The author has always liked the look of stained-glass windows. Usually the designs are simplified and the shapes are easier for younger students to draw. This technique seemed to be the perfect place for her fifth-graders to try their hand at color mixing. The smaller spaces and simple shapes were just what she needed for this group. Her students…

The author and her class used chalk pastels before, in the typical manner with much blending and mixing of color. She felt her high-school class needed to try another technique with no smudging with tissues, no using tortillons (blending stumps), no soft color merging. All too often, young artists blend too many colors together and lose the…