Chapter Graphic
: Crayon and Pastel Drawing —
  Cave Creature

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Time: 20 minutes Level: Year 4 and year 8
Approach: Independent
Focus: Students can produce an expressive coloured drawing based on an imaginative idea, using skills of composition and media effects.
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Resources: Video containing words on screen and voice-over. Per student: set of 12 oil pastels; set of 12 soft crayons; 1 sheet of B3 grey sugar paper; cardboard under-surface; tray for crayons.

Questions / instructions:
On each student's table place a sheet of grey sugar paper on a cardboard under–surface, and a set of 12 pastels and 12 crayons arranged tonally on a tray.
Show video tape.

Cave Creature video script.

In this activity you are going to draw a picture of a make-believe cave creature. You will have your own set of crayons and pastels to work with. Try to use both the crayons and pastels in ways that make your colours and shapes look strong, bright and really effective. You can get different effects in your colours and shapes by using crayons and pastels over the top of each other. You can blend, mix and rub different colours in all sorts of interesting and unusual ways. Now let's think about that make-believe cave creature – your very own special cave creature that comes from your own ideas and imagination. A cave creature that glows big, bright and colourful. Imagine that at night your creature lives in a huge hollow cave at the edge of a steamy, swampy pool of weedy water. During the daytime it likes to stomp and stalk through the bushes and grasslands, and to cool off in a pool of slimy mud, muck and water that surrounds its cave. Let's pay attention to the creature you are going to draw. It's a strange kind of creature, because in one way it helps to protect the swampy pool and everything that lives in it, but in another way it can be scary and frighteningly fierce. As well as being a good protector, it can also be an awesomely powerful beast that none other would like to tackle or challenge. Think about what your cave creature might look like. Think about the size and shape of its body, and think about the parts of its body – its eyes, its nose, its mouth, its teeth, its tongue and its powerful jaws. This cave creature is going to look strong, fierce, alert and full of energy? It's a creature that can bellow an enormous and spine–shivering roar that will make attackers twitch and tremble? Think about its spine, its tail, its legs and claws. This creature can stomp and splash and thrash its way through the mucky pool as well as run, prance, grab and shake with great power and speed? By now you will be thinking hard about the shape, colours, body parts and body patterns of your wonderful cave creature – a cave creature that will seem to have almost magical powers to protect and attack. No one has ever seen a real live cave creature of this kind, so no one can ever say that your drawing is right or wrong. But try to make it special, interesting, and as big as you can make it, so that it fills your paper.

You need to work quite quickly to do as much as you can in 20 minutes.

Remember — bright, glowing colours and a wonderfully big and powerful cave creature.

When there is 5 minutes to go, remind students of the time remaining.

   
mean score
 
y4
y8
(0 low – 3 high)
Key attributes:
   
expressiveness:
image appropriate to task (cave creature); strength, vitality, colour, movement, dynamism, imagination, avoidance of cliche
1.1
1.2
composition:
use of whole pictorial space; appropriate context; arrangement of images; balance
1.1
1.2
detail:
finer features included; use of line, texture, pattern, colour blends
1.0
1.1
use of media:
technical control of media; exploiting a range of mark making
1.0
1.1
(0 low – 5 high)
Global rating:
1.6
1.7
Commentary:
There was very little difference between year 4 and year 8 in the mean scores for each of the attributes of the student drawings. 50% of year 4 and 54% of year 8 drawings were marked in the middle range of the global ratings; large percentages of drawings were marked in the bottom range of the global ratings. Overall differences between year 4 and year 8 were quite narrow on this task. Teachers marking this task expressed general disappointment with the quality of the drawings. Students attempting the 1995 crayon and pastel task achieved higher results.
 
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