Georgia bird portraits in 3rd

Third graders researched birds native to our state, Georgia, and turned them into beautiful painted portraits with atmospheric perspective - a way of showing space by contrasting sharp and blurry focus.

We started by making thumbnails on a Make it! planning sheet (find it here in my TpT store) and discovering the birds' habitats. Next, we drew the bird large and a simple foreground like a branch. We colored these using details and sharp features, to show they were in the foreground. We used a wet on wet watercolor technique in the background to create a more distant feel - the wet paint on wet paper makes a soft, blurred texture. After learning about the habitats, we used the colors we imagined would be found in these areas - some woodlands, some wetlands. We wrapped it up with a reflection, also on the Make it! sheet, and uploaded them to Artsonia.