Colorful Chameleons

For our first project of the year, fifth graders created these vibrant chameleons while reviewing and focusing on the properties of the color wheel. First the students worked on creating the outlines of their chameleons (large!!) on white paper, which they outlined in Sharpie (they looked at many photos of chameleons and combined poses, shapes and body parts that they liked when designing their own. They also added simple patterns as desired.) Next, students blended oil pastels to fill in the bodies of the reptiles. They used analogous colors (those which are next to each other on the color wheel) that were in the same warm or cool color family and later added the opposite, naturally contrasting color family to their background using a "wet on wet" watercolor wash.

 I think these whimsical littler critters turned out quite nicely!

 

(This project was based on a lesson published in Arts & Activities magazine, June 2014 edition, by Sarah Hemendinger)