New Session-Lesson of the week!

What a great day and start to the new session.  Lots of my original students are still continuing on, which is so awesome that they love coming to class, and I also had a bunch of new students as well which is always fun to introduce them to what I do and the whole art experience.

I did a lesson last year that was similar to this weeks, but I added a twist.  Last years lesson we sketched out christmas ornaments and colored them in with oil pastels.  We created shadows and added spots where the light would hit it, and they came out amazing.  Oil pastels can be a little thick, and so I thought to do something different this year. 

I decided to pre-draw the circles on the mixed media paper.  I thought by having them do it themselves it would take up more time, and I really wanted them to concentrate on neatness and detail.  I used a circle template that I had with all different sized circles, but if you are doing this at home, you can use anything round like a yogurt container lid, plastic cup, or even a small dish. 

I demonstrated to the students how to fill it in and use your magic tool - your finger!- to blend the chalk pastels around.  I had them imagine a light source shining on their ball and had them create a sense of light hitting the ornament. 

Once the colors were blended in, they then went over it with colored pencil to add some shading and depth. 

The final step included tracing the ornament with a darker color like black or brown and it really made it pop and come to life. 

Working with chalk pastels can be tricky, especially with the younger students.  It smudges so easily and the little ones do not get that concept sometimes.  However, I was so extremely happy with the results of todays class.  I will upload the pics tomorrow, however, here is my picture of the ornaments.