Tropical Fish Pastel Resist

It must be the memories of snorkeling in Maui but I have fish on the brain...bright..flourescent..incredibly patterned fish. Here is a great project. It is my favorite use of pastel resist as it mimics the way light appears underwater.

I'm doing with this Grade 3 tomorrow, but you can easily do this with all grades varying how much detail you require.

You might want to spend some time looking at fish on google images or in the library to get a sense of the colors and variety out there...get those creative juices flowing.

Materials Required:

white paper, I used mid weight sketch paper

oil pastels

blue tempera paint

paintbrush

pencil

reference images

Using your reference images draw out a fairly large fish shape. Try to fill the page. In the past I have had kids draw fish, octopuses, squid, jellyfish, turtles, even a mermaid or two.

You define what parameters work for you.

Color in your fish with oil pastels. You want to choose bright colors...oranges..yellows ,etc.

The only color you don't want to use is blue. Make sure any areas the kids want to stay white are covered with white pastel.

Take your nice picture and crumple it in a ball. You want it fairly crumpled but in a gentle way...you don't want to tear or make any holes in your paper.

Now uncrumple it and smooth out flat.

Using blue cake tempera paint over your design. The pastel will resist the paint and bead up. The crumples and wrinkles will also show up after painting. This gives your piece that underwater look.

Let dry..mount if you wish and there you have it a great art project with an "under the sea" theme.

Give it a try!

see you next time

gail