By Mr. M
Everyone started with a simple pencil and paper. I prompted them to create an owl image using three major shapes; a rounded square in the top left corner, followed by an upside-down egg (overlapping the first shape) on a diagonal and lastly, another upside-down egg shape from the owls head base to the wing tip.
We then learned how to draw the face pointing in a specific direction with curving lines coming to taper at the beak. Even our most timid artists pulled this off with pride.
This one, by Mr. A, had all pencils pointing inwards and originally an egg on it's head "dropped there by another bird."
;)
The bigger kids could create sketches and then add shading with charcoal (another Earth-friendly art supply) but I refrained from offering the littles, as their sketches often become blurred when you add colour or another medium like charcoal or paint.
Finally, we introduced some owl pellets found on our propane tank from our winter resident. They are extremely hardy and held up through the snow and rain for months, intact. We dried them out by the fire overnight and offered a half pellet each to the kids to 'dissect' and determine types of bones and species of animal.
