Students 6-11 years old had a great time with this project.
This project stressed observational drawing and required students to create a composition with 1-2 birds (depending on skill level) which incorporated foliage, trees and other rainforest characteristics. Students drew their birds from photographs of tropical birds and were encouraged to consider as much detail as possible such as the direction of plumage, eyes and color. Students also drew leaves, branches and bark from a collected of these items we had in the art room and were encouraged to observe closely and render the texture, color and qualities of these objects. Students had to have objects overlapping, with the birds in the foreground. Students were encouraged to place shadows on the underside of their branches, which really gave them a 3-D quality.
Once the drawing phase was complete, I gave a quick tutorial on marker techniques, and how to blend and overlay colors with markers. "Nothing in nature is just one color" was our slogan for the duration of this project, and students really took it to heart, filling their leaves, branches and feathers with gradations of color and changing values of color.
Once the composition was colors, students picked a contrasting color for chalk and lightly colored in the background, blending with their fingers. Some added a gradation in their background too.
