Crayon Resist Peacocks

We 'travel' around the world learning about various cultures, in my 4th grade art history class. The country of India is one of the cultures we learn about in our 'travels'. And here is one of the art lessons we do when we 'visit' India- creating a crayon resist peacock.

The  peacock is the national symbol of India and it's known for its beauty and grace. In Hinduism it is associated with  Laksmi, the god that represents benevolence, patience, kindness, compassion and good luck.

To start of the lesson, I let the kids use a tracer, if they want, for the head and neck shape of the peacock. Other than that, everything else is drawn on their own. On the neck they should draw in some kind of a texture pattern. For the feathers, they can draw their own shapes- ovals, hearts, circles, stars. It's up to them. The feather shapes should be doubled, though, one inside the other. They then need to drawn a lot of loose, wavy lines around the feather shapes. After the peacock is penciled in, the kids can outline over everything in black Sharpie marker.

Once everything is drawn in and outlined, we start coloring with crayons.  The peacock should be colored in with either warm or cool colors. Pick one, not both. (We'll be working with contrasting colors later on.) It's their choice. 

Just keep reminding the kids to press hard with the crayons. The resist won't work right if there's not a lot of wax (that comes from the crayons) on the paper.

After all the peacock details are colored in, it's time to paint! For this crayon resist we use watercolors for the background. Before painting you can talk about contrasting colors with the kids. If the colors used in the peacock are cool,  the contrasting warm colors should be painted in the background. Emphasis that the contrast of color will make the peacock stand out. The kids can use just one contrasting color in the background or blend a few colors together. It's up to them. 

After the background is painting in, they're all done. They have a beautiful, colorful peacock!

What do you think of our crayon resist peacocks? Would they work in your art class? How do you make peacocks in your art class? I'd love to hear about it! You can comment below.