Eye Spy

Before she left us, my student teacher had the fourth graders whip through a quick two-day drawing/oil pastel resist/creepy eyeball extravaganza. Both Miss Caruso and I have a thing for drawing eyes, and I doubt we're alone. Something about the details, the symbolism, and the uniqueness of eyes is really quite captivating.

Granted, for all their beauty, there is something about touching my own eyes twice a day--contact lens wearers, high five!--that is absolutely disgusting, and when we have children, my husband will be responsible for any and all child eye problems, but whatever. They're fun to draw!

After a bit o' sketching, Miss Caruso had the kids draw final copies on small (6 x 9") white paper. Kiddos could choose a human eye or an animal eye.

Oil pastels were used to color, leaving any to-be-black spaces uncolored, while white spaces must be colored with white oil pastel.

India ink was smeared across part of or the entire paper and left to dry.

And as part of our last class together, the kiddos used large popsicle sticks to scratch away as much of the India ink as desired/possible.

 

Some of these look SUPER neato, while others just didn't quite get there (my own example was part of the latter group!). But the kids were really into it and had some good drawing exposure. And now they have some creepy eyeballs to scare their parents with! Win!