Lesson: Neon Animals

June 23, 2015 | By Rachel Zink

June is Animals + Paper Month at Arts For Life, and students across the state are creating fabulous specimens of every genus and species! Animals get the black-light treatment in this lesson, created by our Winston-Salem program director, Betsey McLawhorn. The end result is so bright you’ll have to wear shades!

Goals:

Inspire creative thinking through drawing and the introduction of bold and bright color use in an unconventional way.
Apply abstract concepts to drawing while promoting self-expression.

Materials:

White cardstock
Pencil
Black Sharpie
Neon oil pastels
Scissors
Glue stick
Solid bright cardstock
Paper towels
Blending sticks, optional

Directions:

Choose an animal to draw.
Study the face of the animal.
Sketch the head of the animal as large as possible on the white cardstock with a pencil.
Trace over the pencil lines with a black Sharpie marker.
Use oil pastels to color in the animal head. Color in sections – creating a rainbow of colors across the animal’s head.
Blend the oil pastels with blending sticks or your fingers and a paper towel.
Cut out the animal head and glue to a solid sheet of bright cardstock.

Tweak It!

Use neon paint.
Check out the fun “grunge tigers” at this link, which inspired the lesson. For students with more time, add details like the students in the link did: glasses, bowties, hats, etc.

Photo: Neon Cheetah by Yareni, age 10