Harvest Skies

Focus on the fall harvest as you use Vincent van Gogh's techniques to create an original drawing with Crayola® Colored Pencils and Oil Pastels.

• 1.

  Think about how the weather affects spring planting and fall harvests. Imagine how the sky looks over a field that is ready for harvest. Is the weather sunny, or do the clouds look like rain? Is it day or night? Calm or windy? Which crops are ready? What colors do you see?

• 2.

  Find information about the life and painting style of Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh. Many of his paintings depict scenes in Provence, the South of France. Look at his outdoor scenes such as <i>Starry Night, The Sower, Wheatfield With Crow</i>, and <i>Field Near Auvers</i>.

• 3.

  Using heavy white paper and Crayola Colored Pencils, sketch a harvest scene that resembles the bold images van Gogh used in his paintings. Be sure to show the sky as well as the fields.

• 4.

  Fill your harvest drawing with Crayola Oil Pastels using van Gogh's style of swirling brush strokes and brilliant colors.

Benefits

• Students gather information about harvest seasons and how farmers and their crops are affected by the weather.
• Students recognize some of Van Gogh's most famous paintings and the techniques he used to create them.
• Students create drawings of a fall harvest using some of Van Gogh's techniques and artistic principles.

Adaptations

• Especially with younger children or those with special needs, observe crops being harvested. Interview farmers about weather conditions and how they know when to harvest their fields. Take photographs to record the brilliant colors of pumpkins, waves of g
• Using van Gogh's swirling brush strokes and brilliant colors, do a second painting, changing the colors to those found in a different season or time of day.
• Find out about other famous artists and compare their techniques to Van Gogh's. Create an oil pastel of harvest season using a new technique such as pointillism.