Pastel Penguin Art Project

This winter I decided I wanted to get creative and come up with a new art project for my kiddos. I decided to choose something more "wintery" than "Christmasy" because I wanted to hang the projects for more than two weeks.

I decided on a multi-media penguin. We used construction paper, paint, pastel, and glitter all in one art project! The penguins took two sessions to complete, but they look adorable and brighten up our hallway.

I showed my students how to draw a penguin chick on black construction paper using a white chalk pastel. I then showed them how to blend the penguin's feathers to make it look like down. I added a little bit of black pastel to add definition and then let the kids give it a try. I stressed the importance of making their penguins big, as most of the time students tend to draw on the small side. Some kiddos used a little too much black pastel and the white did not show as much, but we fixed that with the addition of  a little white oil pastel on top.

We then cut out the penguins and set them aside. Next was the snowy/glittery background. We used white tempera and sponges cut in circles to sponge paint the snow onto blue construction paper. I showed the students how to "dab" since their first reaction is to "scrub" using the sponge. Once the students covered a half to three quarters of their page with snow, I had them sprinkle glitter on the paint. Oh boy, did they LOVE that! Every kid loves glitter, and since it was the Christmas season, I decided to go all in with glitter mess.

Once the background was dry we used white glue to affix the penguins to the page. It took quite a bit of glue due to the thickness of the glitter. Some penguins needed a little glue touch up because they were peeling up, but the process ended up working out great.

We love our glittery penguins and my mind is already swirling with other winter projects! Please leave any questions in the comments below! :)

Supplies:
Blue Construction Paper
Black Construction Paper
Chalk Pastels
Glitter
White Glue


Click here for more winter themed units and ideas:
Polar Bear Unit
Penguin Unit
How to Draw Polar Animals

Last year we made these adorable polar bears using a similar technique I found from whimsy workshop and my students LOVED them. Here are a few pics of the adorable bears. :)