Art Class - Edgar Degas - One

I home school my children, one of the blessings of this, is being able to share resources and skills. I have started a small art appreciation class with a couple of my 
knight's good buddies (grades 1 - 3).
 We meet every second week and study the great Masters. 

This term we are studying Edgar Degas.
Which has been interesting as he is famous for his beautiful works of ballerina's...and as I mentioned it is an all boy class... :-)
These boys have been so impressive, we have had some great chats about girls and future wives...what a blessing this is to be able to see these guys learning and blossoming in their homes...

I started out by giving them each an artwork to study...they then had to 'teach' the class about the work, what they saw, colours, moods, how it made them feel etc...

I gave them a brief history of Degas's life.
We did some blind contour drawing exercises to get them looking and thinking...
They then had to study the object I gave them and sketch it quickly.
Because it is a class of boys who love to move, we then moved onto quick sketches of movement - gesture drawings. They each had a turn to stand on a chair and take on a pose, 
the others had to draw them...

Then onto our Degas project for the morning...inspired by  
The Ballet Rehearsal on Stage 1874 Oil on canvas.
We used oil pastels, pastel paper and white cupcake holders as tutus. 
They first drew their ballerina's, coloured them and cut them out.
Then created a stage...some added audience, some added bright lights and some added coloured lights...
We then stuck the dancers on with sticky foam adhesives to create a 3D effect...

 Will you take a look at the gorgeous end products...
Well done boys...

 (lovely idea taken from here)