My 6th grade and up group have been working on these mixed media trees for the last couple of weeks.  The focus of this project was recognizing complimentary colors, identifying the subtleties of warm/cool colors, and using gel medium with acrylic paint to build up layers.  Students started by choosing a warm or cool color palette to paint their canvas.  While that dried, students went through magazines choosing and cutting out colors and textures in either cool or warm colors.  This is where they were challenged to recognize how a typically cool color can be warm (ex. a warm purple) or a typically warm color can be cool (ex. a cool yellow).  Students then painted their tree trunks and applied their leaves with gel medium.  We then mixed the complimentary color of our background color and painted over the underpainting, allowing the background to peek through.  Another layer was added to the background to emphasize light and dark areas.  The final step was adding white and gold dots.  We sealed them with gloss varnish.

I was really pleased with how these turned out, and most of the students were too. : )