Line Drawing Animals

For this project we talk about line quality, pattern, and design. The students were asked to choose an animal to create an online, then fill in the shape with interesting patterns and line work. I love color, but also love the challenge of creating something really interesting in black and white. Here are some of their pictures below.

Alyssa

Mikayla

Delaney

Watercolor Colors!

This assignment was an exercise in watercolor. My goal was to have the girls be more creative in their color choices. I also wanted the girls to get familiar with the brushes and behavior of the tube watercolors we were using. This exercise melded my two goals.

I challenged the girls to mix the paint colors and fill the entire grid. They were asked to try not to make the same color more than once! (And trust me, that is a challenge with all those squares.) I think we will do this exercise again, it is such great practice and really pushes an artist to stretch.

Here are are a couple examples below. How do you think they did?

Alyssa

Mikayla

One more flower!

Here is Delaney's finished piece. She often gets posted separately because she always makes sure to spend the time to make everything just right! She did a beautiful job on her Georgia O'Keeffe inspired painting.

O'Keeffe-Inspired Painting

Georgia O'Keeffe is an inspiring American modern artist. I thought the girls might be particularly interested in her because she is a woman and because she lived not so very long ago. We watched a short video of her flower paintings (very nicely matched to music - thank you youtube). We learned about how her paintings of flowers sometimes became abstractdepending on the point of view and cropping she used on her canvas.

I made little 2" square viewfinders for the girls and using those, they "zoomed in" on photographs of flowers until they came up with their favorite composition. They then painted on a 12" square stretched canvas with acrylic paints. They turned out gorgeous. I wish you could see the true vibrancy of their colors and their entire works of art (darn my little scanner).

Tenlee
Mikayla
Alyssa
Kadence
Elena
Olivia

Monogram Prints!

I was so excited about this project! This is the first time we have created prints in our classes. We first learned about illumination. I have always been fascinated with the beautiful illuminations of ancient religious manuscripts. We looked at both ancient illuminated letters and current day artwork it has inspired.

For our assignment I encouraged the girls to use their initial then use their creativity in decorating or illuminating their letter. We first completed drawings then imprinted our images into foam. The girls used a brayer to smooth the paint onto their foam prints and then smoothed paper over the paint. The fun part is carefully peeling back the paper to reveal your beautifully unique print! Check these out!

Alyssa
Delaney
Emma
Kadence
MadiMackenzie
Rachel
Tenley
Guest student - my 6 yr old - Olivia
I had to try it out too it was such fun!

Time Flies!

(First of all - it cannot have been this long since last I blogged. My how time flies. Such is the life of all busy women I'm sure.)

We have worked on many projects in the last several months. Here are just a couple examples of the assignments the girls have completed.

This is an example of "quilling" by Mikayla.

A line and shading exercise by Delaney.

A picture concentrating on pattern and design by Madi.

I try very hard to give my classes a variety of projects and challenges to work on. It is a fun challenge for me to come up with ideas that I hope they will enjoy and also be successful with.

Personalized Pens!

For this project we tapped into our crafty side and explored creating patterns with the use of clay. The girls twisted and molded the clay around the pens to get the effect they wanted and I baked their creations to make them permanently fabulous personalized pens. They were a ton of fun!

Happy Halloween!

A belated happy Halloween to all! We created artwork that was Halloween themed mixed-media on canvas. It was very very fun. We worked with shapes and using all sorts of fun things to create interest and texture. The girls worked with acrillic paint, paper, glue, ribbon, sequins, tissue paper, and little gems. It was a lot of fun.

The Halloween theme seems to be Delaney's specialty!

Patterned Leaf Project

So I told you I am a fair-weather blogger, right? Actually, I am a rainy weather blogger I suppose because I don't think it's quit dripping out there at all today!

I would like to get "caught up" filling you in on some of the wonderful creations the girls have worked on over the last few months. These next few posts may be slightly out of order, but I wanted to share anyway!

Our theme over this session has been shape and pattern and that definitely describes this piece we worked on. We have beautiful leaves inthe fall in Oregon - PLENTY of them. I collected real leaves from around the neighborhood to inspire thegirls. First we traced leaf shapes and then filled them in with fun and exciting patterns. I wish I was able to scan each of theirs in so you could see them all! But I don't always catch them all as they head out the door! - Here is a few from my younger class that I will share. Also one by guest student Olivia (my little girl!)

Fall session is in! Unit: Shapes and Pattern

It has been a great start to our fall art classes. And welcome to our newcomers Lily, Kadence, and Tenley!

For our first class (in both my Wed. and Thurs. classes) we talked about shape and how complex subjects are made up of these simple shapes. We experimented with pencils of different hardness and the ever-favorite kneaded erasers. Here are some of the girls drawing exercises to share with you. We started with simple exercises, which artists repeat over and over, to get us to start thinking art, and get our drawing pencils warmed up. They did a great job!



Emma.Delaney.Erin.

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