SMALL BUT MIGHTY

PRELIMINARY OIL PASTELS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

oil pastels on black construction paper

These oil pastels are only about 5"by 7" 

but they are powerful in both their color choices, technique,and compositions.

And for many of these young ones it's the first time to use them.

This first one was done by junior Sarah Oh.

Not only are her value ranges and transitions superb,

but we loved that she both in her signature birds/animals into the backdrop.

She did this by using a blunt pencil and drawing right over the pastel.

This was an extra credit suggestion. 

Next we have senior Deborah Harris.

I loved that she chose a cow skull as her subject instead of the usual sphere,

and the way she handled her grasses and flowers was very sophisticated as well.

This one blew me away with it's depth of value ranges within each color.

Also loved the Analogous color choices to get that with.

Brilliant work junior Tiffany Chen

Really 3-D!

And check out this very cool background by senior Jocelyn Chou!

She also used the graphite to draw over top the pastel with,

plus note the background going from light to dark as well.

Awesome!

And this one really impressed me with how 8th grader Ashley Gong used her light source.

Look closely at how she changes the values of the yellow and black checkers

 as well as the red and white striped backdrop.

Subtle yet so powerful!

GLORIOUS COLOR...

PRELIMINARY OIL PASTELS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

oil pastels on black construction paper

that's what you get when you use oil pastels, 

the most remarkable results with color.

These beauties were my students first experience with them 

unless they had me for the 7th grade wheel class.

Let's take a look.

One of the class favorites was made by junior Jane Juan.

I was impressed with the multiple of layers used to build the nest,

and the 3-D depth she achieved

 as well as the very believable cracks on the egg.

Next we have one of my new favorite 8th graders, 

Iris Choi,

using a pointillist style to create this visual delight.

And how fun is this next one by junior Bernice Lin?

I love how she was brave enough to change up her techniques when applying the pastels,

creating a very atmospheric sky.

Also note her beautiful color changes in the sky.

Wow!

Junior Hapshiba Kwon is the creator of this last vivid piece.

Her color choices are awesome and she gives us a bird's eye view of the pool table.

And to balance the work she has brought in a bit of zentangling with graphite.

Great job class!!

Another Oops!

PRELIMINARY OIL PASTELS

BEGINNING 2-D ART

oil pastel on black construction paper

You've seen the work my 7th graders do in their Preliminary Oil Pastel pieces, but I also do this exercise with my Beginning 2-d kids on a larger scale.  

The oops is that I forgot to photo the others and for some reason I just have these two to show you.

The good news is that this one by senior Jackie Manipon is exceptional.

Her use of color is so beautiful to the eye, and her composition feels just right as well.

Just wish I had more to share.

Oh well!!  :)

The bad news is that I can't remember who did this second gorgeous work.

Help!!!

Zentangling into Oil Pastel

7TH GRADE PRELIMINARY OIL PASTELS

3RD QUARTER 7TH GRADERS 2013-2014

oil pastel and pencil

Because my 7th graders learned to Zentangle in an earlier unit, I had them give it a try over top their oil pastels just for an extra credit opportunity, and this is what I got.  

Really rich, vibrant spheres with interesting surface design that holds the eye.

Young Ethan Marcus made this delightful ball that he gave importance to by elevating it on a pedistal , and sweet Rachel Tibayan did the pretty pink ball below.

The kids were able to choose between working in pointillism or hatchure strokes.  

And the zentangling was done with a dull pencil lead.

Olivia Krueger chose dots above, and Suzaine Thomas strokes below.

And this icy blue ball was created by Taylor Genera.

Pretty darn impressive for these young ones!

Preliminary Oil Pastels - Student Work

For my Beginning 2-D kids, the 4th Quarter is all about color and learning how to use it with a variety of media.  I start them off with oil pastel because it's user friendly and inexpensive :)

They have several requirements to meet , some of which are range of value in subject as well as back and foregrounds, cast shadows, shading in either a monochromatic, complimentary, or analogous way, and using either hatchure or pointillism techniques or both.  I have them practice for 2 days on small pieces of black construction paper, then off they go on a larger piece of black paper to do their final one for grading.  Unfortunately, I've lost track of the artists on a couple of these, so young ones, help me if you can. 

Taking a guess here but I think these two were done by junior Cathy Luo and 8th grader Annie Oh.

And one last guess on these last two.  How about juniors Justin Hwang and Alex Lee.  Feel free to chime in you guys!

Preliminary Oil Pastels - Student Work

I haven't shown you lately what my Beginning 2-D kids have been up to, but they have been really busy learning how to draw. I'll be posting their before and afters in the next couple of weeks so you can see their progress. But in the meantime, here are some sweet little oil pastel exercises they just finished up. This is their first time to use this medium and they are really enjoying it, finding their own style, learning about highlights, reflective lights and cast shadows, along with including a wide range of value in their local colorway. After showing my students the work of Professional Artist Loretta Grayson from Australia (post above this one), junior Michelle Lee was inspired by her work and included lots of scratched in detail in her prelim. above. Incredible piece Michelle!

Above senior Jennifer Park did this stunning pea pod, and below senior Michelle Guan, junior Janice Min and senior Rachel Kim all have found their own working styles.

So have senior Karen Pan and junior Crislyn Ogawa. All of you are on a roll, can't wait to see what you all do with the gluelines you are working on now.

Preliminary Oil Pastels - Student Art

I rarely show all the students pieces for each assignment, but I got lucky this time cuz they were so small and I was able to fit them into my lens :) For the last 2 months I have worked my beginning drawing/painting students realistically, so that by 4th quarter they need a change of pace. I introduce a variety of color media and in this particular unit we are working with oil pastel. For their preliminary pieces they had to simply move their foreground, background and sphere from light to dark to achieve a wide value range so that everything looks dimensional. Composition is also stressed along with creating a horizon and cast shadows. I encourage the students to be more creative as they build their composition so that I don't get all spheres.

Always doing some of the most beautiful pieces in the class is senior Kristina Le. So gifted!

A close up of a few of the better ones. From left to right, top to bottom are juniors Mary Lou Bunn and Brandon Liao, juniors Shabnaz Khandoker and Esther Lee, senior Rachel Rilloraza and 8th grader Michaela Platt. And this is their first experience in this medium. Aren't these wonderful? !!