Autumn Tree Painting with Cotton Balls

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I love fall and all of the gorgeous colors that come with the season and this autumn tree painting with cotton balls is a wonderful fall craft that kids of all ages will enjoy. The cotton balls give the leaves a fluffy texture and are a fun way for kids to paint. We had so much fun making our cherry blossom tree and orange tree so I thought we would give a fall tree a try and I love the colors and the way it turned out!

I have created a printable branch template for you to use as part of my resource library which is available to my email subscribers. Click here to sign up and gain access to all of my printables. This printable is great for younger kids who might find it hard to draw a branch on their own, you can print it out on cardstock and paint on that or cut it out and use it as a guide for a canvas.

Create your own Autumn Tree Painting with Cotton Balls 

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Supplies

• Printable branch template (optional)
• Canvas paper pad or regular canvas
• Acrylic paint in fall colors
• Paintbrushes
• Paint palette and water container, recycled containers work great
• Cotton balls
• Clothespins

Instructions

We used a canvas paper for this project, it’s something we’ve been painting on lately and I really like it. It’s basically canvas that would normally be stretched onto a wooden frame but it comes in a pad with 10 sheets. It held the paint really well and I think gives the painting a nice texture. My kids really liked using it as well, it’s always fun to find different surfaces to create on.

Related: Cherry Blossom Painting with Cotton Balls

1. Because this autumn tree painting is more of a branch than a whole tree, you want to cut your paper in half for a horizontal painting, which I think looks pretty cool! The canvas pad was 12 x 16 inches so our finished size was 12 x 8 inches when cut in half. You could also use whatever canvas you have at home.

2. Mix up your paints. I used a nice bright blue for the sky and gorgeous fall colors in red, orange and yellow for the leaves. We did experiment with using some green as well, but I didn’t like how it turned out, the colors came out a bit muddy looking. I really like how the red, orange and yellow work together to give the painting depth and interest. We used black for the tree branch, giving the painting even more contrast.

Related: Orange Tree Cotton Ball Painting

3. Paint the entire canvas with blue for the sky. Our paint was mixed with white so you can see some white streaks here and there in the sky which I think looks nice. Using a larger flat brush for the sky works well and makes it easier for kids to cover their entire canvas. Let the sky dry completely, or if you are wanting to move on quickly, you can use a hair dryer to help speed things up.

4. Draw in a branch with a pencil. Depending on the age of the child, they may need some help to do this. Using my free printable branch template makes this easier, especially for younger kids, while older kids might prefer to draw their own. Paint the branch black and let it dry before moving on.

Related: Fall Leaf Painting with Watercolors & Glitter

5. Now the fun part! Make your cotton ball paintbrushes and start painting. We started with red first, then orange and painted the yellow last. I didn’t worry too much about the colors drying in between and they didn’t seem to mix or smudge together.

Painting with cotton balls was so fun for my kids, it has been fun painting a tree for each season using this technique. I just love how fluffy and vibrant autumn colors look against the blue sky and black branch. This autumn tree painting makes such a wonderful fall craft for kids and looks absolutely gorgeous when done!

If you are looking for more fun fall projects check out this Easy Paper Quilling Apple Craft that is so fun (I think it might be my new favorite art technique!) or these Unique Fall Suncatchers Using Seeds.

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