Rouault Inspired Stainglass Fruitbowl Art Lesson

This is one of my favorite lessons. It combines a couple of my favorite art techniques for kids...double loading of the paint and black paint outline.
Inspired by Rouault, the lesson is designed to teach the children about light and how to achieve it within a painting.
First the children draw a still life from a bowl of fruit I place in the middle of the classroom. I encourage them to keep the shapes simple. Once they are happy with their composition, I bring
out the paints. Pre-mixed paints, in a variety of jewel tones, are placed in my standard muffin-type paint palettes. Next, I teach the kids how to double-load their brushes by first dipping in one color (and not stirring) then carefully dip in another. With two colors on one brush, the children gently paint on the drawing. The affects are wonderful. It's important that the kids keep the colors as they are applied--don't repaint the area or else the paint will blend together.
I encourage the children to consider the colors in the fruit. i.e. grapes have both red and purple. have them dip their brush in the two colors to see what happens.
Once the fruit bowl is finished, the children are instructed to paint a simple backgrund and tablecloth. Black paint is then used to outline everything. Then, for the final touch, they can add stain glass panes.
The artwork scene here is from Mrs. Gallo's 4th grade class 2005 at MountainView School

Students shown are in Mrs. Pearson's 4th grade class 2008