Art students at Songjiang No.4 Middle School turn fallen leaves into pretty artworks. [Photo/WeChat Account: Shanghai Songjiang]

We don't have to cut trees to have paper for drawing or painting. Meet the art students at Songjiang No.4 Middle School. They are part of a new generation of artists who use the Earth as their canvas.

While preparing for the gaokao (college entrance examination) next year, the art students at Songjiang No.4 Middle School came up with a new medium of painting—fallen leaves.

Thanks to their creative idea, scenes of the school, such as the library, the school gate and the teaching building, appear on the fallen leaves.

To create the stunning artworks, students collect the leaves in the school, take photos of the scenery they want to paint, and then wait for the leaves to dry before painting on them using paints of different colors. 

Scenes of the school appear on the fallen leaves. [Photo/WeChat Account: Shanghai Songjiang]

Most of the canvases used by the young artists are leaves of ginkgos, plane trees and maples. Because of their special textures, the leaves have to be handled with great care. “Some leaves are not wide enough and dried leaves are quite fragile. Sometimes we have to use needles to outline the paintings,” said a student in the art class.