Pretty much every art teacher I know does these flowers. However, parents who are looking for some crafty ideas will love the ease of this no-fail activity. The images below were done by 7-10 year olds. Although, I have successfully done this project with 5-6 year olds too. I just have to take out the two pastel colors that they choose and not give them access to the whole box of colors. The whole box is just way too tempting! Most important in this activity is encouraging the kids to draw big and fill up the whole page. Size is what makes these flowers most striking.
The materials you will need are:
Black construction paper
Chalk pastels (cheapo brands are fine)
Elmer's School Glue
Pencils
Photographs of flowers for reference
Fixative Spray
I let the children select their flower reference photograph and then encourage them to draw only one or two flowers that fill the page. If the flowers go off the page, even better. Then, the students trace their pencil lines using the glue. The glue needs ample drying time. I let them dry overnight just to be safe. When the glue dries clear it give the look of the leaded area on stained glass. The next day, the kids can use the pastels to add color in the areas between the glue lines. Regular chalk will not give the vibrant colors that you get from the pastels. I also tell them to stick to two or three colors and not to use black. The black over powers the other colors and if they use more than three colors, it starts to look "muddy". I show the kids how to lay down patches of color and blend the edges with their fingertip. Q-tips come in handy and help avoid little fingerprints but we didn't have any for these. Then, the pictures can be sprayed with a fixative. Test your fixative on your teacher sample first. Many hairsprays will leave dots on the artwork. I want to try this activity with other subject matter since so many people do the flowers. I will be doing Backyard Birds later this week so I will post those pictures when they are done. I also think this would be a great project to make abstract designs for Holiday Stained Glass Windows.
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