Outstanding Owls Oil Pastel Drawings

My Year 1/2 Class Owl Artworks

Lesson Background: 

We have just started a new school year and I have a beautiful Year 1/2 class.  We chose to call ourselves "The Outstanding Owls".  With this new name in mind, I decided some owl art was appropriate!  We spent the first week of school looking at the art of Canadian artist Sandra Silberzweig and noticed that she includes many colourful and patterned owls in her paintings.  The children and I decided it would be fun to create our own owl artworks based on the style of Silberzweig's.

Lesson Materials:

Images of Sandra Silberzweig owls
A4 white art paper
Lead pencils
Oil pastels
Newspaper (to keep the tables clean)

Lesson Steps:

1.  We looked at Sandra Silberzweig artworks that contained images of owls.  We discussed her use of colour, shape, line and pattern.
2.  The children went back to their desks with a piece of A4 art paper and a lead pencil.  Out the front of the room, I guided the children with their drawing of their owl step-by-step.  I encouraged them to use their fingers and hands to help measure and position parts of their owl.  I also encouraged them to make their owl individual (make it as fat, skinny, fluffy, etc as you want!)
3.  I then demonstrated how to press firmly with oil pastel to get thick vibrant colour and we talked about using adjacent colours on the colour wheel for blending.  I encouraged the children to use as much or little patterning on their owls as they liked.
4.  The children coloured and patterned their owls.  They then outlined every line, shape and pattern with a black oil pastel.
5.  When finished, the owls were mounted on black card to really make them stand out.

Year 1/2 Student Artworks:

By Dora

By Gabe

By Al Zahra

By Paige

My guided-drawing sample