Winter Birds

6th graders are creating winter bird pictures to decorate and add some winter spirit to the halls. We have had an unseasonably warm February, so these birds actually look a little out of place on snow covered trees. However, the kids are really taking pride in them, and they are turning out amazing!!! We started out this lesson by looking at some examples of realism in art. We discussed what makes something a successful work of realism. We touched upon shadows and highlights, color matching, and attention to detail. I printed off packets with color pictures of all the birds so that students could use them as a reference throughout the entire process. We practiced drawing our birds several times before moving to the final copy paper. Students used simple shapes to break up the form of their bird and create a construction line map to work from. I was astonished at how quickly they picked it up. For the final copy we initially used brown paint to add a tree with a few branches. Students decided how big or how small to draw their tree and branches. Once they were confident with their drawing abilities, the student then drew the bird on the tree branch and began filling in with oil pastels. The final steps were to add oil pastel details to the tree, such as, shadows, bark, pine needles, and snow. To finish them off we sprayed them with a squirt bottle of half water, half white tempera. There are still several students working on their finishing touches, but the ones that are finished are lookin good!!!! I wanted to keep the birds we created native to Ohio, so, I let them choose from a Cardinal, Chickadee, or Blue Jay as their subject. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of finished blue jays yet. I will definitely post more finished products soon. If you would like to see the presentation I used to introduce the lesson it is here. My full plan is here.