Using Chalk Pastels with Mixed Media
The students got to experience chalk (soft) pastels at their finest! Some loved the process and others did not like getting messy. This project started out at the beginning of spring when the daffodils were blooming in our area. I was inspired to have the students work on concepts from their natural surroundings, so I had the students pick something "living" to create a composition. Many of the girls wanted to draw flowers (of course) and the boys wanted to draw fish, spiders, bumblebees, and turtles, etc...
I first had the students draw their chosen image using 6H pencils on black construction paper. I had them repeat the images to build their compositions (turning the images in different ways to make their compositions interesting). Then, I had the students take small bottles of Elmer's glue and trace over their pencil lines. The glue dried within a day or so. Afterwards, the students filled in their glue lines with soft pastels using a variety of colors (bright colors work best on black paper). I instructed the students on how to blend the colors using their fingers as well. Some students decided to leave their backgrounds black and some decided they wanted color (ie. the green background with black widow spiders). The students then used an eraser to clean up stray marks and make images stand out. This project showed well, and it brought great color to our hallway at school.
I first had the students draw their chosen image using 6H pencils on black construction paper. I had them repeat the images to build their compositions (turning the images in different ways to make their compositions interesting). Then, I had the students take small bottles of Elmer's glue and trace over their pencil lines. The glue dried within a day or so. Afterwards, the students filled in their glue lines with soft pastels using a variety of colors (bright colors work best on black paper). I instructed the students on how to blend the colors using their fingers as well. Some students decided to leave their backgrounds black and some decided they wanted color (ie. the green background with black widow spiders). The students then used an eraser to clean up stray marks and make images stand out. This project showed well, and it brought great color to our hallway at school.
This project was an interesting approach to using chalk pastels (soft pastels). First the students made a quick sketch on a piece of muslin fabric. Then, they soaked the fabric in milk. Afterwards, the students colored in their sketch with chalk pastels. To set the image, we laid the fabric pieces on newspaper (to soak up extra milk), covered the fabric with a dry sheet of paper, and ironed the image into the fabric. The milk and heat helped set the chalk/image into the fabric.