ACORN ART STUDIO: ART AFTER SCHOOL : Pileated Woodpeckers!

TAP TAP TAP! We are inspired by Pileated Woodpeckers in ART AFTER SCHOOL!

LIFETIME The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives got us started. This interesting book features cool information and great illustrations by Christopher Silas Neal.

We learned in one lifetime a pileated woodpecker will drill 30 roosting holes. Some other things we love about Pileated Woodpeckers?

They're BIG birds!
They have a distinctive profile, dramatic markings and a bright red crest
They like to make lots of holes! And hunt for carpenter ants and bugs in wood
They make nests inside the holes they make!

We looked at lots of pictures and watched videos of this cool bird in action.
Here's one is hopping around on the ground (!) and encountering a chipmunk :

Our Pileated Woodpecker art was a way to explore:

Shapes and drawing figures with shapes
Landscape and Portrait composition and Perspective
Colour and Contrast
Using a variety of art mediums on one piece
Composition and Scale
Wow animals are cool!

These card templates are forms artists can use as a reference or trace around.

Before we started drawing we used different shapes to 'assemble' a pileated woodpecker.

We used many different materials to make our pictures!

We drew lines with pencil and oil pastel then used chalk and oil pastels to fill areas with colour
Artists used baby oil and tried a cool technique called oil painting with pastels
We used gouache and watercolour paints and mixed some of our own colours from primary
Sharpie markers were used for details