Chalk drawings of the aurora borealis

2. Draw out your picture with a pencil first, adding in some northern lights guidelines so you can see where to draw with your pastels. We did two different northern lights landscapes, one with snowy mountains and the other with a snowy field and trees.

Create Stunning Northern Lights Chalk Pastel Art

Northern lights painting with snow covered trees.

These northern lights chalk pastel art projects are gorgeous! The bright colors of the northern lights streaking across the sky on the black paper make it look like it’s glowing. The snowy additions of the mountains or trees contrast against the bright colors for a beautiful winter effect.

This is a great pastel project for kids to practice drawing and blending with chalk pastels. Pastels are so fun for kids to explore! Take a look at my collection of chalk pastel art for more creative ideas kids will love.

Contents

Create Stunning Northern Lights Chalk Pastel Art

Learn about the northern lights

Tips for working with chalk pastels

Easy Northern Lights Chalk Pastel Tutorial

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Northern lights chalk pastel art project for kids.

The northern lights are so magical and always make a fun painting subject for kids to try. Take a look at our northern lights watercolor painting for another great idea.

If you are looking for more winter project ideas take a look at my collection of beautiful winter art for kids to make!

Before starting your art project, have kids take a look at some of the beautiful northern lights photos to see the different patterns and colors that they create.

Learn about the northern lights

This is a great project for kids to make while they are learning about the northern lights!

Northern lights photos

There are a lot of great resources for kids to learn about the science behind the magic and beauty of the aurora borealis, which is another name for the northern lights.

This article is geared towards kids and explains what the northern lights are and includes some interesting facts about them. Here is a good youtube video that explains what causes the northern lights.

Tips for working with chalk pastels

Chalk pastels can be messy (but so fun!). There are a few things you can do to help keep some of the mess contained:

Put newspaper down on desks or tables
Put your project on a tray or a shallow cardboard box which will keep most of the mess inside the tray
You can try doing your project outside
Have lots of paper towels handy
Once you are done with your project (or even halfway through if it gets really dusty), take it outside to gently blow or shake off the excess dust
If you are using chalk pastels in the classroom and the kids are ready to take their artwork home, simply place the art between some newspaper to keep it from smudging and for easy transport.

Easy Northern Lights Chalk Pastel Tutorial

1. Measure your scrap piece of paper to be the same width as your black construction paper. Tear the scrap paper along the top to be purposely uneven. This will make the northern lights look like they are “dancing” in the sky and gives it shape and texture.

2. Place the teared piece of paper on top of your black paper where you want the northern lights to be. Tape the scrap paper down if it helps keep it in place.

3. On another separate scrap piece of paper, grab a chalk pastel in whatever colour you want your northern lights to be in. Rub the chalk pastel onto the paper to accumulate powder pigment from the pastel. Pick up the powder with your finger.