Colored Pencils+Gamsol+India Ink+Oil Pastels

When I left for TAEA (Texas Art Educators Association) Convention, I had my Art 1 students working on drawing a silk flower from observation. My idea was to have them do a watercolor/glue project in an O'Keeffe style.

 

However, while at convention, I went to a class on colored pencils and india ink. Well, in the class we used beautiful Lyra pencils. Beautiful=Expensive. I don't have these, nor do my students. So I had to punt. In doing so, I have created a project that I have fallen in love with!

 

Here are the steps.

 

1. Do a contour drawing of the flower. I did birds-eye view for this sample piece.  Fill the page. 

 

2. Color. Lots and lots of color. Use a lot of different shades and build and build color. Go in different directions as you fill in the color. 

 

3.Keep building.When you think you have enough shades, keep going. My flower has at least 10 layers of colored pencil. (for the record here, I used prismacolor pencils.) 

 

4. Take a brush and some odorless mineral spirits (I used Gamsol) and brush on. When you do this, the lines of the pencil bleed together and look painted. (This is not a new technique!)

 

5. Now take the india ink and sponge on the back side of the paper. (I used a kleenex and just swiped it on it.. that's what I had available). Cover the entire paper.  Flip over and do the same thing. Yes, even cover the flower.  After you cover the entire paper, using a cotton ball (or kleenex for me..) wipe the flower clean. This will bring back your color, but leave the texture of the ink.

6. I felt like my colors were too muted at this point, so I started playing. I layered more colored pencil (prang this time, hoping for more wax) and built up a few more layers of colored pencil. Then I did the Gamsol again. Then I still wasn't thrilled, so I after considering my options, I settled on my Cray-Pas. And I love them!

In this picture you can see where I put the oil pastel down on a couple of leaves and then you can see where I used the Gamsol brush and smoothed out the color.

 

7. And that's the project. The finished piece looks better in person I think. It looks more like the above picture and is vibrant. I'm already thinking about the next project!

I think overall, this will be a successful project with my students. It's not expensive and that is huge and it uses easily found materials.

I can't wait to show you what my students create!