How to Draw a Hen and Chicks

I’m always looking for simple drawing ideas that are then easy to shade. This one works and makes a pretty picture too.

1. On a 9" x 12" piece of paper, the students draw a large circle for the hen body and then a small one for it’s head as shown.
2. The head is connected to the body with a neck, and a tail and legs are added.
3. Details are drawn on the hen head and a wing is drawn on the body. Two or more half-circles are added (wherever there is room) to make the chicks.
4. Heads and legs are added to the chicks.
5. All lines are traced with a black Sharpie and colored in with pastels. My favorite are the Portfolio® 24-pack oil pastels. Older students may add shadows by shading with a bit of gray.

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Overlapping Matisse Shapes

I combined an overlapping lesson with Matisse-like shapes to make a colorful drawing exercise. You could begin by talking about how Matisse didn’t start painting until he was about 20 years old, but then would paint morning, noon and night for pretty much the rest of his life. He eventually became a key figure in the world of modern art.

1. I had a lot of scrap chip board on hand and first gave the students several squares and rectangles they could spread out on their paper and trace for the background.

2. I passed out organic-looking shapes I had cut from posterboard to imitate the leafy and flowery shapes in many of Matisse’s most famous paintings. My students were just kinder and 1st grade, so they got a lot of tracing practice. Older students could draw these shapes freehand. To make the organic shapes look as if they were all in front, all lines inside of them were erased before coloring.

3. All shapes were traced in oil pastels and colored in as solidly as possible.

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Oil Pastel Drawing on Dry Wax Paper

If you’ve read many of my posts that mention dry wax paper, you may have noticed that I most often use it with watery glue to attach it to another surface. Last spring I also used it for oil pastel drawings, as part of an outdoor event at our school. The lightweight wax paper was very durable to draw on, but still fluttered in the breeze in a really nice manner. Students first made a drawing with pencil on regular paper, traced it onto the dry wax paper with a permanent black marker, and then colored it with oil pastels. I used my favorite Portfolio brand which is very soft and slippery. Not all brands are like this, so I recommend a test before working with students.

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Laurel Burch Cat Heads

This cat project was inspired by a talented artist named Laurel Burch, who sadly passed away recently. She had a wonderful style of drawing abstract cats with large eyes that met in the middle.

1. Ask students to make three dots (in pencil) across the center of a paper as per the diagram. The 3 dots are connected to make the eyes. A triangle nose is added, nose lines and mouth. Lastly, the outside of the head is drawn around the head.
2. Students use a black Sharpie marker to trace all their lines.
3. Distribute oil pastels and encourage the students to use unusual colors to fill in their cat and background.

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Tinted and Shaded Valentine Heart

Layering oil pastels to make smooth gradations takes practice. This project will let students do just that.

1. Starting with a square paper, students draw a large heart in the middle, and then use a ruler to draw at least four lines completely across the paper.

2. Using smooth oil pastels, like my favorite Portfolio® brand, students color in the heart and background with just one color each. Because of the transparent nature of my pastels, I could still my pencil lines when I was finished.

3. Students use a gray pastel to color a shadow over half of each blue background section. On the opposite side, a white pastel is used to make a tint on the remaining side. This process was repeated randomly to all the background sections, and then to all the red sections.

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Hearts & Trees

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright told his students, “Limits are an artist’s best friend.” That’s because they force us to find answers we might not otherwise have discovered.
1. The goal for this students is to make a really simple, bold image, so some restrictions are put in place. Ask the students to draw a picture with only one tree, one simple hill, and hearts that may be any size, and any place on the picture. No sun, no clouds, no flowers – just a tree on a hill with as few or many hearts as they wish.
2. After the drawing is complete, the students use a black Sharpie to trace all the lines.
3. Lastly, they colored in all the shapes with oil pastels, any color they want, any combination. I was amazed at the variety the kids came up with; no two were even closely alike.

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Many-Colored Hands

I’ve found that students new to oil pastels often need to be guided to use them to their full potential, namely layering them. This project can be a good practice as they will be able to see that brown pastel colored over gold, for example, makes a completely different color than gold colored over brown.

1. Students are to trace their hand as many times as the they can on a piece of paper, all of them just touching each other to create lots of closed spaces. No overlapping!
2. After the hands are traced in pencil, the lines are traced with a fat black Sharpie marker.
3. The hands are colored in with oil pastels, using as many combinations as possible. My sample uses peach, golden brown, medium brown, pink and white in different layers.
4. Lastly, the closed shapes around the hands are colored with different pastels.

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Bernard Hoyes-Inspired Dancing Lady

Jamaican-born artist Bernard Hoyes is a Caribbean national who has served his country well. Now residing in California, Hoyes is among the most widely collected and exhibited of contemporary artists. Through his art, many have been able to connect with Jamaica’s colorful traditions and culture.
1. Past experience has...

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Another Modigliani Portrait

I can’t tell you how much I adore this Modigliani-style portrait that a 4th grader made today. I find her Mona Lisa smile and hint of blush so sweet that I could look at it all day. Beautiful work, Francesca C. 

If you’d like directions on this project, see my posting here.

Note: My curriculum plan for this month is doing a series of self-portraits. First week is a portrait with standard proportions (eyes in the middle of the head, nose halfway down, etc). Second week is this Modigliani drawing with exaggerated proportions. Third is a lesson about Picasso and with his cubism portraits, which I have posted about here.

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Wild Side/Calm Side Self-Portraits

This lesson starts with a discussion about how lines and colors can show emotion. A great book to read first is "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" which shows a lot of emotion with simple line drawings.

1. Give the students a head and shoulder cardboard template to trace in pencil on a sheet of paper. Ask them to draw a line down the middle of the head.
2. After a discussion about...

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How to Draw a Giraffe

I tried out this giraffe drawing project today in my afterschool class. Just when I thought that maybe it was a bit too difficult for my youngest students, I turned around to see this amazing work of art by Lily G., a kindergartener. I can’t draw things this charming, but Lily sure can.

1. Students started with an 8.5" x 17" sheet..

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Gingerbread Man Drawing

My graphic design days taught me that simple shapes take on much more interest when cropped or positioned in unusual ways. This gingerbread man has a lot more personality when large and peeking in from a corner, as opposed to small and standing in the middle of a paper.

1. I gave my students an 8.5" x 11" sheet of white cardstock paper...

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“Stained Glass” Holiday Candles

 I’ve found that a candle theme works well for the holidays as so many religions celebrate with them. This is simply drawing candles and then breaking up the background for a faux stained glass look.

1. The students drew one candle...

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Nutcracker: Oil Pastel on Black Paper

 This is a breakdown of my Nutcracker drawing project, this time using oil pastels on black construction paper. I tried the steps shown in my diagram and had really good results, and lots of proud smiles to go with them.

Large construction paper...

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How to Draw Thanksgiving Pumpkins

Students can learn how to make circles look like spheres when they practice drawing pumpkins. I’ve broken my drawing into steps to show how even just lines can be used to make a flat shape look dimensional.

My pumpkins were drawn as shown...

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Layered Fall Leaves

You can show students how to overlap leaves and blend colors with oil pastels, and have very lovely picture as the result.
1. I tend to think of the maple leaf as the classic fall shape, and made templates out of chip board with the stem left off. Give each student one leaf and ask them to trace at least two leaves that overlap. Ask the students to choose which leaf is on top, and explain that all the lines inside that leaf must be erased. They can then add some leaves going off the page, and some veins as well.
2. All of the pencil lines are to be traced with a thin black marker.
3. Ask the students to use at least two oil pastel colors in each leaf, overlapping as they go along. Oil pastels are the best for blending colors together, so the goal is to not have any "hard" edges between the colors.
4. Lastly, the background needs to be colored in with a contrasting color.

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How To Draw a Fall Tree

I found this project on Artsonia.com, and I love how it makes students think of trees as a series of branches, and not just a fluffy shape that sits on a stick (not a bad place to start, but can be left behind at some point).

1. Ask the students to draw a large "Y" on their paper.
2. Show them how to add smaller "Y"s on each side, alternating as they go up each branch. To make the "Y"s the most realistic, they should be directed toward the sky somewhat, and not at 90 degree angles.
3. When the lines are complete, they need to be thickened. The fattest part of the trunk should be at the bottom, and all the lines should gradually get thinner until they end in points at the top.
4. Lots of fall colors can be colored around the branches. I used my favorite Portfolio oil pastels here.
5. The background may be added, with grass and shadow and sun and clouds.

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Symmetrical Owl

This project fulfilled all my criteria for a successful lesson today: it was seasonal, a visual art standard (symmetry) was covered, and it really peaked all the student’s interest.

1. To make a pattern, I gave each student an 8.5" x 11" sheet of old newsprint and had them fold the paper in half the long way. They then drew the outline of a simple owl as shown, making sure the center was on the fold of the paper. With the paper still folded, they cut the owl out.
2. The newsprint owl was centered on a sheet of 9" x 12" sheet of black paper and traced around the edge with a pencil. Working only on the black paper now, the rest of the owl was drawn. I recommended starting with the brow lines, then the centered diamond beak, then the eyes and then wings. The goal was to have the owl drawn as symmetrically as possible.
3. When the drawing was complete, the students traced the pencil with a black oil pastel. To color the owl, I required that they use realistic colors (brown, white or gray).
4. After the owl was thoroughly colored (no paper showing) the students cut them out. One teacher opted to tape groups of them to long ribbons so they could hang in her room – lots of possibilities for decorating.

CA Visual Art Standard: Grade Two, Creative Expression
2.5 Use bilateral or radial symmetry to create visual balance.

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Cubist Paper Bag Costume

A Halloween book that included faces on paper bags inspired my “Cubism” costume. I can’t wait to wear it in our school parade on Friday.

I used a regular brown grocery bag, and started by drawing the split face on one side with a black pastel. For more specifics on how to draw the two-sided face, check out my post here. After the features were drawn in black, I colored white pastel to fill in the background and cover over any logo art. (My Portfolio® brand pastels are pretty opaque.) I continued drawing the hair around the sides, top and back of the bag, always coloring very heavily. Lastly, I poked two eye holes near the bottom of my nose. I won’t be running any races with this on, but I do think I can make it around the playground once or twice. Hope this helps others that need a last-minute costume!

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Pumpkin Festival Photo Op

My school's biggest annual fund raiser is our Pumpkin Festival. With Halloween themes galore, I decided to blow up my mural of “The Scream” to create a fun photo op.
1. I printed my mural templates at 130% on 11" x 17" 65 lb. cardstock.
2. The pages were colored in, trimmed off and taped together from behind. I used clear packing tape to handle the additional size and weight.
3. To mount, I taped together four 30" x 40" sheets of 1/2" thick foam core. I taped over the seams on both sides with duct tape and reinforced the back by taping down four 3' wood dowels.
4. I layed out the finished mural on the front to measure the excess foam core. I marked my cutting lines and trimmed with a box cutter.
5. With the mural now laying flush to the edges of the foam core, I folded over half of the mural, applied spray adhesive to the mural back and foam core and rolled the mural back into position. I then glued the other half down in same manner.
6. I used black duct tape to smooth the outer edges while creating a nice, even frame.
7. I used my box cutter to trim an oval out of the face and added a little more duct tape to smooth over the back edge of the oval.

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