Belated Blogging

Just wanted to fill you in on my blogging status. It has been increasingly difficult for me to make the time to update this blog very frequently. I apologize to any of you who like to peek at the blog once in a while! Who knew life could be so busy and full ...

I am going to continue to keep this blog up, just posting occasional projects and pictures. (If you have any questions or requests or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment, or email or call me.)

Also, classes will begin again in September. Please let me know if you are interested! I am excited to get going again.

Thanks,
Erin

Greeting Cards for Hope

* Complete story to be posted soon *

I am currently working on putting together and having printed artwork the girls did in their last class. Our project was to create happy, uplifting pictures that I would then have reproduced into greeting cards. The greeting cards will be for sale and the money collected will be donated to a charitable organization. This humanitarian opportunity was inspired by the tragic events in Japan that occured recently.

Come visit again soon for pictures of their artwork. Thanks girls for being a part of this project with me.

Suminagashi

For our first project of the year, the girls worked with the ancient Japanese art of Suminagashi. We used special inks to create beautiful and original designs on paper. The elements of color, contrast, and harmony were very important with this assignment. It also requires a lot of patience as well as a careful and delicate touch. The girls each created their own designs which they inked onto a heavyweight paper. We then showcased their paper creations as the covers of a journal for each of my little artists. See for yourself what a fabulous time we had!

Suminagashi marbling inks are carefully dropped onto the surface of the water.
The inks flow with the tiniest movement of the water and begin to form patterns and ripples. No design can ever be perfectly replicated - each is original.
The inks can be manipulated by blowing them gently across the water, or by using the end of a paintbrush.

The finished project:
The girls did a beautiful jobs making their papers for the jounals. Once their artwork was dry, we used hot glue to adhere the paper to journals. Then they got to select ribbon and other embellishments to complete their one-of-a-kind journals. I think they are beautiful!
Alyssa and Jocelyn's journals
Emma and Delaney's journals

We used embellishments to personalize our creations.

They were so cool, I just had to make one too!


The artists:

More snowflakes!

First, I have to apologize for being a blogging slacker. Between a busy month in general, Christmas, sick kids, etc. etc. I never made the time in my schedule to update the blog. But for the viewing pleasure of my few precious followers out there ...

A couple more snowflakes from my older class! Doesn't everyone love snow??

Alyssa

Emma

And finally, here are a couple technical drawings. I have a set of very old encyclopedias with some very cool old renderings. We tore/burned the edges and added pastels and smudged charcoal to get an "aged" look. Fun!

Delaney

Alyssa

Let it Snow!

So it was appropriate that we had snow fall last week because we our art project was to create "snowflakes!" I had several winter and Christmas books with illustrations available for my students to browse through. I asked them to come up with a single image that made them think of snow or this holiday season.

They completed a drawing of a single image. We then rotated and duplicated the image six times in snowflake fashion. They experimented with pastels and added color. The results were very individual and darling snowflakes that we mounted on sparkling backgrounds.

PS - I apologize these poor snowflakes all got cut off around some of the edges. I suppose I need a bigger scanner!
Jocelyn's spectactular snowmen.

Mackenzie's elvish snowflake.

Rachel's Rudolf.

Tree snowflake by Tyler.

Create your own "Wild Thing"

Update!
Delaney was able to complete her wild thing, so I get to add him. He is very wild! Love it. Some things that make this painting successful: the use of complimentary colors, the use of foreground and background, the quality of her brushstrokes. It just makes me happy. I appreciate the time she puts into each piece she creates. This painting turned out beautifully!
Delaney



So I am totally sorry about this everyone, but blogger is telling me my "images are corrupt," and the only picture it will let me post is this "wild thing" of Alyssa's. I guess the other wild things were just to wild for you all to see!

After studying Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" illustrations and working on our scratchboard pictures with my older class, I challenged the students to create their own "wild thing." I encouraged them to base the idea of their character on a person, animal, mood, or some sort of a theme. Each of the four were very different.

First they sketched their ideas, then completed a pencil drawing. They then transferred their drawings to canvas board and painted their pictures with acrillics. Below is their artwork. I LOVE 'em!
Alyssa's ballerina elephant. I believe this one was dedicated to her little sister Jocelyn. Very sweet. I love the roses on stage.

Mikayla's was a very wild, one-eyed teacher wild thing. Emma's was a scary and very wild autumn tree. And like I said, both were "corrupt," so perhaps I can remedy the situation at a later date. Also, Delaney's is coming along beautifully, but she has missed a couple classes due to performances of Le Mis that she has been involved in. I will post her's later on as well once she has been able to complete it.

Boo!

Rachel -gorgeous colorful sky

Madi -love the contrasting blue and orange

Joslyn - the cutest ghosts I've ever seen

Tyler -great job creating a spooky mood

Arika (unfinished) - the most original pumpkin with glasses

Halloween Scene (above) -

Our last assignment for my "mini" class was to create a spooky Halloween scene. I had a pumpkin on the table as a model and everyone ended up drawing a pumpkin picture!

The assignment was to use both oil pastel and watercolors to create their picture. First, each student used pencil to sketch out their scene on colored artists paper. Then they used oil pastel to add color to the white and bright objects. Last, watercolors were used to fill in the dark spaces and skies. The watercolor does not penetrate areas where the oil pastel has been used - I like to call it magic painting.

I love the contrast of dark and light in their art. It was a fun project, and they are a fun group.

PS - I have one more picture to post after I have the official okay to do so. So check back soon for one more gorgeous pumpkin pic!