Using oil pastels and glitter paint with a lesson on ocean life or sea creatures can result in a creative collaboration uniting Art and Science.

Goal (Terminal Objective):

Students will develop skills in color, form, texture, and composition with oil pastels to create an under the sea drawing.

Objective:

Students will create an ocean or lake habitat of creatures they have studied in their science class. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of color, form, texture, and composition using oil pastels and glitter paint.

National Standards:

Visual Arts Grades K­4 Content Standard 1: Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes
Visual Arts Grades K­4 Content Standard 2: Using knowledge of structures and functions
Visual Arts Grades K­4 Content Standard 6: Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines (Science Cross Curriculum Connection)

Purpose:

Students will observe the color, form, and texture of a variety of sea creatures and ocean plants. Students will create their artwork with color, form, and texture inspired by their observations.

New Vocabulary:

color, form, composition, texture, overlapping, resist

Materials:

White Drawing Paper, utility paint brush

#22­2016 Oil Pastels 24 ct. large size

#17­3750Glitter Paint – Blue

Time:

2 class periods

Introduction and Motivation (Set):

Ask students to name something they would see in an ocean. Show visuals of ocean scenes, pointing out composition of the habitat and the colors, form, and texture of fish and other creatures.

Instruction:

The teacher demonstrates the concept of overlapping: fish behind plants, etc. Discuss texture and demonstrate how to create the illusion of texture with oil pastels in a drawing. Demonstrate how everything not colored will be blue by painting over a sample drawing.

Activities:

(1) Guided Practice:

Students begin drawing their ocean scene with the sand, plants, rocks, shells, etc.
Remind them to color solidly with the oil pastels so the paint will not cover the objects in their drawing.

Encourage students to add many creatures and fish to their composition as they observed in the real ocean pictures. Students should use a variety of bright colors including white as it will show up when the paint is applied.

Add a small amount of water to the glitter paint to thin it down. Using a 2” wide paint brush, paint a coat of blue glitter paint over the entire drawing. The oil pastels will resist the paint and the artwork is completed.

(2) Independent Practice and Check for Understanding: The teacher will circulate around the students checking to see if coloring is solid and texture has been illustrated. The teacher will offer help if the student is having difficulty and positive reinforcement as the ocean scenes come alive.

(3) Closure: Each student’s artwork will be mounted on a 9” X 12” background paper and displayed.

Evaluation:

The teacher will evaluate the artwork based on the following criteria:

Level One- ­­ The completed oil pastel ocean scene is full of rich details. The student’s drawing demonstrates great color, texture, composition, overlapping, craftsmanship, and skill with oil pastels.

Level Two- ­­ The completed oil pastel ocean scene has a good composition and is colored carefully, but there is only limited use of texture and overlapping.

Level Three- ­­ The completed oil pastel ocean scene shows minimal effort and few details. There are only a few fish and the overall drawing is messy.

Level Four- ­­ The oil pastel ocean scene is not completed. The student has not made an attempt to complete the objective of this lesson.

Tips:

Make an extra sample of your drawing featuring the white oil pastel and begin the second art period by painting over your drawing to illustrate how well white resists the paint.

Notes:

Working with the Science teacher, coordinate this lesson with their study of ocean life.

Extension:

The students can use their newly acquired knowledge of oil pastels and resist to create a landscape and then to paint the glitter paint over to make the sky.

Resources:

http://wikipedia.org/wiki/ocean
http://wikipedia.org/wiki/fish
http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/eviau/edit557/oceans/linda/loceans.htm
http://www.AMNH.org