Lesson Idea | Oil Pastel Hearts

By Andrea Mulder-Slater
This lesson shows students how to make transparent (see through) hearts that appear to jump off the paper, by using oil pastels on paper. It was inspired by a similar lesson (which uses paint sticks), created by my friend Lauralee Chambers (2artchambers).

What You Need:

• Thick white drawing paper (Sulphite). This lesson uses 8 x 8 inches, but you could use any size.
• Pencils
• Oil pastels (we used Sakura Cray Pas)
• Cotton swabs
• Optional: white acrylic paint and brushes

What You Do:

Each student receive a sheet of paper, a pencil and oil pastels.

On a sheet of white heavy weight drawing paper, students lightly draw a big heart using pencil. They then draw a smaller heart, inside the large heart.

Students color in the entire paper using oil pastels. We chose either a warm (red, yellow, pink, orange) or cool (blue, green, purple), color scheme. Then, they look for the faint pencil lines that show where the heart outlines are
.
Using a white oil pastel, students color in the heart shape (leaving a space between the large and small heart (if they choose). The colors will show through the white oil pastel, ever so slightly.

Then, students use a black oil pastel to outline their heart shapes.

Small brushstrokes of white paint can be painted on top of the white oil pastels.