Friday 4 May 2012

Curved Line Oil Pastel Pictures

Year 1/2 Artworks
Lesson Background:
My Year 1/2 class have been learning about straight and curved lines in recent maths sessions and learnt about the colour wheel during art lessons earlier in the year.  I spotted the artworks of Maria B. Davis on the Internet and thought they combined these 2 concepts very well.  http://www.mariabdavis.com/Oil_Pastels.html

Lesson Materials:
1 sheet A3 art paper, trimmed to allow for a 2-3cm border of backing paper
Oil pastels
Lead pencils
Rubbers
Circle shapes (Maths shapes, tins, bottles, glue-stick lids, etc)
Newspaper (to keep the desks clean)

Lesson Steps:
1.  We looked at the art of Maria B. Davis and talked about the difference between straight and curved lines and how Maria used curved lines to create her artworks.
2.  We examined her use of colour blending and talked about how colours of the same tone (or next to each other on the colour wheel) blend most easily.  We brainstormed which colours blend best into one another on the board, (e.g. yellow into orange into red)
3.  I demonstrated how to use circle shapes to trace circles onto the art paper.  I then demonstrated how to use curved lines (& only curved lines!) to join the shapes together.  I emphasised the importance of the students making sure the lines they drew helped to create other interesting shapes (no boring bits!).
4.  The students went back to their desks and did their drawings.
5.  I demonstrated how to colour and blend: 
-Outline a shape in the lightest colour (e.g. pale pink) and then colour in the shape with that colour. 
-Select the next darkest colour for blending (e.g. hot pink and/or red) and outline and colour half the shape in this darker colour. 
-Then take the lighter colour you started with and colour over the top of the shape, pressing firmly to smooth the colours into one another.
6.  The students went back and did their colouring and blending, making sure there were no white gaps and that they didn't leave messy fingerprint smudges!
7.  The students outlined all shapes in black oil pastel to make everything stand out.
8.  One of my students told me they had given their artwork a title (Well done, Gabe!) so I suggested that everyone have a go at creating a title for their artwork, based on how it made them feel, what it reminded them of and what they were thinking about while making it.  This was a great activity and very insightful- some children definitely have an artist's spirit, others are very literal and some perhaps just watch a bit too much TV!!!  Enjoy...

Class Artworks:

"Fireball Ocean" by Charlie (Year 2)


"Blend" by Paige (Year 1)

"Starry Night" by Eve (Year 1)


"Circle of Life" by Ashley (Year 2)

"Moonlight" by Eloise (Year 2)

"Solar System" by Gabe (Year 2)

"Colour World" by Dora (Year 2)

"Dark Claw" by Rohan (Year 1)


"Multicoloured Beach" by Marlo (Year 2)


"Clever Art" by Nive (Year 1)


"Waterlily" by Liliana (Year 2)

"The Goat" by Sebaga (Year 2)



23 comments:

  1. Great job, Owls! I thought being restricted to only using curved lines might be a bit tricky for you, but you've all done amazingly well!

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  2. actually dhiren
    was the one who suggested the name thing and good work everyone!

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  3. Then "Well Done Dhiren!" for the original idea and "Well Done, Gabe!" for sharing his idea with me! :)

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  4. these really turned out well and were fun doing

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  5. i think everyone did a wonderfull job and it must of been hard to choose the ones to put up.

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  6. i think everyone did well it is hard to choose the best one.

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  7. the owls did a great job.

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  8. Really beautiful art work by everyone

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  9. Eloise

    I showed my dad and mum and they were really impressed. They showed me some paintings by an Australian artist called Grace Cossington-Smith which feel similar to the Owls artwork. Have a look at this one called Trees.

    http://www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/nag/collection/interpreting_the_collection/poets_paint_words/artwork/grace_cossington-smith_1927

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    Replies
    1. It does have a similar feel to our artworks, doesn't it?! I love Grace Crossington Smith's artworks- they always seem so peaceful and uniquely Australian. Thank you for sharing your discovery with us, Eloise.

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    2. her artwork is quite nice.i like her use of colours because she did a shade of a colour.for
      example,she never used pure yellow.she replaced it with a dull shade of yellow. she
      also didn't include pure brown or purple.lots of the colours she used are the
      colours of lots of different types of olives.anyway this little bit of writing explains why
      i like her artwork.

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  10. It was hard to choose the best as all of them were great .
    Well done every body .

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  11. well done to the rest of the owls! these turned out to be AMAZING artworks! Good Job everyone!

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  12. ! never thought so many people would comment!I can see why everyone commented though .

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  13. Doug (gabe's brother)4 June 2012 at 18:48

    Wow epic! I like the swirls and curves!

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  14. this was so fun to do at lunch once i tried to do one!i didn't get to far though.

    anyway,good work everyone!

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  15. i think this is one of my three favourite artworks i've done in mrs bakers class(the other 2 are the
    sandra silberwigs abstract portraits and the abstract kittens).

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  16. mrs baker you do very good procedures on how to make these artworks.good job!

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  17. art is my favourite subject at school.

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  18. these artworks remind me of some different things.clever art (by nive) and colour world(by dora) both
    remind me of the amazon.

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  19. charlie!!!!!!!:):):) (ausome person!!!!!:)!@#$%^&*()11 April 2013 at 15:58

    Gabe you comment a lot. I like solar system (by Gabe) and circle of life (by Ashley) but they are all good!!:)

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