Trees and Reflections

In art this past week students used oil pastels for the second time.  We looked at the work of Piet Mondrian ​Trees Along the River.
In this work Mondrian used a limited pallet of colors.  His painting is mostly red and various shades of red.
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Skills and Techniques
We practiced working from the back to the front.  We began by peeling paper from our yellow, orange and red oil pastels.  We used the yellow pastel on the side to cover the entire paper.  With orange or red we added another layer of color.
Our trees were created by making an outline and filling in.  The reflection in the water was made by adding a few ripples to the tree trunks.

Complementary Colors 
In order to get the red to look like a darker red, we used it's complementary color, green.  We then blended the green and red together to get a dark red.
Finishing touches
Students were encouraged to add as many layers of oil pastel as they wanted to the sky and water to make a rich color of layered oil pastels..