Dali Inspired Surrealist Animals

This project was inspired by the 1948 painting The Elephants by the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. I introduced my Grade 5 students to the work of Dali and we discussed his style- barren landscapes with a real sense of depth and space, highly realistic details, lots of random objects grouped together.

They sketched these in pencil first, then outlined in Sharpie 

and painted using watercolours. 

Jim Dine Inspired Oil Pastel Heart

Jim Dine is an American artist.

I absolutely love his tool drawings as well as his expressive hearts. This is what we focused on to create these expressive hearts for Valentine's Day.

I have a variety of brands of oil pastels- I like to try out different brands. I usually stick with Pentel  brand but I like the Crayola classpack only because it comes with a ton of extra whites!! Why don't all oil pastels come like this?

Grade 5 students started off by choosing a piece of construction paper. They make a symmetrical heart template from a sheet of scrap paper then trace it onto the construction paper. Then they decide on their colour scheme. I demonstrate how to create a gradation from dark to light. Then they can do the reverse in the background.

Once everything is coloured in, I encourage them to add expressive lines with a black oil pastel. 

This step scares some students!