Noel House Art Projects – Judith Heim, instructor

Week two:

Flower Portraits:

I used the book “The afterlife of flowers” by Janie Feldman Gross

for people to draw from. I also took flowers from my yard, and a book of flower paintings by Georgia O’ Keefe.

Materials needed:

1.Textured cardstock or drawing paper suitable for pastels.

2.Pastels and prismacolor colored pencils.

Step one: Choose a pressed flower photo from the book

Step two: draw a very light outline or “underdrawing” on your paper

(fill the WHOLE PAGE!)

Step three: fill in the background color with the pastel chalk, blending with

your finger to create a light color wash.

Step four: Draw in the veins and other details and center of flower with

colored pencil.

Objectives:

1. To observe detail

2. Radial symmetry (the petals of a flower radiate out from the center like the spokes of a wheel)

3. To learn pastel and colored pencil technique

4. To build drawing confidence This is a relatively easy project and produces

Impressive results even for beginning artists.

5. To smell the flowers and have fun!

The above images were drawn by artist/instructor Judith Heim for Circle of Friends for Mental Health

art curriculum and may not be used for any other purposes without permission from the artist.