The beautiful butterfly art was sent to me this week, along with a wonderful explanation of how it was made. I thought I’d pass it on as it is a very well thought out project, and so beautiful to look at. Thanks Mylien!Dear Mrs. Barbro,
This was done in one of our 4th Grade classroom at Mirada Elementary School. We had 24 students, 6 parent volunteers, the teacher and her student intern and myself who help complete the artwork from start to finish (including faux canvas) in about 4 hours. Prior to working in to the classroom, I had experimented with sharpies, acrylics, and oil pastels. Between the three, oil pastels I thought had the best texture and were quicker to apply.
We had a mini art appreciation presentation before hand about Georges Seurat and his works. After deciding colors, we worked in groups asking students to create dots with oil pastels, starting with the lightest colors working their way to the darkest and leaving the black outlines for last. I’ve learned from past to tell them to start on the left side if they were right handed and vice-versa if the were left handed, and to wipe tips clean before starting. We had to show them how large the dots would be in order for us to finish the project in one session as we did not have the luxury of completing the project over several weeks. We assembled the wax paper using mod podge to adhear to canvas and a layer over the entire surface. I remember you told me pastels might bleed so we did not dilute the mod podge and tampered on instead of brushing on.
We have 25 classes, each class will contribute artwork to be auctioned off in our Winter Art Fundraiser in December. I’m not the art teacher, just the coordinator of the fundraiser and have found your blog to be both inspiring and invaluable to our project.
Thank you,Mylien
