Celebrate all of the gorgeous colors of the fall season with this autumn leaf painting idea for kids! Kids will learn about blending and mixing colors together with acrylic paint. This is also a great project to talk about using warm and cool colors in art projects.

We love exploring different painting techniques. Take a look at my collection of painting ideas for kids for more fun and creative art projects to try!

These paintings would look stunning in a classroom display and an amazing art project to hang up at home!

For this project, I created three printable leaf templates to make this craft even easier for you. Scroll down to the bottom to download your PDF leaf templates.

For another fall leaf idea using the same leaf templates, take a look at this fall leaf painting with watercolors.

Create your own autumn leaf painting

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Supplies

• Leaf templates, available below (optional)
• Canvas paper, canvas or white cardstock
• Acrylic paint
• Paintbrushes
• Paint palette, water dish
• Pencil and scissors

Instructions to make your fall painting

1. First, print out your leaf templates onto white printer paper. Kids can also choose to draw their own leaf or you can even try using real leaves as a template.

2. For this project, you can use canvas paper, canvas or even white cardstock.

We used canvas paper for this project, I love using canvas paper. It’s just like painting on a canvas but you can cut it to any size you like and it is easier to store than regular canvas on a wooden frame.

I cut our canvas paper to 8 inches x 9 1/4 inches.

Once you have your paper ready to the size that you want, have kids choose a leaf template and trace it onto the paper or have them draw their own leaf on the paper with a pencil.

3. Get your paint ready. Put some red, orange, yellow, and dark brown acrylic paint on a paint palette. If you are following along with my tutorial, I painted using dark to light. But kids can choose to paint and blend however they like.

Start with the stem and paint it dark brown. Start to add in the red acrylic, blending with the brown and painting part of the leaf. Add in the orange and yellow colors, blending the paints together as you go.

Blending and mixing the colors together on the paper is a fun process that kids will enjoy!

4. Once the leaf is painted, use a small round brush and dark brown paint to paint in the veins of the leaf. This can be done while the leaf is still wet so that the brown paint can mix a bit with the other colors. 

Let everything dry completely before moving on.   

5.  Now it’s time to paint the background. Have kids choose a color for their background. I did shades of blue and green for my examples.

For the blue background, you will need bright blue, dark blue, and white. This is another opportunity for kids to have fun with blending!

Start with the bright blue color and carefully paint around the leaf. Add some darker blue around the leaf and start to blend the two blues together.

Finally paint in some white around the outer edge of the paper and blend.

For the green background, I painted a dark green for the main color and blended in a lighter green color.

This autumn leaf painting is such a colorful and fun fall project for kids to try! Blending and mixing colors together with acrylic paint is a great process for kids to explore.

>> Click here to download your PDF leaf templates     

More fall art projects kids will love

Fall Tree Painting with Bundled Q-tips

Gorgeous Fall Leaf Chalk Pastel Art

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