I think this might be my favorite project of the entire week at the Art and Animal camp. There are so many artworks below that are near and dear to my heart.
I always like to spend one project having the kids explore chalk pastel and show them all the marvelous things they can do beyond just using them like a crayon.
Each child did their original sketch on copy paper and once they were happy with it, traced it onto the black pastel paper by rubbing white chalk on the back of the sketch, laying it over the paper, and tracing their marks.
I then handed them a black oil pastel to go over the chalk lines. I use black oil pastel because the lines don't disappear as they begin to add the chalk pastel. I also like the way it looks in the finished piece too.
Were we a colored mess at the end? Absolutely.
But everyone had fun and I think the pictures are quite charming.
7 year old, resting giraffe
SHARK! 6 year old
A quick little note about the above work. I stress with each and every child who I work with that mistakes are to be embraced. That each and every one of them holds such a vivid imagination that they can utilize to make that mistake into a great opportunity.
The above shark began as a dolphin, a really great dolphin. But as the boy started adding all the color layers of chalk, the dolphin got very skinny and didn't look like a dolphin very much anymore.
Did he get upset? Absolutely not. He stated the obvious, "It doesn't look like my dolphin anymore" and then quickly followed up with, "But it looks like a shark"
I encouraged him to develop his shark and that no one would ever know in the end that his shark had started it's life as a dolphin.
No one would know until his art teacher shared it with the world on her blog at least.
I think it is a marvelous piece and a great lesson in problem solving and thinking outside the box.
8 year old
8 year old
8 year old
10 year old
african termites, 6 year old
No comments:
Post a Comment