Giving the Bird

Ok, this is corny I know. But I am a teacher that hates to hear kids cuss and flipping people off drives me nuts. I think it is pointless and mindless and just shows that you could be using your brain a bit more than doing those things.

Anyway, even though I hate the actual action of "giving the bird," I have to admit that I have had fun being corny with my high schoolers about "giving them the bird" during this assignment ;-) Yes, that's teacher humor for you. Don't worry, I am no longer offended if you join my students and roll your eyes at my weak attempt at humor.

So here is my progress on the bird drawing I will be giving to an art show. The show benefits youngsters in Honduras and I think the proceeds are going towards buying them instruments.

 

I had to have a fellow teacher help me figure out how to do the background. I have to agree with her that green was the way to go.

 

After getting most of the background finished, I felt like the contrast of the colors against the background just didn't "pop" quite the way I wanted it to.

 

After I put black around the edges and faded it out, I really liked how it worked.

 

Here is the finished product after I finally remembered to add the little leaf 

on the bottom of the branch.

 

I have probably said it before, but I enjoy looking at the photos of the process of creating the artwork way more than I like looking at the photo of just the finished product. I think it gives you a lot of insight into how the mind of the artist works.

Spreading my wings...sort of

It is a little funny that I spend five days a week, eight hours a day, teaching art or art-related subjects to students at school. Yet, I can hardly ever find the time or energy to sit down and do artwork for myself.

I currently have high school students doing portraits of birds using oil pastels. I realized that I am teaching them how to do something that I've never really even worked a lot with myself. So, I decided to make my own piece of art. I'll keep you in the loop, but thought maybe it would be fun to share my progress with you.

 

This is the first step of getting things down on paper. I told my students this is probably the most important step. It involves a lot of looking at shapes and proportions.

 

Once they have the initial drawing done, then it is traced onto the thicker bristol paper. I did this so I could trace the lines very lightly since they will show through the oil pastels.

 

Since the pencil lines show, the trick is to disguise them with color changes at those locations. I'm going to see how it works out for me, but I'm lovIng the project so far. This is a media that is fairly new to me, but so far I love working with it!

I get excited when I get to work with color. Especially when it is trying to recreate or represent the beautiful colors that God paints everyday objects in our world. Having to sit and analyze how the colors blend and work together just fascinates me and allows me to be amazed by God's creation even more!