We enjoyed drawing with oil pastels on black paper so very much, that we just had to do it again. This time we all had a great time drawing city scapes with the idea of totally covering the paper with the exception of the black paper peeking through as windows and doors.
Now, with many projects it's a great idea to sit down yourself with your kids to get them interested, so that's just what I did. Though I must say, my drawing on the lower right hand corner looks way to perfect and controlled compared to their works of art, sigh. And even my not so craft inclined son did a drawing too! My six year old loved this project so much he did around four separate drawings! There's just something irresistable about pastels on black paper and a subject matter that young kids can master is that much more exciting for some.
You'll Need: Black paper, preferably card stock weight, oil pastels and pencil
How To:
Start by drawing a line across the paper to separate the street from the buildings. If you'd like to make a set of drawings that will look amazing hung together horizontally, draw the horizontal line in exactly the same place so that the drawings will match up as one large street scene. Draw the outline of the buildings as well as any details with a regular pencil. Then get to work filling in the shapes with the oil pastels, layering colors and defining areas with strokes where needed. Encourage your kids to try and produce artful imperfect drawings! I had to tell them over and over that their drawings were so much nicer than mine, which is indeed the truth though they didn't quite believe me.
I'd love to mount all of our drawings on a long piece of cardboard and hang this somewhere, of course taping them together would be great too. A whole room with a line of these drawings hung around the perimeter would be stunning, go for it!
