'My Country' Soft Pastel Drawings




By Dharan (yr 3 student), 2011

 

By Andrea (yr 3 student), 2011

  

The Lesson:



We had been reading Dorothea Mackellar's poem, "My Country" when I saw a fabulous art idea on one of my favourite art blogs, Deep Space Sparkle:  http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2008/05/coolwarm-modern-landscapes/ 

I changed the activity slightly so that the artworks represented images from Mackellar's poem. 

1.  Read "My Country"
2.  Discuss the landforms mentioned in the poem.
3.  Look at photos of Australian landforms and discuss the colours (lots of warm reds, oranges and browns for the earth) and shapes (curving mountains and flat plains of land).
4.  Demonstrate how to draw mountains and a sun (using concentric circles)
5.  Ask the children to draw their own "My Country" artworks using lead pencil on black cardboard.
6.  Ask the students to outline eveything in black oil pastel.
6.  Demonstrate how to use soft pastels (chalk pastels), including how to blend colours, smudge colours with fingers, etc.  Also demonstrate to students how to show where the light and shadow in the picture should be (in relation to where the sun is), and how to use different colours to show the light and shade (white/yellow/light colours for light, purples/blues/reds for shadows)
7.  Ask the students to use the pastels to colour in their drawings, then go over their black oil pastel outlining.
8.  Spray with fixative or hairspray to stop the pastel smudging (NOTE:  this often dulls the colours).

Year 3 Artworks:


By Andrew (2011)



By Daniel (2011)

        

By Denzelle, 2011



By Charles, 2011

  

By Keyan (2011)


 

Year 3 Samples (2011)