Desserts in Oil Pastel

Elementary students were learning how to draw ellipses, the proper perspective of circles, and what better subject matter than desserts.  Students worked on drawing their ellipses and making sure the four quarters were matching to the best of their ability before drawing the rest of their dessert.  They were working from photographs and used pencil on black paper.

I wanted to use this as a lesson on how to mix oil pastels like paint and how to layer them to make them darker using complementary colors.  I have to admit, this lesson really makes me hungry...YUM!  

Jim Dine Heart Art

Jim Dine was part of the Pop Art movement and used hearts as the subject for many of his prints, paintings, and sculptures.  Students created a heart with fractured lines, either on the heart, background, or both.  They used oil pastel and learned how to blend them like paint using tinting and shading.  I really love this project...the kids have a lot of artistic freedom here employing what they have learned this year about color theory and it offers a lot of variations.  I love the handmade look of the hearts as students had to cut out their own stencil to begin. This was for all grade levels.  Some students also did a grid in the background instead of the diagonals. Some had fractured only the background instead of the whole thing by erasing the pencil lines inside the heart, but still tinted and shaded the heart and background fractures.  Very fun! Thank you Kathy Barbro for a jump start on this idea.

This one is still in process...