Dragon Eyes on Roofing Felt!

 Let me say up-front: I did not invent this project!  Renee Lentz posted pics of her student work in the Facebook Art Teacher group, and I asked if I could "steal" the idea (she said yes!) for my DragonWing Art students.  Our theme this fall is masks and crazy faces, but I thought eyeballs could be a good intro.  Thank you Renee - I only changed the project a little... 

 Renee's students had painted on canvases that were primed black.  Instead, I chose to let my three students use some scraps of roofing felt that we had left over from prior projects.  This was the first time I met with my after-school students this fall, and we were going to be starting a large papier-mache mask project, but I wanted to first get out some paint and do a quickie warmup project.  These dragon eyeballs perfectly fit the bill, and we completed them in about 45 minutes, start to finish. 

We first drew the circle for the eyeball (tracing a roll of masking tape), and then drew the shape of the pupil, using a piece of chalkboard chalk, which will easily wash off.  We painted a white highlight with a Q-tip, and then painted the eyeball with rows of blended color, leaving the pupil black. I suggested analogous colors, but ultimately I let the students make their own color choices.  Then we used rows of colors to make the "scales" on the dragon skin.  The students preferred to paint the scales like ovals, and they look great to me!  My demonstration sample is the painting in the upper right in the pic below. 

 The paint we used was acrylic.  The paintings are now dry, and we will be mounting them on a background that won't be completed for a couple of weeks, as we are now concentrating on making the masks.  I'll show you when they are done!