

NOTE - Don't apply too heavily or the image won't print well.

Gently place leaf, vein/paint side down onto white paper.

Place another, clean catalog page over the leaf.

Press and smooth your finger over the page so that you feel every bit of the leaf.

Leaves of three, 

let them be!

This is what poison ivy looks like. Do not pick any leafy plant that has 

"leaves of three".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you see Calder's unique, one-liner take on the artist's self portrait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He carried the one-liner idea a step further by creating three dimensional wire drawings.

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to try this one-liner sculpting technique, you can find wire of  differing weight, thickness and resistance at craft stores, or by googling, "jewelry wire".

 

 

 

 

 

Another variation on a one-liner  art project  is yarn painting. There are some really cute ideas on Aunt Annie's Crafts at

 

http://www.auntannie.com/DecorativeCrafts/YarnPainting/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now for some really mind blowing one- liner art, check out the video on the following post about artist, Chan Whee Chong.

 

 

This is a close up of Chong's one-liner, Girl with a Pearl Earring. Amazing!

 

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