Art Project #8; Oil Pastel Flowers

I love that our 100 Days of Art challenge is keeping me motivated to try to put some art back into our days of schooling but we're still struggling with finding activities that all three boys are willing to work on.

Friday I asked them all to pick a medium they'd like to work with and suggested markers, paints, watercolors, chalk pastels, oil pastels.... and after a bit of debating they all decided on oil pastels. 

I was kind of glad because that is a whole new medium for the boys that we've never really used before.  

We finally settled on making some large flowers and I sat with the boys to go through the process with them step by step.

They all told me they LOVE it when I do the project with them and model what they need to do each step of the way.  

Of course, since this is art, there is no wrong way to do it either and I love that even when we work together all of our work turns out so unique and different.

We started by drawing a half or part of a circle either on the sides or corner of our paper and I encouraged the boys to use at least three different colors going from light to dark.  This was going to be the center of our flowers.  They could pick any colors they wanted; even if they had never noticed a flower that color before.

Once we had our centers done I showed them how to draw petals going around and told them they could draw as many or as few as they'd like. 

Then we each chose two or three colors to shade our leaves.

The boys were working hard to cover up all the white and since we used textured paper it was a bit difficult.  I offered to give them each a small brush and some baby oil; I explained that if they lightly ran the brush of baby oil over their picture the baby oil would spread the oil pastels around and blend them together more like watercolors. 

Ian and Evan were game to try it but Alec liked his picture just the way it was and didn't want to use any baby oil.

They were all quite happy with their flowers when we were done and I was surprised that it really didn't take us very long to squeeze in a bit of art at all. 

Others in this series: 

Project 1: Painting with Hexbugs

Project 2: Tissue paper flowers

Project 3: Star Wars Crafts

Project 4: Watercolor compass circles

Project 5: Floral pens

Project 6: Watercolor outlines

Project 7: Scratch art jellyfish

Project 8: Oil pastel flowers
Project 9: Fingerprint dandelions 
Project 10: Beaded Sun Catchers
Project 11: Bird crafts and snacks
Project 12: Symmetrical, color mixing, butterflies

Project 13: Water gun art

Project 14: Watercolor Kits

Project 15: Dragonfly Silhouettes 

Project 16: Painting pet rocks 

Project 17: Spray Paint Resist

Project 18: Water bottle windsock

Project 19: Stained glass made easy crafting kit 

Project 20: Tin can windsock 

Project 21: Firework glue art
Project 22: Qixel art kit

Project 23: Makit Bakit Kits 
Project 24: Wood burning cutting board

Project 25: Making our own rafts 

Project 26: Spray Painted Canvas

Project 27: Paper bowl jellyfish 

Project 28: Tin Foil Art

Project 29: Oil Pastel Bubbles 

Project 30: Chalk Pastel painting 

Project 31: Washi Tape Votive holders 

Project 32: Drip Painted Pots

Project 33: Sun Art 

Project 34: Tissue paper transfer 

Project 35: Stained Glass dragonfly

Project 36: Art Museum field trip. 

Project 37: Taking a Family Art Class

Project 38: Painting Minecraft T-Shirts

Project 39: Painting Pikachu 

Project 40: How to Draw Books

Project 41: Wax resist Watercolors

Project 42: Splatter Paint Canvas

Project 43: Fine line fall leaves 

Project 44: Fairy Village field trip

Project 45: Oil Pastel Resist Leaves

Project 46: Tissue Paper Leaf Art

Project 47: Bat Silhouette Painting 

Project 48: Beginner Photography

Project 49: Making Harry Potter Wands

Project 50: Drawing Cat Faces 

Project 51: Making Homemade cards

Project 52:  Learning the Art of Zentangle

Project 53: 3-D printing 

Project 54: Gingerbread Train

Project 55: Paint Swirled Ornaments 

Project 56: Loom band ornaments and bracelets 

Project 57: Candy trees 

Project 58: Strand of light chalk drawings

Projects 59-64: Christmas Crafting Kits from Oriental Trading

Project 65: Painting Ceramic Village Pieces 

Project 66: Washi Tape Cookie Cutter Ornaments
Project 67: Learning Origami 
Project 68: Art Books and Artist Study
Project 69: Playing Go Fish Art
Project 70: Edible Chocolate Art
Project 71: Geometric Hearts 
Project 72: Marble Swirled Hearts
Project 73: Solid Tempera Paint Drawings
Project 74: Qixels 3-D Maker
Project 75: Making Cupcakes
Project 76: Window Marker Art
Project 77: Shamrock Zentangles on Scratch Paper
Project 78: Painted Pandas 
Project 79: Minecraft Digital Art
Project 80: Charcoal Drawings
Project 81: Chalk Pastel Lighthouse Drawings
Project 82: Dying Easter Eggs With Bleeding Tissue Paper
Project 83: Painting Pottery
Project 84: Drawing En Plein Air
Project 85: African Savannah Paintings
Project 86: Woven CD Garden Decoration
Project 87: Working with Clay
Project 88: Art Lessons with Art Academy
Project 89: Melted Bead Wind Chimes
Project 90: Perler Bead Projects
Project 91: Ivory Soap Carvings
Project 92: Ice Cube Tie Dye
Project 93: String Art
Project 94: Multimedia Ocean Paintings 
Project 95: Balloon Splatter Painting
Project 96: Making Mosaic Stepping Stones
Project 97: Glass Bead and Glue Sun Catchers 
Project 98: Coloring Book Art
Project 99: Metal Stamped Bookmarks

Project 100: Water Balloon Art