Paint a Cornucopia Still Life!

What You Need:

• White drawing or construction paper
• Pencil
• Eraser
• Paints
• Thin and thick bristled paint brushes
• Table or flat surface
• Horn shaped basket (if you don't have one, try making one out of rolled construction paper)
• Fruit and vegetables

What You Do:

1. Gather fresh seasonal fruits and veggies for your own model cornucopia.
2. Set up your still life. Arrange the cornucopia on a table or other flat surface. Make sure that there is plenty of light. This can be either artificial, from a lamp, or natural from a window. Ask your child to look for shadows and highlight areas. Reposition the food objects for light and angle.
3. Have your child draw what they see with the pencil onto the white paper. If they are having trouble, help them to break what they see into simple shapes. Combine the shapes into the objects.
4. Paint the drawing. Keep the real cornucopia in view, and look for specific colors, shadows, and highlights. Try mixing new, unique colors.
5. Set aside to dry.
6. Display at a holiday celebration!

Having trouble getting started? Begin with basic shapes such as triangles or ovals, and turn them into the horn of plenty that can be filled with artistic apples, creative cranberries, or perfect pumpkins.