Oil Pastel Jungle Animals

I LOVE this project!  It's definitely a staple in my room now for 5th graders to do this project.  Their classroom teachers love it (because they draw the animal they research for class) and the students love it because they tend to be so successful with the oil pastels!  I even had one of the teachers ask me if she could have a box or two of oil pastels for the students to draw with in their spare time in their classroom! :)

We did this project last year, and it didn't really change at all.  I printed off a picture of each student's animal for them to use as a resource to draw from.  I demonstrated how to blend oil pastels together and how to create different textures, such as rock, leaf, water, and fur.  We also talk about using complementary colors to create value, not just black and white.

Here are some of this year's results!  LOVE LOVE LOVE!

There were so many students who normally turn in rushed, sloppy artwork that did amazing!  I have to admit, I'm one of those bloggers who tends to only upload and share the good work...and this time around, there are student's artwork posted that often never get considered!

5th Grade: Oil Pastel Jungle Animals

I think...but I'm not sure...but I think...that this may be the last "catch-up" post I have from the 2013-2014 school year!  Woo-hoo!  Then it's onto the month of July and the summer program activities...

These beauties are oil pastel drawings that my 5th graders completed right before the art show in May...oh wait, art show?  Whoops.  I've just realized that I haven't even uploaded photos from the 2012-2013 art show onto my blog yet!  Eek!

This group of students absolutely LOVE using oil pastels.  I honestly think I could do an entire school year of oil pastel projects with them and they would be ecstatic!  They had done an oil pastel project last year...oil pastel poinsettias, which were observational drawings, and loved creating it.  This year, this particular group of students had only completed three...yes 3...projects this year.  The first was the complementary clay checker boards project, which I started before my maternity leave.  They finished them just before I came back.  I then did the 3-D color wheels with the students, which took forever.  Then, I had them do monochromatic paintings...and come to think of it, I never shared those either from this year's class.

My substitute sent the students home with checkerboards, against my directions, so I wasn't able to photograph those. :(  Either way, when it came closer to setting up the art show, I realized that I didn't exactly have a wide variety of choice for this grade level, nor did a majority of the students really have anything to showcase their abilities.  So, the week before I started set-up, I introduced this project.  

I asked students to choose an animal from the jungle or rain forest to depict using oil pastels.  This also connected with the Common Core because the students were reading a book about the rain forest.  Usual rules applied (having a good background, color blending with the oil pastels, etc.)  Students started them in class and then I sent a box of oil pastels up to each 5th grade classroom so the students could finish these before the art show. EVERY student finished theirs and brought it back to me!  Amazing!  They were all also extremely proud of their work, and I am too!