Cardboard tube paintings

Cardboard tube painting. I read about this years ago in a preschool art book. I have found it to be very successful for 5 to 9 year colds as well. This is a cardboard tube from paper towel dipped rolled into paint. Then a smaller tube dipped into another color of paint at the ends. Kids also added detail with their own brushes.

leaf wreaths

This project is a great green project and uses not that many materials. You will need paper plates, scissors, brown paper bag/craft or construction paper, markers, glue stick. Step 1 use a common every day paper plate

Step 2 fold cut the ring off the outside of the plate fold it in half and cut out the inside.

Step 3 fold construction paper in half twice or use a still folded brown paper bag and cut leaf shapes.

Step 4 draw veins on leaves with a variety of colored markers

Step 5 Use a glue stick or bottle of white glue. Glue larger leaves onto ring so that they stick out past the end of the ring.

Step 6 Continue gluing leaves so that they overlap. Fill the entire ring.

The drawing with a hole in it

I was at my local library looking for books for the children's classes I was teaching and I came across "The Book with a Hole In It."  by Herve Tullet. Just by looking at the spine alone  I was intrigued. This book is full on scenarios that all revolve around the hole in the book. On each double spread image there is a question for the reader as to what they want to but in the hole. You can throw balls of paper through a "basketball hoop" or make your face "whats for dinner." I not only really enjoyed reading this book to my young 3-5 year old students and letting them interact with it. I also enjoyed sharing it with older students and having them created their own drawing with a hole in it. We folded large poster sized white drawing paper in half then using scissors I had older students,7-9 cut a hole in the paper then draw a scene around it when they were done kids put their faces in the hole. One girl made a dog with the hole in the dog's face with grass and a yard around it another made the hole be the top of a lollipop and the rest of the paper was a lollipop stand selling the candy.

Here I am with an example I modeled after my dog.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrt Matties Making Treasure Maps

These are so much fun to make and they are fairly easy. I have done this lesson with kindergarten and first graders. Start with plain white paper and draw the "island" and map with crayons. Be sure to include the x for where the treasure is buried. Other things to add can be a pirate ship, mermaids,palm trees and mountains. After you have draw the image tear the edges of the paper off to give it that old aged look. step three paint a thin wash of brown and yellow paint.

Super Sandwhiches

Feast your eyes on these fancy foods. We made super sandwich drawings then we made sculptural sandwiches with my sat class at the gallery. To make a Super sandwich drawing stack a draw a top of a bun at the top of the pages and a bottom of a sun at the bottom of the page. Then fill with ingredients. Draw cheese lettuce, burgers, meats, gravy you can even add, candy, eye balls, etc. Here is my unfinished--( the plight of the art teacher) example.

I will post student examples later.

Translucent still life

I just finished teaching a day of still lifes at the art Gallery. The students are ages 7-13 and the day had several smaller drawing excerises to it The first was drawing part of a still life of translucent bottles and fake grapes in contour without picking up your pencil. Then draw the same object from the still life in blind contour- without looking at the drawing. The students had a paper folded into four parts for this actvitiy. The next drawing was the same onjects again but this time as a gesture drawing- quick fast broken sketchy lines to catch the movement of the onject. The last drawing was to draw the object in semi blind contour when you can look at the paper sometimes but not all the time.

This one I did with a private lesson the other night. Sorry it is so dark, I had to darker it so the light pencil would show.



The The second activity was the draw one part of the still life and pass it to a table neighbor who would draw the next part of the still life.

The above two examples are by two 7-9 year old girls who were sitting together.



For younger students we drew the still life then scribbled on the back in order to transfer it onto a drawing board.
For older students we drew the scene again.
The middle object in these is oil pastal and the outter objects are watercolor.

These images are by students ages 7-9

Artists trading cards with kids

As you know I am a teacher and am undeniably an artist. I got turned onto Artists trading cards by watching and reading other peoples blogs, Especially by Reading Michelle Cummings Faerie Dust Dreams.I just started making them and feel in love. They are just the  right size that I can carry around a blank stack of them and a little pocket of pens and make them in between classes while subbing, when trying to use up scraps of shiny left over paper from scrap booking. During the winter school break I taught a a kids class on making artist's trading cards at my friend Kat's gallery and studio space called  Stella Art Studio in East Rochester.I like following the ATC/ACEO trends to etsy and sharing these finds with my students. I was also fortunate enough to get some ACEO's from John of Jackbear stamps to share with the kids.

                                                                      The supply table

 

Assortment  of Two students cards

So for this kids classes with four students we started with one material and added other materials to it, we started with  colored pencils talking about shading blending and using varied pressure to create values we then used a shaped hole punch.  Then I  showed them how  to use watercolor pencils and then use whatever  supplies they wanted to make more cards.Most kids went home with around 11 cards in a 2 hour class.

Happy Smalladays things for small hands to make for the holiday.

 I went into the after school care program the other day and was planning on doing one project when I realized that we did not have the materials I thought we had and i would need to come up with a quick and fast idea. I had been in Target the night before and we noticed the little trees made out of  piled ornaments. I made a quick look in side the supply cabinet and stumbled across pipe cleaners, craft pom poms and glue.. Mini trees we made. The steps are easy but the work is delicate so little hands may need some help.Twist the pipe cleaner on your finger then spiral the rest of it around itself.  Pull the large coil down and stuff  the inside with craft pom poms.Secure the "tree" around the base onto a piece of cardboard or upside down plastic up as shown here with elmer's glue. When it is dry you may need to go back and reinforce some places with hot glue.

Paper ornaments. Trace two circles and cut one slit in the two circles Make sure it is the same size on both.Decorate both the front and the back of the circle with crayons or markers and then turn the one slot toward the other to match them up. Add some glue to hold them in place and some glitter glue for sparkle.
Hole punch the top and put ribbon of string through the holes to hand on a tree or other ornament stand.

From the teaching tables

 I have been trying out so of my tricks of the trade this week with my after school care kids. I learned  years ago from a old elementary art teacher book this trick... Drawing with melted crayons. There is some safety concerns involved with these one but it is so much fun.

 You go to the thrift store and get an old plug in electric  buffet food warmer. This one cost me 2.99 at the thrift store. Use copy paper of construction paper and the old stubby crayons.  Remove their papers and make them "naked crayons". I have done this before using large crayons and been able to draw more elaborate designs. The kids used a Popsicle stick to move the way around and were given elaborate safety instructions so as not to get burned. As you draw on the hot surface of the board to crayon starts to pool and puddle it gives the image a very painterly effect. The kids really loved it I let them work alone or in a group of two. The process id very experimental and the images can be scratched into and colors mixed.

Happy Halloween!

 I have been working on several Halloween projects both at work with my students and at home. I have found some Awesome projects on other peoples blogs and adapted them.

 I have made milk jug skeletons before and we made them with the after school program this year. There is a lot of cutting involved and younger students needed a lot of help putting of the milk jug handles and assembling the pieces.


 I also found some flag banners on anothers persons blog and adapted these for work by making a Boo banner with construction paper. the kids glued precut shapes of bats witch hats, letter etc on to the pendents then glued plastic drinking straws on the back to hang them.

I made a more elaborate  version of this for my home that used punches scrap booking paper  etc.

Last week we did the song "Five little pumpkins" and  a created this card stock prop to use in the sing along. I made copies of it for kids to color in and make there own. there just cut colored and added tongue depressor sticks to the back.


and of course the costume.. This part is always a challenge the sewing machine always decides to freak out on me last minute. I supposed it is because of the nature or if the Halloween fabrics I use. They are never anything like the normal fabrics I use and the sewing machine never knows how to deal with them.

So anyways I have always wanted to go as Lydia from Beetle juice abut this requires someone to go with me as "Beetlejuice"  During the summer at a street fest in Syracuse after finishing two dance performances with a group I stumbled across a bag sale and one of the items in it was a black and white striped suit. I was going to go make one.. but that would require going from good will to good will etc... painting sewing altering... so we just used the suit altered it a little and used the smaller stripes instead. I also made a tie and some wrist wraps as well as. The cape was a nightmare to make and took three attempts before arriving finally on the easiest whihc was to use my red cape and put electrical tape on it.I had used two other capes with a stretch fabric but the ribbon is was trying to apply did not stretch-- disaster!

Faux foods

 I few weeks ago I was working with a new group of kids at the Dazzle school. I have leftover cardboard circles from the "Cosmic Greenies" back drops I had done. They made my think..Pizza! maybe I was just hungry. This project is very simple.. you will need Red acrylic paint and a variety of colors of craft foam, scissors and Elmer's glue.  Paint on the red paint. while this is sitting cut the shapes of you craft foam choose for , cheeses, pepperoni, mushrooms, sausage etc. Cut your shapes drizzle on Elmer's white glue over the red paint and and your pizza toppings!

Trying to reach the untouchable kid

 There are some kids who just do not want to do anything. They would rather crumple up paper or doodle... The doodling I am not opposed to if other things are completed.  But wasting paper arrrrgh!

I try to find ways to take this "time wasting" and make it into something productive.Being a substitute teacher means an entire day of mostly just putting kids back in line and dealing with behavior issues. Some days it has little to do with making art or teaching. I try to reach those kids that have already decided they don't want to be reached. The kids that gave up on trying... It is a real challenge especially when subbing. Kids know they may never see you again, you can't always call their parents and you most times you can't write them up bad behavior because you do not have referral forms. With longer sub jobs I do call parents and do write up. Short term I  leave detailed noted for teachers to address issues I figure they have more leverage then me.

So anyways today, these kids were just crumpling up paper and throwing in the garbage trying to make baskets. I took one of them off the floor. I took an oil pastel did a texture rubbing of it and then used the folds to direct my art. Of of the kids said that it reminded her of a seed pod.(she had just been working on her science homework...so I guess that was the connection). It was a study hall I did not manage to get them to try it but at least I gave myself an outlet and inspired conversations with middle schools kids that briefly that were not about dating other middle school kids. I used a few more of these crumpled sheets of paper through out the day and used oil pastel rubbing the peeks of the folded paper with oil pastel kids would talk to me about what I was doing and ask the questions art subs often get asked like: "What are you doing?""Are you a real artist or are you a real art teacher?"

Drawing the kids portraits

May 18, 2011

So I was responding to a challenge from one of the kids last week.  One of the kindergartener’s in the morning program draws really detailed figures. Some of the other kids were laughing at her drawings. I said “I think she draws really well.” “Yah! she draws better then you!” was the reply I got. “That’s it, sit down I am drawing you.” I said. I started drawing the kid’s portraits. Other kids wanted their portrait drawn. They are not perfect drawings. It is very hard to draw kids. They really can’t hold still for long. The kid’s eyes are always off because they start looking at me, then laugh because I am staring at them then, they try to watch me draw.

The first batch was also drawn with an ink pen with no chance to erase. One of my staff members likened those to police crime sketches.

It has been great practice for me. The second day I used pencil and started by drawing some of the kids stuffed animals in colored pencil. I then drew the kids The images below are from day two.      

 

 

Five week kids session at the MAG this last month

Today was my last Saturday of a five week session teaching  children's classes at the MAG.The students are ages  7-9. We worked on two projects a week. We would finish one and start the next.

The first week we worked on an abstract line design with black tempera and worked on shading and blending with colored pencils and fills in our shapes and backgrounds with those.

We created name aliens monsters.I have done this several times and several art teacher websites have suggested this activity. Kids write their name in cursive on a folded piece of paper with the names on the fold.Then they transfer the names to the other side on the fold.They choose where the eyes and face should be and they create a background and a place for the name monster/alien to be.

Spring collbartive painting

 My wonderful friend Kat works at a sign shop and gives me and some other art teachers she knows scraps of vinyl adhesive or scrap or sign plastic that are too small for the printer. Just all kinds of wonderful odds and ends. This one piece of large plastic she gave us reminded me of the painting canvas. So I got out the acrylic craft paints, the plastic shopping bags I cut open for smocks, some brushes and let the kids have at it. My rules for making collaborative art works go well with kids are. No one can cover up some one else work and the images should go well together. Each child should think of what the child before them did and maybe repeat some things used in one place elsewhere.I have done many different collaborative mural projects. I love to see what happens and find it freeing to let kids work at a larger scale.

Making paper beads a brief tutorial.

 These are a great project to do with kids and  they can be made smaller and more detailed for adult hands.

You will need: Scissors, glue old magazines ok to cut up, or other colorful paper, straws or toothpicks to wrap paper around, Elmers or other white bottled glue, Modge Podge or gloss medium varnish String to string beads when finished and other beads to combine them with.



Step 1 Cut a paper triangle from a magazine page or fold in half once vertical and cut two at a time. You can get four to six triangles from one page.

Step 2 Hold your straw or toothpick with one hand the paper triangle in the other. Put a small line of glue above the straw and roll the paper around it  starting form the wide base end wrapping more narrow end around it.roll until glue is a wrapped up the add more glue.Continue wrapping until all of paper as wrapped. You may need one more small drop of white glue at the tip of the paper to secure the end in place.

Step 3 allow to dry. So that beads are upright so as not to stick to anything. If you are doing this with a group of kids be sure to label the straw or toothpicks with a flag of tape and a sharpie fine point marker.

Step 4 When beads have dried ad glitter or paper confetti if you like and coat with Mod Podge to protect the paper bead and give it some shine.

Pyschodelic pinwheels

Inspired by the psychedelic show currently up at the MAG.... I created this lesson. The show utilizes bold patterns and bright colors. I also looked at some art work by Bridget Riley and op art patterns.






For these pinwheels I cut 6 x 6 inch two sided two tone poster board. I cut and folded it into fours. We drew designs with Sharpie and we added color with colored pencils. The stems are made from drinking straws and I opened paper clips to make the piece to connect the straw to the paper pinwheel.

Meet selena

 My Halloween theme this year is skeletons. I remember I saw this is in a art project book for kids a few years back.

Selena here is made entirely out of milk jugs. These are strung together with cording to connect her head, torso and pelvic bone.The arms and legs are cut from milk jugs. So altogether you need about five milk jugs. We hole punched the "bones" and then connected them with cable ties. The face and other details are drawn on with Sharpie.

Cupcake jewelry made by kids

So I was wearing my cupcake jewelry to work and the kids would see it. Now, I know I am selling my products for money. Many of the kids wanted to by it from me. I felt weird asking my kids for money. So instead I asked my supervisor for some polymer clay and I showed the kids how I make cupcake jewelry.


They really enjoyed it.Some made striped beads, some made small animals.

I lugged my toaster oven back and forth each day and brought in my tools and shared my jewelry making supplies.
So what? I did not make money. For the kids I made memories and they were so proud of there work.