Ombre Art

What You Need:

• Sheet of paper
• Pencil
• Tempera paint in red, white and black
• Paintbrush
• Paper plate

What You Do:

1. Draw an odd-numbered row of hearts on a piece of paper. We decided on five.
2. Use the paper plate as a palette and put a dollop of red paint on one side of the plate.
3. Explain to your child that it's time to create a Valentine’s Day ombre painting. Ombre coloring has to do with the shades and tints of a color. For this project it means that she will have a light red color on one end of her row of hearts and a dark red color on the other end, with shades of red in between.
4. Challenge her to find the center heart. If she needs a little help, point it out and explain that she needs to paint this one red.
5. Let her help add several drops of white paint to the red paint already on the palette and blend. Tell her that this is a tint, red mixed with white. Have her use it to paint the heart immediately to the left of the red heart.
6. Repeat step 5, making a still lighter tint. This time she'll paint the heart immediately to the left of the first tinted heart.
7. Add another dollop of red paint to a clean place on the palette. Add a drop of black paint and blend. Tell her that this is a shade, red mixed with black. Use it to paint the heart immediately to the right of the red heart.
8. Have her repeat step 7, but make a darker shade and paint the heart to the right of the first shaded heart.

Your child can expand on this activity by painting several rows of hearts with the top row as a tint and the bottom row as a shade.