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!