Have you ever crumpled up a leaf to the point that it becomes wet and leaves a green substance on your hands? Well that green substance is chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is a green pigment within plants and algae that allows the plants to absorb energy from light. The pigments within plants are what create their beautiful colors and you can actually release those pigments and color with them!
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Here’s what you’ll need:
- Heavy card stock paper
- Black Sharpie
- Fallen leaves, flower petals, and weeds
How to color with plant pigments:
1. First, grab your card stock paper and draw a picture of your choice with the black sharpie. We drew some flowers for our picture.
- Tip: Using heavy paper will help prevent your paper from ripping when you are rubbing the plant pigments onto it. I have linked my favorite cardstock paper in the “Here’s what you’ll need” section above
- Tip: Using a black sharpie instead of washable marker will help keep your original drawing from smearing. The plant pigments may be a little wet when applying them. The wetness could cause a washable marker to smear. I have also linked some good permanent marker Sharpie options above.
2. Search around your yard for fallen leaves of different colors, petals that have fallen off of flowers, and even weeds (dandelions are a great option!)
3. Choose a plant and start to smoosh and crumple it between your fingers until it begins to feel wet. This is allowing the plant to release its pigments
4. Then rub the plant onto your paper to begin coloring with the plant pigments
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with different colored plants to release different plant pigments to color with until your drawing is complete.
Here are our final masterpieces!
If you enjoyed coloring with plant pigments, you may enjoy coloring with plant pigments with our other more “aggressive” technique. Check out our Earth Day Craft linked below!
