First Grade Portraits in Oil Pastel

I love these first grade self portraits. They embodied everything kids art should be...colorful, whimsical and adorable.

I used plain white construction paper and good old oil pastels. Trick is not to give the kids a pencil. Instead, we started with a black oil pastel and ended with a black oil pastel. I think this is the secret to ensuring the art will be done in a couple of session. Otherwise, children wielding pencils can become perfectionists very quickly.

Start the portrait by drawing a large letter "U" in the middle of the paper, then add the hair. I spend some time drawing on the white board showing the kids proper hair placement. Do the same for the facial features and before long, the kids will be ready to begin coloring their masterpieces.

Want to make the portraits spectacular? Encourage as much as you can, the importance of coloring in well. Also, add patterns to the background, instead of leaving it blank.

For more detailed photo tutorials, templates, and handouts, check out the
Deep Space Sparkle "Fun with Portraits" PDF lesson plans. Click here for more details.

Modigliani Inspired Self-Portraits

I found this lesson over at Art Project for Kids. It's a fantastic lesson; easy, quick and beautiful. I chose to do this with my 6th grade students but it would be equally successful with as young as fourth grade. Check out the link above for full directions.



For more portrait lesson ideas, check out Deep Space Sparkle's "Fun with Portraits" PDF booklet. Click HERE for more details.

Van Gogh Sunflower Art Lesson in Oil Pastel

I was looking through my archives from last year and came upon these beautiful sunflower drawings. This is a lesson I usually do with my third graders. We study, of course, Van Gogh's famous Sunflower series by looking at how he created the sunflowers, vase and even his name.

The children start off with an 12" x 18" light blue colored paper. If you don't have lengthy art classes, I suggest you trim the paper to a 10" x 15" size. A bit more manageable for artists who need longer to color their work.
I instruct the kids to draw the vase first (sides and bottoms only) then the centers of the flowers. Some centers are round, some are oval, some are little balls. The petals, leaves and stems come next. Last is the table line.
Using a variety of oil pastels (I don't limit them to the colors Van Gogh uses) the kids color away. This takes time and I keep encouraging the kids to color all the blue paper away. This takes some prodding for some kids who want to finis fast, but this lesson really looks wonderful when the kids put in the effort. The last stage 9and some of my students take a while before reaching this stage ) is to add a black line around every petal, leaf, flower center, and vase. Worth it, I think!


(Students from Foothill School 2006)




(Joyce from Mountain View 2006)

Oil Pastel Picasso Faces Art Lesson

If you don't subscribe to Arts and Activities magazine, you should. It's full of great lesson plans complete with great photos. I found this lesson in the March '07 issue. Art teacher Jennifer Bowden submitted this lesson which I found extremely accessible to my fifth graders.

I had done a Picasso Face Art Lesson before with my first graders (see the lesson here) but this one is more advanced.

It's pretty simple, too. With a black oil pastel, have the kids draw a profile of a face. Instruct them to think about the placement of the first line (middle of paper). Since this is a lesson in cubism, the kids don't have to be perfect, in fact, the crazier the better!

They should draw the forehead, nose, mouth and chin. Leave the neck for now. Have them draw an eye looking to the side. Then to the left of the profile, have the kids draw a regular curved line to make another "face". On this face the kids draw an eye facing towards them.

The mouth is where the kids join the two faces. This is also where they see how the two faces fit together. Draw hair, neck and shoulders.

Now the fun part. I ask the kids to color one side of their face with one color then chose a different color for the other side. I also show them how to layer oil pastel; color with a light pastel then cover with a dark pastel.

With all coloring, the oil pastel should be applied heavily. This is where you need to encourage kids to put in their best effort. A lightly colored rendering is not what we're after here. This works in their favor so if they want to scratch off the top layer later on, they can.

Once the entire page is colored, I give the kids wooden sticks so they can scratch off some of the oil pastels to make a design. Very cool. Some kids add geometric patterns, some just scratch the color off and others (of course) write their names.

For the final step, I ask the kids to go over their black oil pastel again and this time add eye-lashes, etc.

(The artists are from Mrs. McEachen and Ms. Keenan's 5th grade class at Foothill)

"Antiqued" Oil Pastel Flowers in a Vase

"What does antique mean? " I asked my enthusiastic group of third graders.
"Something that's not new," said the girl who is always first to raise her hand.
"Yes," I said. "But can you give me more detail?"
Hands shot up. "I know!" said one boy. "It means old. Like my mom."
"Hmm." I know this kid's mom and she's my age. "Not exactly. What about if I said I had an antique dresser. What would that mean?"
"That you couldn't afford a new one," another boy answered.
Good grief. Ask a simple question....

All I wanted to say was that we were going to "antique" our oil pastel drawings in art class. But what I got instead was the reason I teach in the first place. Kids say the cutest things!

Step One:
On the white board, demonstrate how to draw a vase, a table line, then circles for the center of the flowers. Give them different options for drawing the petals.
Then, ask the kids to chose a favorite color from the pastel palette with the rule that it should be a dark color. The kids then draw their vase, table line, flower centers, petals, leaves and stems. Using any color they wish, color in the shapes.

Tip: When the kids are about halfway through their coloring (slow part), demonstrate step 2. This gets them motivated!

Step Two:
Now for the fun part: Scrunching!!!
Demonstrate how to take their beautifully colored picture and crunch it together. Because the paper is stiff, the kids literally have to sit on their crushed up balled of paper or push hard with their hands in order to get the required wrinkles. After smoothing out the paper, the kids applied a watercolor wash to the entire surface.

Note: A tempera wash doesn't work. Liquid watercolor is best. I put out two containers of wash; one brown and one blue. The kids can chose which one they like.
When the wash settles in the wrinkles, it gives the picture an "antiqued" look.