These lovely sunflowers are created using white school glue, soft chalk pastels and black paper.

To start, draw 2-3 circles on the black paper with a pencil. Be sure to draw big circles so that it will be easier to outline with glue later on. Small children (ages 4-6) might benefit from using a template to trace their circles. Try using a plastic container top.

Draw a series of petals surrounding the circle flower centers. Again, try to make the shapes big. You can tell children to make the petals as long as their fingers.

What you'll need:

Faber-Castell 9” x 12” Black Paper

Faber-Castell Soft Pastels

Pencil

White school glue or a Faber-Castell Black Oil Pastel

Drawing the flowers

Using a bottle of white school glue, drag the orange tip over the pencil lines and squeeze gently to release a steady line of glue. The trick is to use the orange tip like you would a pencil. Small children might hold the glue bottle in the air and squeeze, which is a bit harder (and a lot messier).

Work left to right, top to bottom if you are right-handed. Reverse for left-handed.

Coloring with chalk

Soft pastels feel dusty or chalky compared to oil pastels, which feel waxy like a crayon. Soft pastels are like painting with your fingers as you can smooth the pastels to achieve a flat color.

After the glue dries (about 6-8 hours), set out a tray of Faber-Castell Soft Pastels. Starting with the flowers, color all the areas inside the glue lines. Use one finger to smooth the pastels to cover the black paper surface.

Use more than one color of pastel on each petal to create depth and interest. Layer a light color first then add a darker color over top.

Glue Alternative

If you don’t have white glue, you can draw the sunflowers with a black oil pastel. Follow the same drawing instructions but add one more step: after the flowers and background have been colored with chalk, trace over all original black lines with the oil pastel. This step makes the colors pop.

Use this lesson to teach about Dutch artist, Vincent Van Gogh.

Displaying chalk art & working tips from Deep Space Sparkle

Working with chalk pastels can be a fun, but messy experience for little kids. Here are a few tips to help manage working with chalk pastels:

• Lay art paper on newspaper. As the chalk dust accumulates, remove art and tip newspaper over a trash bin to collect the dust.
• Before displaying chalk art, you’ll need to protect the chalk from smudging. Spray the finished piece with an aerosol hairspray. Hold the spray about 10” from the artwork and cover with one layer of fine mist.
• Click for more tips for working with chalk pastel.
• Blend chalk with one finger.
• Have baby wipes available to keep fingers clean while blending.
• Chalk pastels break easily, so don’t worry. In fact, shorter pieces are easier to work with.

To download the entire art lesson, click here!