Israel in My Art

Create Your Own Monochromatic Pomegranates

Tags: Arts and Culture, Land and Nature, Holidays, Tradition, Activities, Art Activities

Photo by Elana Heideman

To draw your own unique pomegranate image:

1. Draw basic circular shapes for the body of the pomegranates with a rectangular stem shape at one end. At the tip of the stems begin drawing pointed triangular shapes similar to a king’s crown.

2. If you prefer, you are welcome to print the Pomegranate image above and trace the outlines of each pomegranate in pencil by taping up the original image to a window and placing a blank piece of paper on top of it. The light from outside will shine through and you should be able to see the image on the blank sheet of paper. Tape down the blank piece of paper, or hold it steady, and then trace the image that shines through.

3. This will be a Monochromatic Painting. Mono means One. Chromatic means color. Hence, a Monochromatic painting is a painting that is made up of different shades of one color.

All of the pomegranates in our paintings will be red. So you will need different shades of red to create each pomegranate and to help each pomegranate stand apart from their neighboring pomegranates.

You can lighten your reds by adding some yellow, which will help indicate your highlighted areas. DO NOT ADD WHITE TO YOUR RED. If you add white to red, you will get pink. Save your splash of white for the exact specific spot where the light hits each object; as indicated in the original image above.

4. Wait until your paint is dry to add your white “highlighted areas”. If you are working with pencils or pastels, you should block off your highlighted area so you are sure NOT to put red there.

5. A bit about color theory: When you want to darken a color, you mix the color with its complementary color (which is the color across it on the color wheel). Since our pomegranates are red, you will need green to help darken your red to create your shaded areas.

6. Carefully examine the original photo and notice where there are lighter and darker shades of red. Your pomegranates should already be outlined in red oil pastel. Now you will use your different shades oil pastels, plus yellows and orange oil pastels as well to help bring these basic circle shapes into a rounded three dimensional form by adding lighter and darker shades of red.

7. Please only sign your first name and last initial, and your home country, on the front bottom of your artwork.

Have your artwork featured in our online Israel in My Art gallery! Sign your artwork with your first name and last initial and email it to Stefie@IsraelForever.org

Painting as a part of a class or art group? Send us your selfies and group pics for a shoutout throughout our global Jewish community who loves sharing the Israel connection with their fellow Virtual Citizens of Israel around the world. Follow us social media and you can either post your pic online and tag us in your post or email it directly to Stefie@IsraelForever.org.

Help your students find unique ways you to incorporate the Israeli flag and the flag of the country in which you reside into your drawings as well, so that the world can see the vast number of nationalities of our IFF artists!

Stefanie Jo Heideman, founder of Art Escapades, is an art educator who believes that art is not supposed to be competitive, but rather a peaceful, relaxing experience for one to engage in and enjoy. As the Arts and Education Specialist for Israel Forever, Stefie is able to weave her love of Israel into her projects and lesson plans for individuals of all ages and stages of life.