Chalk Pastel Owls (with glue outline)

 

I'm still in love with chalk pastels.  They really can produce wonderful results for the children and I love seeing the smudged pastel on their faces afterwards.  Its always been a good art lesson when the kids are messy afterwards.

I've been wanting to use glue with chalk pastels all year as there are so many wonderful examples of this on Pinterest.  I'm pleased we finally got around to it.  It takes some planning though as the children need to draw and paint their outlines in glue one week and then colour in the picture the following week.  

What you need:

• Black A3 paper
• Glue in bottles (we used Elmers)
• Pencils
• Chalk Pastels
• Fixative / Hairspray (optional)
• Black Oil pastels (handy to have on hand for those children who were away the first week)

How to:

Week one:  Demonstrate how to draw a simple owl (I showed them wings in or out versions).  Draw this with pencil on the black paper then get the children to trace over this with the glue.  Younger children find controlling the glue whilst squeezing the bottle a little difficult.

Week Two:  Using chalk pastels colour in the picture covering all the black paper.  When finished spray with fixative or hairspray (optional).  Tip:  Use a wet cotton tip to clean the glue lines afterwards (you could get the children to do this themselves yet I did it for them mainly because I forgot to ask them to do it yet I also enjoyed doing it so I could admire their work..)

The Results:

Very cute.  These are produced by children in Prep and Grade 2!

NOTE: Notice the picture on the bottom left?  I had one bottle of clear Elmers glue out and this one used this.  The black glue lines show up much better!  However it isn't non run and it did run a little (maybe we didn't dry it completely flat?). The Elmers standard white glue did dry with a few bubbles too.

To finish the lesson (as I have very fast artists) we also worked on a second chalk pastel using a black oil pastel as the outline.  It was a free choice for my Tuesday group and the Thursday and Saturday groups worked to an insect theme.  I expected them to each do one big insect, yet the results show that you can never expect a certain result in art.  There were trees, leaves and multiple insects drawn.  Still all lovely and creative.

Our artist of the week was Pamela Pretty, a local pastel artist. Click here for her website.  Pamela's painting "Lofty " recently won the "Best in Show" award at the Pastel Society of Victoria annual exhibition.  Many of her paintings are of local places I've been and I love her style. She loves to paint "en plein air" where possible to capture the mood and colours of the places she visits. Her main media are oil and pastel and her subjects are usually landscape, seascape and dramatic skies.

Cheers
Fiona