I have always LOVED the Nutcracker! I love the music, the ballet, the nutcrackers themselves - everything. When I began teaching art to children - about 10 years ago, I was looking for new ideas for objects my students could draw from. I was really excited when I came up with the idea of having them draw nutcrackers. I began collecting them - oh, probably 8 or 9 years ago.
Over the years, I have used the nutcrackers with my art students in various ways. I have had them draw them, paint them, draw them on shrink film (like "Shrinky Dinks") to create ornaments, and even sculpt nutcrackers out of ceramic clay. I have used Nutcracker art projects in art classes in school districts, in after-school daycares, after-school art classes, Winter Art Camps, and Art Workshops at galleries.
This week - I volunteered in my daughter's 5th grade class as well as the other two 5th grade classes there. All the students drew nutcrackers using oil pastel.
Here is a compilation of some of the nutcracker art my students have created over the years.
(Please note that some of these photos were taken before I owned a smartphone, so the photo quality may not be quite up to today's standards.)
The last few photos above were from my daughter's 5th grade class yesterday. Most of the students still need to finish filling in their nutcrackers with color, after we put the background colors down yesterday. If I manage to get any finished photos of any of them, I will come back and post them here.
