Pastel sea shell Georgia O'Keeffe 6th grade

We explored abstract drawing for this Georgia O'Keeffe inspired project. I was sort of puzzled to find out that hardly any of my 6th graders had a working understanding of abstraction, and to add insult to injury, had never heard of O'Keeffe! Needless to say, we hit both subjects pretty hard!

For this project I wanted students to learn the difference between drawing an abstracted view and a "whole view". We did several thumbnail sketches. Somehow, even after 3 demos, I still had students drawing whole view and not comprehending the concept of cropping in and altering the image. It took some work, but I checked thumbnails and insisted students "abstract the shells!" before we went any further.

I always like to read stories or show videos about artist we are going over. I found a book called My Name is Georgia to read the kids. It bored them to tears. Literally, their eyes were watering from trying to keep their lids open. I do think its a sweet story that tells about her process and what inspires her so it was worth it.

Students took their two favorite abstracted thumbnails and drew them large in chalk pastel. This gave me the opportunity to teach shade, tint, and blending techniques. They were forbidden from using black pastels! This is important to keep the colors bright and non muddled.

I gave the kids freedom to use unrealistic colors like O'Keeffe. They had a blast blending the colors and creating their own compositions. I told them that the most successful abstractions used neutrals as well as bright colors. The results were fabulous.

Supplies: sea shells for observation, pastel paper (I used really cheap watercolor paper), chalk pastels, newsprint ( to create a protective jacket)