Inspired Art

We have been looking at various artists from children's books this past few weeks. This week we enjoyed some time with Eric Carl, Leo Leoni and Lois Ehlert. While they are different, they are pretty similar. It was great to pull out books and really take a look and compare the styles, uses of materials and design.

To finish up we read The Tiny Seed (which also ties into some planting we have recently done) and the kids both created flowers. Hudson's was modified as he isn't cutting in round form yet, so he created a rather square flower but a flower none the less. Their art is colorful, full of texture, creative and perfect to have up this time of year! Holly even created a another small project where she made a hummingbird. So pretty!!

Tissue Paper Garden

A beautiful spring art project Holly created a week or two ago has been a wonderful addition to our art wall. This project was so much fun and produced such great results that she wants to create a much larger version that will include more nature to put in her bedroom as art. This child loves art!

The project was simple and with easy, around the house supplies. We took a piece of thick cardboard and she painted it a light yellow and then watering down a white Elmers glue and using a paint brush she decoupaged a whole sheet of lime green tissue paper over the whole board, this was her canvas to work on. The cardboard was not a lighter color surface to create on, however if you have a white canvas or white cardboard I do believe the tissue colors would be a lot more vibrant.

Next Holly used an array of tissue colors I keep on hand for art to cut out grass shapes, leaves and various styles of flowers. She then layered her grasses (in different greens) and added a few leaves. When you add a piece of tissue you use a paint brush and paint a light layer of watered glue and place the tissue, then paint over the tissue gently with another light layer of watered glue, ensuring it is fully covered in glue. After she had her greenery completed she then added her different styles of flowers repeating the same process with gluing, tissue, gluing. Careful with the glue as if that hand is not gentle or rushed you can smudge the tissue up or break it, creating frustration. Once the final design is completed she used a larger brush and painted one more layer of watered glue over the entire artwork. Allow to dry and display.

Chalked Buildings

This week we are learning about India and with this I decided to do an art project that was inspired by this unit, while not exact it was simply an inspiration. The colors are beautiful, the architecture is appropriate and the use of chalk is always messy fun!

We used The Usborne Complete Book of Art Ideas as our lesson guide, Domed Buildings. Holly drew our her buildings as basic squares first and then she added the details. We have been working on not 'over detailing' our projects... however, she seems to still enjoy the details and often needs to make adjustments throughout to compensate for too much detail work. A lesson on it's own I suppose! After the details she chose a color, bright pallet of colors from our chalk and started to work, coloring and then blending. The final results are simply beautiful!! She did a fantastic job! (I'll admit I couldn't pass this one up - chalk, color... to much fun) Her art work is with a warm yellow sky and mine is with a soft blue sky.

Water Color Painting with Bob Ross

Holly adores watching Bob Ross on our local PBS channel, she is mesmerized by him and his painting skills. I understand this because as a child... I was as well.

The other day after our studies she had some free afternoon time and turned on the TV to find Bob Ross 'just starting'. She quickly squealed with delight to please help her get set up as she wanted to paint with him! So, we moved a table over and broke out the supplies for painting. I was worried she might become frustrated in her ability to keep up with him but boy, was I wrong! She kept up beautifully and the results of her painting... amazing! Truly, I am very impressed with the final work, she created a stunning piece of art.

Winter barn scene!

Resist Art

Last week Holly enjoyed a couple of Easter art projects, her favorite was the oil pastel resist egg she designed. It was a very easy and beautiful art project!
She cut a large egg and then drew a design in pencil. Then she colored it in with oil pastels making sure to leave a little white space. Once her design was complete she washed it in a rich pink liquid water color. The results are wonderful!!!

Artist Study: Alberto Giacometti

Holly learned about another artist from the Usborne Art Treasury book, Alberto Giacometti. We read about him in the book and looked up some more information through Wikipedia Alberto Giacometti Wikipedia Link and more at TheArtStory.org Modern Art at The Art Story: Alberto Giacometti. Once we did some reading, preview of his art and discussion she then set to work on a child friendly version of his art.

Holly created a foil figure. Using pipe cleaners she designed a long figure of a body, weighted the feet with clay and then wrapped her body in foil. Once completed she then posed the foil figure to her liking. This was a very simple, clean art lesson - one she really enjoyed and was happy with. I can see more foil figures in our future!

Art Studio: Batik

Last week I took Holly to the Procession of Species Art Studio with a few homeschooling friends. This studio is open this time of year in preparation for the Procession of the Species parade that happens at the end of the month. Folks can come in and create pretty much any kind of masterpiece they would like in support of the parade... to be in the parade or enjoy from the sidelines. We'll be enjoying from the sidelines again this year, maybe next year we'll join in the parade. Just being in their studio gets your creative juices flowing and all fuzzy... you cannot help but want to create something amazing here!

Holly worked on a batik. She had a peacock theme in mind for us to both do. She drew out her work and then using waxed she copied her work onto fabric and painted it with dye. She did a fairly detailed piece and really spent time working through her design well. Holly was very thorough. She did a wonderfully creative piece!!! I did one with her as well.

We are going back this week to create something else. We have a few ideas in mind... we'll see what is created and share later in the week!

Creating her design

Drawing our her peacock design

Preparing her artwork for waxing

Studio space for batik work

Waxing her design

Adding hot wax

Another view of the art studio batik area (there is a lot more studio than this)

Painting her design

One more studio space

Paints

Holly's finished product (wax is not ironed out yet)

My final design (wax is not ironed out yet)

Art Lesson ~ Color Value

This week Holly did a lesson from our Atelier curriculum on color value. We use this in conjunction with many other art resources and ideas I have. She watched a short video where the gal taught about color value and then shared the lesson. I like this method with Holly simply because it changes things up some!

She had to draw a clown that filled an 18 x 24 inch paper. I provided several examples of clown photos, we looked at some in books and some online. She then used a small diagram of clown face part that comes with the curriculum. After drawing her clown she then used one color to complete her color value lesson - yellow. Learning to add both white and black to the color yellow was good for her, she had to work carefully and not rush to get the color desired... subtle changes. Once practicing her color values her goal was to then paint the clown using at least four different colors from her various yellows she created.

Her clown turned out really cute! She took her time and did a beautiful job!!

Watercolor Patterns

This morning Holly did a really fun art lesson from our Usborne book of Art Ideas. The project was a very simple yet very rewarding one.

Using a quality watercolor paper Holly painted the whole thing with water and painted wet on wet with liquid watercolors, she loved how the colors spread on her canvas. Keeping her painting rather wet was the key here or the project will not work as well. After she filled her whole paper withe watercolor arrangement she wanted she placed a sheet of plastic wrap over her art. Smooshing the plastic around gently she bunched the watercolor paint into the cracks of the wrap, making some really neat designs. Then she let it sit to dry. Once dried Holly removed the plastic wrap to reveal a beautiful pattern that she created. It was so cool!!!  She used such bright colors that her project almost look tie dyed.... pretty neat stuff!