This was a multi-step project with tons of learning opportunities, and it was just plain fun to see all the elements come together to create a very dynamic (and realistic) breaching orca scene.
Day 1: Drawing and painting the orca
We drew our orcas individually and purely by observation. Students each has an orca print-out at their desk to choose from and to be inspired by. We were careful to make sure our measurements were correct, to get the right shape and proportion. Getting just the right back arch on our orca was key.
We then painted our orca with black and white acrylic and created our own grey for shadowing on the white areas, and for adding highlights to the black areas. This gave our orca dimension and shape.
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| Painting orcas |
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| Painting orcas |
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| Day 1: orcas |
Day 2: Creating the mixed-media backgrounds; pasting our orca; finishing touches
We drew a horizon line in the middle of our paper and painted our background in two sections: sky and sea.
We discussed atmospheric perspective and noted that the sky is darker towards the top and lighter towards the bottom. Mountains are uneven and have a shady side and a highlighted side. We mixed our own colors, blended and gradated our layers of sky and sea from dark to light. We gave highlights and shadows to our mountains. We used several different brushes and a palette knife to achieve our results. Using a palette knife on the mountains helped us get that scraggly rocky look.
We discussed that clouds are randomly shaped, airy and fluffy, and we blended them softly into the sky for a softer, more distant look.
We cut out our orca from last week and pasted it on our ocean scene. Our last step was to add some splashes of water where the orca is coming out of the water. We did this with a dry synthetic brush and white paint, and gently stippled the paint around the tail of our orca. We were careful not to overdo this step.
This is quite a sophisticated project. The results are atmospheric, detailed and rich. I'm so proud of these!
This project, in all it's rich details, was inspired by the excellent painting tutorial of Wilson Bickford. You can view his tutorial here.
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| Ages 6-10 |
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| Ages 7-13 |