Oil Pastel Snowman

This is a little twist (literally) on the usual snowman drawing. It asks students to think about circles can become spheres and have a 3-dimensional shape to them.
1. I started by giving studets a large black paper (12" x 17") and a cardboard circle template (5" diam.) They used the template for drawing the bottom circle, and then had to draw the middle and top circle themselves, in pencil.
2. Next, they were to choose to draw their snowman as turned to either the right or the left, just not head-on as they probably have done in the past.
3. After the pencil drawing was done, the lines were to be traced heavily with a black pastel. Finally, the snowman and background are colored in.
4. I wanted to find an easy way to display the artwork, and found that some leftover white packing boxes were the perfect solution. I taped them shut and spray mounted the art to the smooth side. Voila! A poor man’s self-standing canvas!

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Positive / Negative Pumpkin

One last Halloween project. This is short and sweet but makes a very graphic image.

1. Give each student a square piece of black paper and an orange that is half the width of the black. With the orange lying on top of the right side of the black, they are to imagine the center line as the middle of a pumpkin.
2. Starting on the middle line, they need to draw half of a pumpkin. Next, one eye and one half of a mouth are drawn. When complete, the eye and mouth are cut out, all as complete shapes, not bits and pieces. I show them how to cheat with the eye by cutting a line over to it and then cutting around to get the triangle out. The little slice will seal itself back up when glued.
3. The newly cut shapes are to be flopped from their cut out positions, and then glued down with a glue stick. Voila, a positive/negative and symmetrical pumpkin face!

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Batik Crayon Pumpkins

Batik is a resist-dyeing process that originated in Indonesia. Children can simulate the look with crayons and watercolor.

1. Show the students how to draw overlapping circles to start their pumpkin picture. Stems are added near the top, and lines that radiate out curve down to the bottom. When complete, the drawing is traced with a permanent black marker.
2. The pumpkins and background need to be heavily colored in with crayons. More advanced students can try to make a highlight spot on each pumpkin by coloring it with a lighter orange. Remind them that any highlight spots should pretty much be in the same position on each pumpkin (a quick light-source talk could be added).
3. This is the fun part as students are usually shocked to see how they need to take their carefully colored picture and just crumble it into a little ball like trash. Open the balls and recrunch about 3 to 4 times until the paper starts to soften.
4. I've tried both black and dark blue liquid watercolor, which are brushed slowly over the entire paper. They students will be able to see the cracks in the paper, which absorb most of the watercolor. Smooth out and let dry.

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