Bruce Gray Animal Oil Pastels



By Janis (year 3 student)

Lesson Background:

Our school had an RSPCA fundraiser last week and so I thought my class would enjoy creating some animal-inspired artworks!  I trawled through Google images and came across the stunning artworks of Bruce Gray.  We based these artworks on Gray's oil pastel drawings...



"Picattso #7" original Bruce Gray artwork that inspired us

Lesson Steps:

1)  We read a brief biography of Bruce Gray.
2)  We looked at photos of his artworks and discussed his use of colour, shape and line.
3)  The students were each given an A3 sheet of art paper.  I demonstrated how to draw large boxes of different shapes and sizes all over the page, which locked in together like jigsaw pieces.
4)  I then demonstrated how to draw simple body parts of animals from different angles (teeth, tails, claws, whiskers, legs, fur, etc).  As I demonstrated each drawing, the children chose one of their boxes on their artwork and copied the body part inside it. 
5)  Once I had demonstrated a range of body parts, the children filled in the rest of the boxes by repeating the body part drawings in different places and using different angles.
6)  I then demonstrated how to outline each shape in coloured oil pastel, colour it in and then use lighter or darker colours to add light and shading.  I also suggested how they could use interesting colour combinations to make their shapes and patterns stand out (e.g. red and yellow, pink and green, purple and orange).
7)  The students coloured their own artworks in, being careful to colour thickly and with no white gaps.
8)  I showed the students how to outline every box and shape with black oil pastel.  The students then went back and outlined their own artworks.

Year 3 Student Artworks

By Andrew (Year 3 student, 2011)



By Andrea G



By Kaya



By Arpita



By Charlotte



By Tom N. (Year 3 student, 2011)



By Charlotte, Andrew, Nick, Dharan. Keyan and Kaya

By Andrea G, Tom N, Aimee, Arpita, Jia and Liam



By Denzelle, Parth, Dane, Kundai, Shaun and Olivia

By Josh and Axel

A sample artwork I made to help guide the students



some of 3B's beautiful oil pastel drawings

Matisse Dancers Paper Artwork

By Tom N. (Year 3 student, 2011)


Lesson Background:
This lesson idea came from the Deep Space Sparkle website: http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2009/02/matisse-inspired-dancers-paper-collage/

Lesson Steps:
1)  Discuss the art of Matisse, including his artwork, "The Dance" (1909).
2)  Talk about his use of colour, shape, line and movement.
3)  Discuss how Matisse made sure the gaps between his shapes were just as interesting to look at (positive/negative space).
4)  Ask the children to take these ideas and design a background of shapes and blocks of colour.  The children can do a few sketches of ideas on scrap paper, then cut their shapes out of coloured Brenex paper and stick it onto an A3 sheet of white art paper.
5)  Show the students how to draw a person by drawing a stick figure in different poses/movements and then covering each segment of the figure with a simple bean or leaf-shape.  Explain how segments are the parts of the body separated by joints (e.g. an arm has 3 segments:  above elbow, below elbow and hand). 
6)  Student draw their body/ies in different movement positions onto black paper.  Then students cut the paper out and glue it onto their backgrounds.
7)  Show the students how they can decorate their people with coloured paper headbands, necklaces, armbands, ankle bands, chest bands, etc.

Year 3 Student Artworks (2011)



By Andrea







By Keyan




By Jia



By Charlotte