Glue and Pastel Spiderweb

This basic glue and pastel process can be used with a variety of subject matter - this spiderweb worked well for little hands that were just learning how to control a glue bottle.

Week One: Distribute 9" x 12" sheets of black construction paper to each student. Ask them to make a dot with a pencil somewhere near the center of the paper. Show them how to draw straight lines out from the center, going to the edges of the paper: about 2 lines up, two to the right, then the left and the bottom edge. Next, they need to draw a series to concentric circles around the center dot. Encourage the students to keep the lines simple, with lots of space in between. Distribute a bottle of white glue to each and show them how to trace all their pencil lines. To keep control of the glue line, it helps to keep the nozzle dragging on the paper when they squeeze.
Week Two: After the glue has dried, give the students chalk pastels, and show them how to color on the paper, and then blend the powder in with their fingers. Rubbing is essential as it blends the chalk into the paper, and cleans it off the glue.

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Pastel Indian Corn

Fall is full of colorful imagery, be it pumpkins or leaves or corn. For some reason, glue drawing on black paper with chalk pastels, seems to bring out the best qualities of all these materials.

1. On a 9" x 12" piece of paper, show the students how to draw a long rounded rectangle for their ear of corn. Save room at the top, where leaves are added. Horizontal and vertical lines are added for the ears of corn, and some kind of background may be added.
2. When the image is drawn, all the lines need to be traced with white glue. A yarn-size line of glue is ideal, but the blobs end up looking great too. Let glue dry until clear.
3. Using chalk pastels, show the students how to color in their image, taking time to rub the chalk into all the nooks with their fingertips. The chalk will stick to the paper, but rub off the glue.

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Fall Pastel Landscape

This kind of loose, simple landscape lets chalk pastels do what they do best – make smudgy, soft shapes.

1. Give the students a narrow sheet of construction paper, and instruct them to draw a ground line 1/3 of the way down. (Skip the pencil and just draw directly with the chalk.)
2. Next they should draw 3 round circles for the trees and fill them in with fall colors. Rubbing with fingers softens the shapes.
3. The sky background should then be colored and blended in.
4. Add clean dark lines for tree trunks.
5. Divide the ground area into three sections, color and smudge to soften.

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Chalk Pastel Flowers

Georgia O'Keefe had a long and varied career but is mostly famous for her oversized flower paintings.

1. Let each student choose from a collection of large flower photos, possibly from old calendars. Instruct them to first sketch their flower in pencil, large enough to go near or even off the edges of the paper.
2. Chalk pastels are colored and blended into the paper. Recommend that large areas be colored first, and fine details on top go last. The background looks nice when colored in with a contrasting or complementary color.

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Cliff Dwelling Landscape

I found this landscape to be especially successful with boys, who love the idea of drawing their own fortresses with ladders, windows, etc.
1. Hand out 18" x 12" sheets of drawing paper. Starting on one side of the paper, demonstrate to the students how to draw a continuous line with perpendicular angles up and down to create the first layer of buildings. Students should only draw with a chalk pastel as pencils tend to lead to too much detail. This line should generally be near the bottom section of the paper. The students are to fill in this layer in with color, and blend the color into the paper with their fingers.

2. Next they draw another building line from left to right, a little higher up, taking care to make it different from the first. They fill in with color and blend again.
3. Next, the background sky is to be filled in with color.
4. Large permanent markers are needed to draw and color random rectangles to represent windows. Ledges may be added, along with ladders that connect the two.

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Keith Haring in Chalk and Glue

Keith Haring (1958 – 1990) was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s. His simple and colorful figures are a great style to imitate when studying body proportions.

1. I gave each student a 9" x 12" sheet of black paper, and a cardboard rectangle about 3" x 5", which was centered on the paper and traced. My goal was just to have the students use this as the torso of the body, and they were to add "action" arms and legs in whatever combination they saw fit. The tendency is for them to draw small, so they need to be reminded that the middle of the torso would be the waist, so any elbows in their drawing should line up accordingly. The legs also need to be long and wide, and fill the bottom of the paper. Lastly, "energy" lines were added around the head, along with a simple horizon line.
2. After the pencil drawing was done, and the box lines were erased connecting the torso and the legs and arms, the students carefully traced the drawing with white glue. Let the art dry flat for at least 24 hours.
3. Show the students examples of Haring's simple primary colored figures. They are to use chalk pastels accordingly, coloring and blending with their fingers to get coverage all around the glue lines.

CA Visual Arts Standard: Grade Four
2.2 Use the conventions of facial and figure proportions in a figure study.

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Glue and Pastel Landscape

Kids are SO lucky that new art supplies seem to constantly show up in stores these days. In my day, just having a 64-box set of crayons meant you were decked out.

1. I used Art Stix from Prismacolor for this picture, but any chalk pastel would work too. However, if your kids are squeemish about chalk texture, try these new Stix as they have none of that quality but all of the color. Give each student a piece of black construction paper. Have them draw, in pencil, a very simple landscape with hills, water, sun and possibly mountains.
2. When the drawing is complete, they are to trace all the lines with white glue squeezed from a bottle. Don't worry about wobbles, they end up looking nice and 'hand made' I think. Just try to not make huge puddles. Let the glue dry at least a day.
3. With either the chalk pastels or Art Stix, instruct the students to use at least two colors in each section of the picture. For example, dark and light blue for the water, dark and light green for the grass, etc. This will give the artwork some shading and depth and add a lot more interest to their work.

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Spheres in Space

Learning how to turn a circle into a sphere can be lots of fun if you use an outer space theme.

1. Die cut presses and heavy mat board were invaluable for making quick circle templates. I created 2" and 3" templates with circles cut out of the middle so students could easily see and trace five to seven 3" circles in pencil on a black sheet of paper. Encourage students to draw some circles that go off the paper to add more interest.
2. Using chalk pastels, each circle is to be colored in with one main color.
3. Explain briefly the idea that there is a source of light (like a big sun) shining on these planets. The students need to decide where their sun is in relationship to their planets. If the sun is off the page to the right, as on this example, they should use a white chalk pastel and color a curved shape on the right side of the circle. Then an opposite black shadow curve needs to go on the opposite side. After coloring as shown in the diagram, show the students how to blend the edges together. There should be no hard edge between the colors when they are done. 4. Oval rings and tiny stars may be added as a final step.
CA Visual Art Standard: Creative Expression, Grade Four
2.1 Use shading (value) to transform a two-dimensional shape into what appears to be a three-dimensional form (e.g., circle to sphere).

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Snowman on Skis

I sometimes look at stock illustrations on websites like gettyone.com for inspiration. I found a simple drawing of a snowman on skis that I really liked, and remade with my glue and pastel technique.

1. Drawing lightly on black paper, make three overlapping circles, each getting a bit smaller as they go up.
2. Draw simple stick arms, a face and buttons.
3. Add stick ski poles attached to the hands, and a hat that sits on top of the head. Stripes are nice as they allow for extra color.
4. Draw two skis below the bottom circle, and then a curved horizon line. Trace all lines with a thin line of white glue and let dry for 6 hours or so.
5. When dry, color in all the areas with pastel. I used Art Stix for this picture, which are a kind of new-fangled stick that don't have all the chalky-ness of the chalk pastels. They aren't cheap, but they are clean and sturdy and seem to last forever.

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Pastel Cactus Drawing

One of my favorite combos is blending chalk pastels over dried glue. I’m always on the lookout for new subject matter, so when I saw this cactus illustration, I knew it would make a great image, and allow for some simple shading practice.
1. I used 9" x 12" black paper, but recommend something larger for 1st or 2nd grade students. I had to really be careful to keep my glue lines from touching each other, so a larger format would make it a lot easier.
2. My diagram shows the steps I took to make my drawing. When complete, I traced all the lines with white glue. It seems that the Rite Aid White glue dries clearer than others, which I prefer.
3. When the glue was dry, I used chalk pastel pencils to fill in the cactus. I decided that the light source was from the left, so I used a light green on all three left sides of the cactus, and a dark green on the right. I also had a medium green to fill in the middle, but you could just used two colors that meet in the middle.
4. After the cactus was colored, I filled in the sky, ground and rocks with single shades. To finish, a little white pencil made highlights on the cactus, and a little black made a ground shadow for it and some rocks. Spray with a sealer or hairspray when complete.

CA Visual Arts Standard: Grade Four
2.1 Use shading (value) to transform a two-dimensional shape into what appears to be a three-dimensional form (e.g., circle to sphere).

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