Leaf Rubbing Paintings

These simply beautiful leaf rubbing paintings are surprisingly easy. An afterthought of our Thanksgiving Leaf Cards, this is a great example of how you can take one art project and expand on it to make something unforgettable.


Materials Needed:

-Leaves (dried or fresh)

- white crayon, paper removed (I figured nonwashable crayons would make more sense for this one, but I’m sure washable would work as well)

-plain white paper

-watercolor paints

-glass of water, and paintbrushes (I found the round foam brushes, called a stippler, worked just beautifully with this project and would even recommend a trip to the store to find some-I found a pack of twenty different kinds of paintbrushes for $5 at Walmart, and they last for ages)

- Wipes or paper towels for cleanup

1. Using white paper and white crayon, follow directions from my Thanksgiving Leaf Card blog to make leaf rubbings. You will, obviously, not see the white crayon on the paper, but do make sure to really press down with the crayon and get the edges of the leaves, for you need a thickish layer of crayon for this to work perfectly.

2. With watercolor paints, paint on top of the crayon rubbing. You’re children will think you quite clever when the invisible leaf rubbing magically appears in white with the paint color surrounding it. (which is, of course, because the wax in the crayon repels the water based paint-can this be considered science class?)  Now, a few notes on technique:

- Painting directly on the leaf rubbings with a regular paintbrush worked, but was not very inspiring, kind of sloppy looking. I used (as noted above) the round foam paintbrushes used for stenciling-they are wonderful for all sorts of projects and quite fun to use. (You could, probably, use a rag or paper towel dipped in the paint for a similar effect, but I do not think it would look as good)

- To use the stippler (as the brushes are called, apparently, I looked it up in case anyone was confused) dip it in the watercolor paint, and pounce it up and down, instead of rubbing back and forth like a regular paintbrush. It is just lovely. I found that the effect was somewhat lost if the paint was too wet, so if it is, simply pounce onto a paper towel a few times before your paper and it will work perfectly.

3. Enjoy your creations, play with the paint, and let your students help you clean up.