Art Classes in Virginia

This week’s drawing is of a PUPPY IN A HAMMOCK using OIL PASTELS as the medium.

In this picture, your child explored:

• Drawing animals
• Using oil pastels
• Building a drawing using layering

THE DRAWING:

Puppy in Hammock

This week’s drawing is of a cute puppy peering out of a hammock.

THE MEDIUM:

Using Oil Pastels:

The primary focus of this particular project was using oil pastels. Oil pastels look very similar to crayons; they are made from pigment mixed with oil and wax. The most high quality brands are quite soft, and can yield stunning results when used carefully.

The first oil pastels were made in 1925 and were called Cray-Pas because they were a cross between crayons and brilliantly pigmented soft pastels. Professional grade oil pastels were specially developed not long after this for Pablo Picasso and Henri Goetz! Goetz wanted a sketch medium that would blend in with painted layers, so he could use it to start oil paintings; Picasso wanted to draw and blend the crayons directly onto the canvas, using the crayons as a medium in their own right.

Oil pastels can be a difficult medium; they require patience and perseverance. One of the things your child may have heard from his teacher during the lesson is that sometimes drawings have an “ugly phase” before they are completed. This is often true of pictures using oil pastels as a medium, because the initial, unblended stages of the picture can look very basic and unfinished.

Oil pastels should be applied in layers and carefully blended with a finger tip or q-tip between each layer. While this process can be difficult, especially for younger children, careful practice with oil pastels will yield amazing results for your young artist! 

If you are interested in experimenting with oil pastels with your child, there are many different brands available both online and in most art and craft supply stores. You can read more helpful tips for using oil pastels here.

We also experimented with using texture plates to add dimension and interest to the picture.  

Ask Your Child:

·         To describe the scene he created; ask questions about the background, breed of puppy, etc.

·         What she learned about layering and coloring with oil pastels.

Tags: animal drawings, KidzArt, oil pastels

This entry was posted on Monday, March 22nd, 2010 at 8:10 pm and is filed under Drawings - in depth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.