Oil Pastel: Underwater Fish Drawing

I don't remember which blog I was on, but I saw a project using oil pastels on black paper, and this is the project that I morphed that idea into. Oil pastel colors are very bright, and the black paper makes them seem even more vibrant. While this combo is fun/creative/different, I wanted to start doing some projects with more real drawing in them. I found pictures of beautiful tropical fish and had each student draw with pencil the fish that they chose.
Drawing:
I am not getting into sighting/measuring with these young students, but I am helping them draw more and more accurately to the sources that we are using. I point out the angles of the lines, where parts meet up together, the shapes of curves, sizes of different parts in relation to one another etc., and their drawing is improving.  Every student gets a pencil and a big MOO eraser (they are the best!) and I require them to do lots of erasing! When I as the teacher point out parts that look different on their  drawing from what the object really looks like, they usually can see it and fix it and are more happy with the revised outcome.
I made an example drawing for my classes and also did a demo in class. This was very helpful to their success and made them slow down and notice all of the colors in the fish and how they were blended together. I went over blending and shading with the oil pastels and I was so pleased with how well they did on their own drawings!  I mentioned to them that when they were in Kindergarten they took a green crayon and drew a tree, but now they are too old for that. Trees and grass are not just one color of green!  After they finished the fish they added an underwater background.
I forgot to bring my camera to the first school :( There were some incredible pieces! But I got shots of some more amazing pieces at the second school :)
This is the best project I have done so far and the kids were VERY HAPPY with their drawings.

This fish was at a hard angle to draw, but we did it!

All of these drawings were done by first second and third graders :D

Art Teaching Blogging

I have decided to dedicate part of my blog to teaching art. Once I can get the teaching posts on a separate page/tab it will be very easy to separate them from my other fine art posts.... or maybe eventually I'll have to start a second blog site :)

This is my first year teaching art. I've only taught for seven or eight weeks actually. One day a week I teach one high school and two elementary classes, and another day I teach two more elementary classes. These classes are at home school "schools" or "co-ops," so classes meet just once a week. Maybe one day I'll get into teaching at a private school, but I am really liking teaching for home schoolers, and the pay is pretty good :). Also could have something to do with the fact that I was homeschooled all the way through so I understand the system and like it and know where the kids are coming from and know that they need a good art teacher as much as any other student. I like the low stress and my teaching schedule as well.

All that to say...  A couple of weeks ago I was feeling really discouraged and like I was failing and like I really really didn't know what I was doing. I was running out of projects that I had prepared for and I was having trouble preparing enough in time for class. Thankfully, I had a couple of days off of my other job and the house quiet and to myself, so I started scouring teaching art blogs. A lot of the projects I would not use because they are too "crafty" BUT I did find some great projects and I also found many projects and concepts that I got creative with and mixed up and made more art heavy than craft heavy. I do not have a degree in art education, I have a degree in fine art, so I go more heavy on the art than the crafts (this is also what the students and parents want).
I have also come up with many projects on my own and will post them also.
So now it's my turn to start a teaching art blog and hopefully lots of teachers will find it and will find helpful ideas and projects.
Lessons learned so far:
Don't be lazy- it's gonna take a lot of work, especially the first year when you don't have a repertoire of projects and you don't have a clue what you're doing.

Find somewhere quiet where you can think totally on art and get super creative with the projects
Think through everything and how you will teach everything. Be totally prepared well ahead of time.

Know that you will have to set a chunk of time aside once or twice a week to make sure you are prepared.

Don't be too nice to the students, You are in charge!

Try the projects out yourself before hand and bring examples.