Art Curriculum- Week 30- Watercolor Blue Jay- Step by Step

Week 30- Watercolor Blue Jay- Step by Step

Category: Summer

What you will need:

-big/medium/little brushes (these don't have to be specific sizes, but it was good to expose the kids to having to use different brushes to accomplish different things)
-salt
-paint palettes
-cups/bowls to hold water
-multipurpose paper

-green, red, yellow, brown, light blue (ours was called turquoise), dark blue, purple, black, paint

-hairdryer (optional to speed up the salt drying process)

Time: 1.5 hours approx. (this is a more advanced project, the kids started to get impatient towards the end so maybe plan for a break halfway through - snacks are always a safe path to go!)

Prep (was an hour because I decided to draw the bird instead of going with a coloring sheet - the reference photo is from Pinterest).

 

Project:

• 1: Background first! BIG brush. Green paint to cover the background. Drop the colors on quickly as you can without touching the bird. Sprinkle with salt. Dry with hairdryer.
• 2: Red berries/flowers. BIG brush. Use the side of the brush to mark the paper. Be sure to leave white spots as much as possible.
• 2: Green. Paint the leaves, fill in the white parts with the red.

• 4: Yellow: BIG brush. Fill in the tree. Solid yellow. (tip: always try to paint the lightest colors first!)
• 5: Brown. MEDIUM brush. Shade the bottom of the tree trunk.
• Light blue. MEDIUM brush. Use side of the brush the make the blots. Paint the tail solid light blue.

• 7: Purple. MEDIUM brush. Paint top half of the birds back and try to blend with the bottom part of the bird. Paint purple on the top of the birds head.
• 7: (continued) SMALL brush. Dark blue. Add dark blue to the light blue blotches and the top of the head. The beak is dark blue and so is the eye.
• 7: (continued) SMALL brush. Black. Detail. Black around the eye and feathering around the face. Emphasize the importance of leaving the chest and belly white along with parts of the face.

Overall: A lengthy project filled with a lot of detail. It's worth the patience because the results are lovely! But it does take more time. Suggestions include either simplifying the picture (remove extra leaves/flowers) or inserting a break time for a snack. It depends on your kid's patience and what level they are at.

(logging 2.5 hours for prep and execution)

Extra- Stained Glass With Melted Crayons

Stained Glass With Melted Crayons

Our last lesson was for Valentine's Day, you can view it here.

Another bonus lesson for the week!

Simple, will require one on one supervision due to the use of a hot iron, but fairly quick.

What you will need:

-paint palettes/cups/containers to hold the different crayon shavings
-crayons
-peelers/pencil sharpener

-wax paper
-iron

-paper towels

-ironing board

-sharpie/marker

-scissors

Time: 45+ minutes

Prep:

• Shave the crayons (I used an old potato peeler, but I know you can also use a pencil sharpener). This is pretty much all of your prep time. It took me close to an hour to get these shaved. My advice, peel slowly, it's less messy. The shredded crayon will want to cling to your skin and go all over.
• Plug in the iron and set up the ironing board
• Cut the wax papers beforehand. I cut enough for each child to make 2. I cut 6x6 inch pieces of wax paper. You'll need 2 papers for each picture (The 2 papers are the bread of the sandwich and the crayons are everything in between)

• I brought up one child at a time. I spread out the first paper and put paper towel underneath it. They could pick all the colors they wanted. Try to keep the crayon away from the edges because the melted crayon could leak.
• Sprinkle all the colors!
• Cover with the second piece of wax paper and top it with another paper towel.
• Iron. Try not to over bake, the colors could melt too much and become muddied.
• Lift the paper towel to check periodically (don't go over 5 minutes unless you have very stubborn wax or a weak iron)
• Below are some examples of the process (before and after melting)

• Use the sharpie to draw your designs in the paper after they've cooled. I gave the kids the options of having a: Star, Circle, Heart
• Cut out your shape
• Hang on string or tape to your windows!

Related blog post:

-Stained Glass Leaves

(logging 2 hours for prep and execution)

Little Works

Little 3x5 inch acrylic paintings.

Each took maybe an hour and a half.

It was refreshing to work on a little project with color and paint. :)

Andddddd below...

Behold! The fruits of a labor of love. ^_^

They're all "vegging out" in their cozy bowls.

Sketchbook #4

Happy Sketchy Tuesday! :)

First is what appears to be a knot. I copied it for fun from a simple step-by-step on Pinterest.

This is based off of another art piece I saw on Pinterest. :) This is a fun, simplistic piece. I edited it to give it color.

Sketchbook #1

I've been working in my sketchbook all of December.

Alas I haven't been posting as much as I would've liked; life has been charging along with its usual energy. :)

I hope everyone has been enjoying their holiday season. Where I am we've had a decent fall of snow (at last!) though the forecast is threatening to send it away.

Here are some excerpts from my sketchbook. :)

Sherlock. I went over it with
watercolor.

I used a sketch I found on a Pinterest as a reference photo

I decided to draw a calendar and then fill it in with dates in
no particular order.

I punched holes in several pages to add texture. :)
The top page contains quotes from
"Atlas" from Catching Fire

Quick sketch of the dragon on my cover of the Hobbit book.
The swirls in the border all have different
locations of middle-earth written around them.

Tardis from Doctor Who.
Colored with prismacolor pencils.

I couldn't resist uploading a picture of the
snow Tardis my niece and I made! :D

Sketch- Zentangle

These are zentangles. :D simple black marker, you draw clouds, hills, mountain etc and fill them in with patterns.