I love these sweet spring animals my kids created and they were so easy to make!  I am desperately trying to will spring to arrive, nothing like some cheery kid artwork to brighten a room.  I was so excited to share them with you I have not even hung them yet!

Each of my kiddos decided to draw spring animals and they did a quick sketch with pencil.  Normally I don’t like sketching first since it adds an extra step for the kids and eliminates some of the spontaneity of the piece.  Next, they colored everything in with oil pastels.  I love working with oil pastels.  They go on creamy, they are easy to color with and come in wonderful vivid colors.  My kids also share my love of oil pastels because they are so easy and quick to color with.  The purpose of of this step is to create texture, so it is better not to color every space of the the paper leaving white space for the watercolor to highlight.  Once everything was fully colored we outlined the drawing like a coloring book with a black oil pastel.  I love this look, especially with kid art!  I helped outline some of the detailed areas since the pastels are a bit thick for little fingers to do detail work.

The kids then did a quick wash of watercolor over the entire piece.  The oil pastel will resist the watercolor creating a wonderful texture.  The kids matched the watercolor to the oil pastel color.  We touched up the black oil pastel after the watercolor wash.

Annika’s Chicks

Bree’s Bunnies

Kaleb’s Chicks

So simple and cheery!  I love it!  I framed these cute little art pieces in frames that I found at the thrift store.  I painted the frames white and sanded the edges to reveal glimpses of their original green color.  There is nothing better than original art work your kids created to personalize and brighten a space.

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Tammy