Oil Pastel Sunflowers

My art room is exploding with sunflower projects at the moment- I think I have 4 on the go with various grade levels, haha. Some years I am so sick of sunflowers, but I've had a break from them for a couple of years and now they're back with a vengeance, haha!

One of my classes is a mixed grade class of Grade 4-6. They created these whimsical, fantasy-like sunflowers. They could choose whatever colours they wanted and could draw either the whole flower, or just a zoomed in portion. 

They started by drawing their sunflower on black construction paper, 

then outlining it in white oil pastel.

Then they coloured them in using oil pastels- I enjoy the Pentel brand- inexpensive and effective.

Students needed to mix at least two colours within their petals and try to create a gradation through blending.

The new oil pastels I buy at the beginning of the school year stay in their original boxes. I try to get the kids to keep them as neat and organized as possible, for as long as possible. Once the boxes and pastels get a bit battered and used up, they get relegated to "the bowls"- haha! 

I bought shallow plastic bowls at Ikea and keep them stacked in a green plastic bin, also from Ikea. 

I use these bins for everything- they are super sturdy and amazing.

I ordered the Crayola oil pastels class-pack last year. I don't like the quality overall, (compared to the Pentel) but love that it comes with extra whites and blacks. I keep these separate for projects and they're pretty handy.

Here are some results from Grades 4 - 6: