Tag: chalk pastels

A “Trip” to the Beach with Art

Tracy

Beach Scene Chalk Pastels

I’m loving chalk pastel art and the free tutorials over at Hodgepodge. We’re new to the scene, just dusting our fingers with it, but already in love.

Our latest project was a beach scene, a perfect beginner lesson. The tutorial is very step-by-step, and the results are impressive.

Chalk Pastel Art

So is the mess, but my little helpers have been very good about wiping up after the lesson.

I wanted to walk you through some of my reservations about using chalk pastels, just in case someone else out there is hesitant to take the plunge.

First, purchasing art supplies—real art supplies, not just crayola and elmer’s—made me a little skeptical. I mean, my kids are 6 and 4. It’s hard to justify the REAL stuff. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Chalk pastels and some newsprint paper were relatively inexpensive, definitely no more than the crayola/elmer category.

Then, there was the issue of taking care of the REAL stuff. I have to be honest, knowing the state of most of our crayons, I was very hesitant about REAL chalk. The kids did excellent during our first lesson; of course, I was harping at their elbows about being gentle. But our most recent lesson did in a number of our brand new chalks. Which is when I discovered that what I feared really wasn’t all that bad. The chalks broke, the earth kept rotating, and we all moved on.

Time was another factor. If dragging it out and cleaning it up took too much time, it just wasn’t going to happen very often around here. So I timed this last lesson, start to finish, to know just how long it took. To my utter surprise, it took almost exactly 20 minutes from donning the plastic GLAD bag aprons to wiping up the last specks of dust. Even I can do a 20 minute (including clean-up) art lesson.

Another question I had was wondering if my kids would be capable of this kind of art. And I’ve discovered what everyone keeps blogging about, that this art medium really is perfect for little ones because it is so forgiving. The kids have a great time with it. Oldest has a precise project that turns out very closely to the original we are following, and Middlest has lots of freedom to create. And I’ll admit, I’m having a blast, too.

Beach by 6 year old
Beach by my meticulous 6 year old
Beach by my creative 4 year old
Beach by my creative 4 year old

I am so glad I took the plunge into chalk pastel art. It’s going to be a great summer.

Making a Mess with Art

Tracy2 Comments on Making a Mess with Art

As our “school-year” schedule eases up, our “summer-school” schedule begins here—a mix of art and music and nature study. This will be our third summer of this routine, and it’s amazing how quickly this has become a tradition. As soon as the weather starts warming and the trees begin to bloom, our fingers get the itch for messy art.

So we kicked off the season the other day with some chalk pastels. I am a hard-core art wanna-be. I would love to be adept at painting and chalking and drawing and the like. In reality, my work rarely turns out much better than the kids. But we love it.

Chalk Pastel Lesson

I’ve perused the chalk tutorials at Hodgepodge for awhile, too nervous to jump in. But finally, I bought a set of pastels and took the plunge. We did the “To the Woods” tutorial as our first study. The kids did really well, and absolutely loved it. I had prepped them in advance. You see, my Oldest is a little OCD when it comes to getting his hands dirty. I wanted to be sure he knew exactly what he was in for. He had so much fun that in the end it didn’t bother him too much to get dirty, especially with a wipe nearby.

6 year old's masterpiece
6 year old’s masterpiece
4 year old's masterpiece
4 year old’s masterpiece
My humble first attempts
My humble first attempts

 

Middlest didn’t mind the mess in the least. She got right down to it. And you should have seen her eyes light up when I mentioned that we were turning the chalk on it’s side to color parts of our picture. This is her favorite way to color, and I can’t stand a square crayon so I rarely let her partake in this treat. They both had so much fun with the project that they decided to add some flowers to their path, just wanting to try other colors and prolong the lesson.

Littlest's masterpiece and introduction to crayons
Littlest’s masterpiece and introduction to crayons

Even Littlest got in on the art time. With Mozart playing on my Naxos app on my ipod, we all got our fingers dirty in our first summer lesson of the season. And it felt, oh-so-good!