Each child did a sketch and then we transferred it onto the black paper by rubbing chalk on the backside of the drawing, then laying the sketch right side up on the black paper and retracing it.
Each child first went over the white chalk lines with a black oil pastel and then began adding the color chalks.
Other than encouraging them to layer the colors on top of each other to blend, there was not much for me to do other than watch something magical happen.
All week long I had been stressing paying attention to line direction, be it with paintbrushes, pencils, or whatever tools we were using. Obviously that paid off as I watch them each interpret this new skill with the pastels in a way I had never thought of.
Just look at these two works of art! I love the intentional way each child decided to apply the chalk pastel.
gnomes. 7 year old
spriggan, 9 year old
They have such a stained glass quality to them, don't you think?
fairy. 5 year old
All week long this child enjoyed mixing colors and making new color discoveries. Yet again on this project, it was more of the same. You can see her figuring out how to make brown when there was no such color in the pastel box in several places on this artwork.
What I love most about adding the oil pastel at the beginning is that by simply rubbing over the black oil lines once all the color is added, you can bring them back to the surface again. Where needed, this artist added a few more black lines to bring her original sketch back out after adding multiple layers of chalk pastel.
fairy. 6 year old
Isn't this one sweet? When she was sketching, we discussed scale as a way to emphasize the size of the fairy. I asked her some leading questions about her fairy, was she big or small? How small? If she's very small like a bug or ant, what would grass and plants look like from her perspective?
That's all it took for her to decide to add some great details to this artwork that lets the viewer know this fairy princess is very small.
fairy, 6 year old
What I most love about camps is the opportunity to show children a wide variety of different art mediums. There are some they discover they like, don't like, and really love. This artist discovered SHE LOVED chalk pastel. When the others were all finished, she was still lost in her artwork. I could not believe the time she spent on each square of that dress, mixing the chalks and blending until she got each block of color just right. I simply love this artwork, not only because it is beautiful but because it was beautiful to watch a child absolutely fall in love with creating the piece.
What a gorgeous way to end camp. As always, the children left the studio looking like they were wearing more color than what was on the papers but how proud they were with all the art they had produced during the week.
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