Northern Lights Polar Bears: A Lesson in Value

Credit: Elements of the Art Room

Step 1: Hand out black construction paper to protect desks.
Step 2: Hand out watercolor paper and have students write their names on the back.
Step 3: Hand out watercolor paper and have students place vertically on their desks. Hand out paintbrushes.

Step 4: Docents will walk around and add drops of blue, green and magenta liquid watercolor. Start with blue on top, green in the middle and the magenta on the bottom.

 Step 5: Using a side to side motion with their paint brushes, create "waves" of color and blend the watercolors. Students can go all the way to the bottom or leave room for their polar bear to be walking in "snow."

Step 6: Set the watercolor paper aside to dry. Do not rinse the paintbrush yet.

Step 7: Hand out the white construction paper and have the students place vertically on their desks. Have students take out their pencils. Watch the video below first before drawing. Then watch again, pausing with each step (and/or do a guided draw).

Step 8: Once the polar bear is drawn with pencil, hand out oil pastels and outline the polar bear in black oil pastel. 

Step 9: Now we are going to add VALUE and shade our polar bear. Watch the video first and then we will begin shading together. Go over all of your pencil lines.

Step 10: Cut out your polar bear very carefully using your scissors.

Step 11: Using glue, adhere your polar bear to your watercolor paper.

Step 12: If you didn't add paint all the way to the bottom and want to add more color to the "snow" use your brush and shade a bit now.

Step 13: Using glitter glue, add "snow" around the top of your polar bear. Set aside to dry!

Watch this baby polar bear grow up!