Easy Oil Pastel Portraits

 I'm not one to waste. If I'm going to print out a picture for each student to use as a reference for their value drawing or to trace for their transfer drawing, they're going to use that copy for another project later whether it be to tear up and put in a collage, or to use as a base for a mixed media piece. 

This time I had them color their black and white images with oil pastel. Enough of the value showed through that a blending few basic colors could make it look like a colorized antique photo. Some students got creative by using arbitrary color and some needed me to hot glue the outlines of features so they could feel the boundaries of the shapes. It's not just a filler activity, it's a way to explore media under the umbrella of our portrait unit. This can be done by little kids with more interesting results than a coloring page.