Winter Reindeer: Painting Glowing Skies
This week, your young artists moved from black and white to vibrant color! Using tempera paints, they created a winter night scene with a glowing gradient sky and a reindeer silhouette.
What Your Child Created
On an 8×10 canvas, your child painted a moonlit winter scene with a gradient sky (colors that smoothly blend from one to another) and a dark reindeer shape against it. They practiced mixing colors, working from basic shapes, and making compositional choices about where to place things.
What They Explored
Creating Gradients
The main challenge was blending colors smoothly in the sky. Starting with warm colors (oranges, pinks, yellows) near the horizon and gradually transitioning to cool colors (purples, blues) higher up, students learned how to blend wet paint to create that magical glowing effect.
Breaking Down Complex Shapes
Drawing a reindeer seems hard, but students practiced breaking it down into simple shapes: ovals for the body and head, triangles for ears, simple lines for legs and antlers. This approach makes complex subjects much easier to tackle!
Working with Silhouettes
By painting the reindeer as a solid dark shape against a bright sky, students created strong contrast. Even without details inside the reindeer, you can still tell exactly what it is. That’s the power of a good silhouette!
Artist Inspiration
We chose this gradient sky technique because of artists like Albert Bierstadt, who painted breathtaking American landscapes with luminous, glowing skies. His painting “Among the Sierra Nevada, California” (1868) shows a beautiful transition from golden warm tones to cool blues. We wanted your kids to try creating that same magical, atmospheric feeling!
Why This Matters
This project builds color mixing skills, brush control, and planning abilities. Breaking complex subjects into simple shapes is a problem-solving approach that works in art and beyond. Learning to plan a composition (where things go, how big they are) is an important thinking skill.
Questions to Ask at Home
“What colors did you use in your sky?” “How did you blend them together?” “Was it hard to break the reindeer down into shapes?” “What would you change if you painted it again?”
At KidzArt, we celebrate each child’s unique creative vision and help them discover that yes, they really are artists.
Questions? Contact us at help.stjohns@kidzart.com or 904-287-8603.
Leave a Reply