For Students Who Are Afraid to Draw

I love using the wacky birds as a drawing lesson with students.  They are so much fun to draw and students can relax a little knowing that things don't have to be perfect.

Here are some steps to turn wacky bird drawings into fun chalk pastel art.

First have students draw wacky birds in their sketchbooks.  

Give them plenty of time to try out several birds.  

You can get the drawing sheet on Expressive Monkey's Website and the Roll & Draw sheet is in Expressive Monkey's Roll & Draw Collection. 

A very simple version of Wacky Birds is included in Expressive Monkey's ABC Art Book.  

I had students cut the body shape out of a piece of paper (saving the outside portion) and they eyes out of clear contact paper (any sticky tape or contact paper will work).

They tapes the body shape down, then placed the contact paper eyes.  I suggested that it would look interesting to have one of the eyes sticking out past the body shape.  Some students did this and some made both eyes stick out past the body shape. 

Then they colored the edge of the body shape with chalk pastels and blended the pastel in towards the middle with a piece of paper towel.  

I kept damp soapy sponges handy for wiping fingers to prevent too many smudges and fingerprints. 

When they were finished, they took the body shaped paper and contact paper off.

Smudges were cleaned up with an eraser.

I sprayed the pastel with fixative between art classes.  

Students added a beak with scrap from the scrap box.

They used markers to add the eyes, wings, tails, legs and toppers.

They also added background details, such as a branch or nest.  

I encouraged them to use their imagination and to keep the background minimal.  

Background details were colored using colored pencils.