4-5th grade do pastel of wind

 Continuing with the mornings discussion on the windstorm I had the fourth and fifth graders also do a pastel drawing of the windstorm. Some of the drawings are remarkably interesting with great detail an interesting interpretation of the wind, others of them are more about using the medium and not the topic.

This group has been a hard one for interpretation, they are much more factual and have done well with structural drawings like the mosques.

2nd grade draws a windstorm

 We use the windstorm last night to inspire us in our drawings using pastels on either white or black paper.

It was interesting to discuss with them how they thought the wind looked and what it would impact in their drawings. We also talked about what they saw when they got up in the morning and what they heard during the storm.

You can tell from the drawings that the wind apparently was very very noisy.

Windy storm inspires pictures 3rd grade

 There was an exceptionally windy storm the night before we get that project. I tried to use the idea of what they heard during the storm and saw in the morning to inspire them on their drawings.
This project was done with oil pastels on regular drawing paper.
 It was fun to discuss with them what they might look like and how it might move around the in their drawings.
They were also given a choice of black or white paper so that they could do their designs.



 They turned out pretty good.

Pastel faces and more 4th-5th

This is the first year my classes have used oil pastels. We tried them out but the  student grade products were frankly crayons. I tried a new brand this year and we are sold on them. We did this project to compare how they react to alcohol and oil in blending but found little difference. They were to draw themselves or some other item of their choice.

Learning pastels

When I told the kids we were going to begin our drawing with crayons they were not too pleased with me. I drew along with them and drew this rooster. Once they had all of the elements of the rooster drawn then we took out the pastels and began to add color. I worked with them on different ways to spread the color and blend it. We have not previously used oil pastels and the color is fabulous. The roosters were done by the third grade class.

The fourth and fifth grade class were told that they could draw what they wanted to draw for this project and then experiment with using the oil pastels. Subjects ranged from a picture of themselves to penguins and tanks. A couple of them added lots of stars or other design elements. We used both oil and alcohol to promote blending of the pastels. The still think that the alcohol works better for blending.

Winter scenes in pastels and crayons

The kindergarten and 1st grade have been working on their drawing skills in addition to getting to use pastels in creating these winter scenes. The 1st  grade class was told to draw a box for a window and the draw the winter scene outside the winter. I did one on the board with them suggesting what might be outside the window. They were to draw in crayon then use pastel to paint the picture blending with their fingers and a wet q-tip. The results were wonderful. Of course a trip to the handwash location was in order. The kindergarteners got to draw another snowman with cuing on what might he have: hat, arms, mittens, etc. They then got to add lots of color. Pretty good job on including details and using the whole paper.

2nd grade bat bridge in pastels

All of the classes this month are getting to try out pastels. I had done an example for the afterschool group and decided to use it for this group as well. Last week several of the students helped draw the bridge on regular manila drawing paper. It has enough tooth to work for the chalks and is easy to run through the copier (sometimes) The class studied about bats and we discusses the way bats fly. Some had been downtown to see the bats leave from under the bridge. They used mostly their fingers for blending and q-tips. Great versions of the sky and a chance for us to talk about how reflections work.

Congress street bat bridge in pastel

This was a challenging for the group but as they got into blending the chalk pastels, they found a medium to   really love. It is a bit messy and rushing them to do the drawing and painting in one session elicited some grumbling. We are planning another one after the winter break to keep the momentum up. 

Pastel chalk drawings challenge K-1

Hands around the world seemed a good way to expose the 1st grade to chalk pastels and give them a bit more complicated project that required group sharing and coordination. I drew the circle in the middle of the page and the Americas onto it. The students had to trace around both of their hands ( or help each other get 2 hands on the page) around the globe. They then were to use colors of different skins on the hands and color the world blue, green and brown. Some got a little tempted but the colors available and the hands must be wearing gloves but they had an interesting time working together. I planned to work on a bit of shading but the enthusiasm in this group runs high and the parent volunteers are few. After they were done I sealed it with cheap hair spray.

The kindergarten class has been studying the seasons so a chalk pastel snow picture seemed to fit well with their lessons. They are also working on more realistic bodies for people with appropriate clothing and such. We started with blue paper to make sure our snow showed up then reviewed the person that would be in the snow scene then added a snowman. They really were excited to have the richer colors to use. We worked a bit on preventing smudging as they worked. I shot only  a few as they were curling from the spray fixative.  

Afterschool group does pastels

The afterschool group has been wanting to work with pastels and do some modern art. We used a couple of library books to find examples and settled on a chair as our theme. Each interpreted the chair and its setting then began working with the oil pastels. Using drawing paper limits their blending capabilities a little but they still work pretty well.

The second week we used Liquin to spread the pastels and soften the effect in all but one of the projects. Although it is an oil based project with a bit of a noxious smell we agreed the effect was worth the smell.