Glue Line Chalk Pastel Pumpkins

This is a re-post of a pumpkin still life project my Grade 7 students made. 

I brought in some mini pumpkins for them to look at- I find their drawings look so much better if they draw directly from observation. They first practised drawing pumpkins in their sketchbooks. Emphasize the use of curved lines to create a really realistic, 3-D looking pumpkin.

For the good copy, they used clear glue (we used Elmer's brand but any clear glue will work) to 'draw' directly onto black heavyweight construction paper (12 x 18"). Technically you could draw in pencil first and then pass over the lines with the glue, but I liked to challenge my kids to draw directly with the glue. 

It loosens them up. 

I prefer using clear glue, as opposed to white glue, as the clear glue dries nice and shiny and really black, and white glue dries more like a cloudy grey. 

But, by all means use white glue if that's what you have on hand. It works as well.

Students were required to draw a minimum of three pumpkins and they needed to be of different sizes (variety) and show overlapping (to create an illusion of depth).

The lines will be raised when wet, but they completely flatten out when dry. 

TIP: if you get any glue 'bubbles' after they've drawn the pumpkins, make sure to have kids pop them all with a pin, otherwise they do dry as bubbles and don't look so good in the finished piece.

Let these dry flat overnight.

The next class, students used chalk pastels to colour the pumpkins and background. Chalk pastels on black paper, as many art teachers know, is magical: the colours come out so rich and velvety. The glue lines will get dusty with the chalk, so for the last step, I had students use a think damp paintbrush to 'clean' off all the glue lines, so there were shiny and black again.

Ta da!