fall art project | nappanee photographer

this year, i'm trying to incorporate art into the 6th grader's schedule on an every-other-week basis. i thought about laying out an entire curriculum plan this summer (like being ready ahead of time... that would be amazing!), but instead, it's a work in progress. i'm trying to work it into his history or science or wherever it might tie into something he's already studying. if that happens, it will probably be a happy accident, but i'm doing my best to stay current. i always feel like if it's not planned ahead of time, it will probably flop.

so far it's worked out and it gives me time to get projects ready on the off weeks and it gives the boy a break. me, i don't need an "art break" but i guess art can be tasking on an almost 12 year old boy.

this summer i found a plethora of art teacher blogs. once you start looking around, you'll find that there are entire communities of blogs dedicated to everything you can think of and art teachers is one of them. i've bookmarked tons and will try to share from them often.

i found this project here where it's entitled layered fall leaves. this project is done using actual leaves to trace shape & veins and then the outlining is done with a black sharpie (or in our case we used an american crafts slick writer permanent marker because they're not as "bleedy" as sharpies) and then the coloring is done with oil pastels.

*this is my 2nd time using oil pastels and i am not impressed. i'd frankly rather use crayons. maybe the brand i'm using is just cruddy. someone tell me if they have good experiences with oil pastels so i can see what i'm missing.

i think the boy did a great job; he's very creative. he came up with his own way of blending all by himself & it looks nothing like the sample on the blogsite i got the project from, so i'm impressed.

now i'm off to search through another blog community that i'm SO excited about {enter sarcasm here}: math.... proofs for geometry, to be exact.

yippeeeee!