Observational Drawing

As a high school teacher, I found that a lot of students came to art class without having had much practice or experience drawing from real life or photographs. I show my sixth graders how I paint from a photograph with this painting and photo of my grand-daughter that sit at the back of my art room.  I work on it whenever I get a chance (which is almost never, except when I stay after school to paint!)

 I have been giving my older students the opportunity to sketch and draw from photos.  Check out our cardinals.  After sketching in pencil on colored construction paper, students used oil pastels to blend colors and create the visual texture of feathers.  Oil pastels are very forgiving and allow students to blend colors and create highlights and shadows as well.