Polar Bears and Northern Lights

More Polar Bears! 

Our Paint Your Art Out class celebrated International Polar Bear Day by creating this mixed media artwork. 



These polar bears are wandering the arctic beneath the Northern Lights. This artwork consists of drawing, pastel work, painting, and collage. 

First we studied resource photos of polar bears and observed the shape of the body and head, the colors (natural and reflected), and textures in the fur.

We sketched the polar bear in pencil, then we added soft pastels in varying shades of yellow and blue, smearing them with our fingers for softness. 

Then we outlined the bear with charcoal pencil and added facial details and furry shadows. We also added a bit of black soft pastel for deeper shadows, and we cut him out.

Next we created our background. We tore long pieces of scrap paper and laid it across the top of a piece of black paper. We then rubbed soft pastels along the edge and smeared the pastels upward from the paper. 

We did this again until we had several "ribbons" of Northern Lights. 

We splattered white tempera paint over the lights and painted in the snowy ground. We rubbed in a blue pastel shadow for our bear, and then we glued him on.