100 Days- Silhouette Painting

The exciting news about today is... it is the 100th day of school! For the session of 2014-2015 we have hit the incredible one-zero-zero. The day consisted of many games with the 100 theme: Stacking 100 cups, doing 20 of 5 different exercises (5x20= 100), making a snack with 100 pieces of various ingredients, etc.

All of the above was planned and executed by me eldest sister. She also found today's art project but I had the pleasure of planning and teaching it.

To make the project extra special we bought canvases. Most of the kids have never gotten to use a canvas before so this was a big deal. :)

What you will need:

-canvases (we used 8x10)
-papertowels
-tempera paint (or acrylics - you can buy cheap .99 craft bottles)
-stencils

Time: 1 hour

• Each child gets to pick ONE color - lay down a solid coat of that one color using papertowel
• I then plopped white paint straight on the canvas in the center - give each child a new papertowel - have them blot/dab the white to spread it out almostttttt to the edge
• Plop more white in the center - dab it so you have a bright center, medium pale color, then the edges are dark
• New paper towel! I poured a little black on their paper towel and we dabbed the edges just to give it an antique border and add some contrast
• Drying time! During this time of maybe 10-15 minutes (tempera dries fast) the kids went with my eldest sister and did some exercises while Keirstyn and I painted the edges black and blow dried the paint where it had pooled
• When they came back they each got to pick our the stencil they wanted and we used black paint (the red and green stencils are mine and Keirstyn's paintings) - I would hold down the stencil and they would dab on the paint.
• Enjoy and hang it on your wall!

Art Curriculum- Week 19- Zentangle Valentines

Week 19- Zentangle Valentines

Our last zentangle project involved making a massive 3D snowflake. To view it click here.

This project was purely for fun. It's simple enough, however the kids needed a lot of encouragement to keep going since they would lose energy and want to quit. It helped that this wasn't the kids first time doing a zentangle project.

What you will need:

-colored paper
-black marker

Time: 45 minutes (approx)

Prep: I printed an empty heart on white paper; filled in the lines with a ruler; then printed the filled in heart on red paper.

I suggest having several patterns prepared to show the kids that they can look at. Then if they don't know what to fill in, you can give them suggestions. Look up zentangle patterns and different zentangle projects for fun. There's a lot you can do!

For the younger ones I suggested: Circles, zig zags, hearts, swirlies, etc.
For the older ones I suggested: "Fish" scales, checkered patterns, etc.

Overall: A simple and attractive project. Might require a lot of guidance.

Related blog posts:

-Watercolor Trees
-Pointillism

(logging 1 hours for prep and execution)

Tips On Being a Beta Reader - Vaguely Circular

This month I have the delight of being a guest blogger over at Vaguely Circular. It discusses the job of a beta reader: what the job often entails; common questions and problems that arise; and what does being a diplomat have to do with any of this?

Being a beta reader often feels like being a diplomat between two countries. The countries are the country “You” and the country “Them.”

Diplomat: a person who can deal with people in a sensitive and effective way (Google)

Your mission is to bring a message to the strange and possibly hostile country of Them. These negotiations are of course, made in the hopes of bringing a profitable turnout for the both of you, but things could easily turn sour.

To read the full article click here --> The Beta Ambassador to the Country of Them

Thank you, Katie Lynn Daniels, for having me!

Trees of Orange... Gold... and Blue? - Easy Watercolor Project

One of the girls' trees!

Trees of Orange... Gold... and Blue? - Easy Watercolor Project

A bonus project for the art curriculum this week!

This is a simple project to prep for, I gathered and planned most of it this morning right before putting it into action.

The final result is so charming it's suitable for all ages: colorful and fun for younglings; sophisticated and lovely for any modern decor.

What you need:

-watercolors (it doesn't need to be expensive, we have large bottles of brilliantly colored kids watercolors)
-multipurpose paper
-brushes (cheap, but not plastic, plastic doesn't hold water)
-spray bottle
-paint palettes or bowls/cups to hold the paint

We did two pieces. The first one was just to get the technique down and play with colors.

We all used the same 3 colors: blue, red, orange. You can use whatever (and however many) colors you desire.

Time: 45 minutes for Both pieces

• Thoroughly soak your brush in the first color
• Hover the brush over the paper and use your finger on your other hand to tap and splatter the paint - don't be shy when splattering! Cover the page with blobs and splatters of all different sizes!
• Rinse your brush and move on to the next color and repeat with all the different colors.

• Now the super fun part! Take the spray bottle and spritz those colors! Take it slow at first, it'll depend on the amount of paint on your paper and how thickly you spray the water as to how the colors will run and retain their vibrancy. When it comes to adding water to watercolors, less is more.
  
• For fun, we added salt to our first masterpieces. The more salt you add, the less bold your colors will be. However it creates some fantastic texture.

Left half "After Spritzing"
Right half "After Salt"

• The second piece we made trees. I drew light, rough ovals on the paper as a guide for the kids. We used the same colors: blue, red, orange. And we were only allowed to splatter within the oval as best we could.
• Spritz with water!
• We manage to direct the dribbles by tilting and bending the paper so we ended up with tree trunks!
  

Overall: Fun. Easy. Prepare for speckled faces and arms from the splattering. I suggest a good layer of newspaper on the table to help with easy cleanup and spills. :)

Related art projects:

-Perspective With Watercolors
-Watercolor Winter Scene
-Expressions in Color

(logging 1 1/2 hours for prep and execution)

Art Curriculum- Week 17/18- Expressions in Color

Art Curriculum- Expressionism + Abstract Expressionism

Movements: Expressionism/Abstract Expressionism (who knew?!)

Last week we did 2 paintings, one on expressionism and one on abstract expressionism. We smashed 2 projects into one week because the past 8 days I've been on vacation in Italy (maybe I'll have a blog post coming about that too... *hint hint*)

Expressionism: a style of painting, music, or drama in which the artist or writer seeks to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world.

What you will need:

-brushes (we used the cheap foam sponge brushes)
-watercolor paints
-multimedia paper

I allowed each child to pick their own colors. A limit of three. We made our backgrounds (which we tried to give a vaguely checkered pattern), then I instructed them on making their swirly trees.

I think they all turned out beautifully.

I don't know why it refuses to post right side up!

Abstract Expressionism: a development of abstract art that originated in New York in the 1940s and 1950s and aimed at subjective emotional expression with particular emphasis on the creative spontaneous act (e.g., action painting). Leading figures were Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

(See how I emphasized spontaneous there?)

What you will need:

-tempera paints
-multipurpose paper
-brushes (any kind/any sizes)
-a timer (optional)

This one was a challenge for the kids! We always focus on making the smooth and tidy strokes, planning and gliding along. This required the kids to be spontaneous and limited how much they could do.

This one is fast, so you could do multiple pieces and experiment in different ways.

First you plop 2-3 colors on every child's paper in random splotches or patterns. Because they each have their favorite color they pick EVERY SINGLE TIME I deliberately gave them colors they never use or don't like! That already made them uneasy.

We gave them 30 seconds.

That was too long, a lot of the kids work turned to mush. I suggest (depending on your age group) 10-15 seconds.

Finished trial of the first.

The second time everyone got the same colors. And we didn't time it, instead we went one brush stroke at a time. For the younger ones this was a bit difficult and they required a lot of guidance. Each child could brush up/down/diagonal/big/small. But they could ONLY do one stroke.

It was interesting to watch.

The finished results of the second trial.

Overall: Both projects were quick and fun. However if your kids are younger, they could find it challenging. Abstract art is hard to grasp.

Related blog posts:

-Cubism Portraits
-Watercolor Winter Scene

(logging 2 1/2 hours for prep and execution of both projects)