Project Overview

High School students at Spearman High School in Spearman, Texas designed these 18 x 24 pastel paintings as part of a co-curricular project in science and art. Students learned about the habitats, anatomy, hunting, behaviors and growth of wildlife of the Texas Panhandle.

Students used taxidermied models to learn figurative drawing skills. After a series of lessons and critiques on the proper techniques of pastel, students developed a final artwork that showed the animal in its natural environment.

This project allowed students to develop skills in planning a well-balanced and unified artwork. Students created an under painting, and then overlaid custom-blended colors to achieve photo-realism. Specific skills in creating various textures with pastels were also emphasized—such as feathers, fur, claws, antlers, eyes, bark, leaves, water, etc. Light sources were carefully developed in order to achieve highly realistic highlights and shadows. This was the first time most of these students used pastel. But, with careful pacing, the results were astounding.