Christmas Artwork Highlights!

Christmas Artwork Highlights!

 

Here are a few highlights of the Christmas inspired artwork our talented students created over the month! Have a Happy and Safe Holiday and we'll see you in the New Year! XO!

Crazy Reindeer Project!

Crazy Reindeer Project!

This fun holiday project was developed by Jane, a wonderful artist and teacher! Jane did this project with her drawing class and I liked it so much I used it too! This project works best for ages 6+.

Materials:

Reindeer Drawing Sheet
practice paper
pencil
Bristol paper
black crayon (or any color crayon)
white oil pastel
blue paint (thinned with water)
brown paint
dark brown paint
red paint
black paint
brushes
scrap paper
scissors
glue

Step One
Using the drawing sheet as a guide, practice drawing your reindeer. Pay close attention to how the shapes create a reindeer silhouette!

Step Two
Re-draw reindeer on Bristol paper and outline with crayon. Next, using a white oil pastel make white dots (snowflakes) all over the background. Paint over background with thinned blue acrylic paint (snowflakes should show through).

Step Three
Paint your reindeer! Brown paint for the chest, head, and ear. Dark brown for the antlers. Red for the nose and blue or dark brown for the eye. Time to outline! Outlining is great for bringing back features that might have gotten lost while painting. Outline using black paint on a small brush, older kids should practice using only the tip of the brush for a finer line!

Step Four
Decorate the antlers with cut paper ornaments! Voila! Crazy Reindeer is finished!

A little Holiday Cheer!

Here's a fun holiday project for the season! I've done this project with a few of my students and thought it'd make a good one to try at home! It involves drawing a elf made out of shapes. It works best with ages 5+. Enjoy!

 

Materials:

*Elf Drawing Sheet

*Practice Paper

*Pencil

*Bristol Paper

*Black Crayon

*Paint

*Brushes

 

Step One:

Practice drawing the elf using the Drawing Sheet. Explain that the face is made up entirely of shapes!

 

 

Step Two:

After practice drawing is finished it's time to re-draw on Bristol paper. Once finished, go over pencil lines with black crayon (or any color crayon). Creating a thicker line helps when painting!

Step Three:

Paint your Elf! Outline Elf in black paint with small brush to help bring back any features that might have gotten lost!

 

Step Four:

Decorate using scrap fabric and buttons! Create a hat, clothes, whatever!

 

 Drawing Games!

 

Recently I've been thinking a lot about the problem solving aspect of art. All art is problem solving to a degree (which is why it's so unfortunate that art is often vulnerable when it comes to budget cuts) and the reason it's so important to developing minds! In a world of instant gratification it's become even more crucial a skill to practice.  I make a effort to include as many problem solving  projects as possible at the studio. Some  favorites of mine and one that is easy to do at home, in the car, whenever are..... Drawing Games! The beauty of a drawing game is that you don't need special materials or even the ability to draw well. Simple imagery and stick figures work fine! Here are a couple of fun drawing games for the next time your child is bored at home, in the car, or at a restaurant!

Drawing An Adjective! (ages 5+)

I learned long ago that if you can add an element of chance to any game it's instantly more fun! That's why any time we can pull folded paper from a cup, we do (however, it's not necessary). Here's how you play,

 

Materials:

empty cup of any shape or size

paper (computer paper folded in half works fine, it'll give you four spaces to draw on so you don't end up wasting paper)

pencils

scissors

 

Cut small paper slips and clearly print adjectives on them (hot, cold, tired, heavy, smelly, and so on) then fold and place in cup.

Next pull a piece of paper from the cup. Once you have your adjective it's time to draw the word (if playing with kids that can read it's fun to keep words a secret to guess once finished)

Here are some examples of adjectives and drawings!

 

Tiny

Hot

 Smelly ( a lot of kids had the same idea about this one!)

 

Wooden

 

 

 

An Animal's Perspective!

 

Materials:

Pencils

Paper

 

In this game you simply draw something from an animals perspective (bugs can be included). This game can be slightly more difficult but children as young as six did wonderfully at it. Here are some examples!

 

Bee



 

Bird (note the feet and birdhouses)

 

Ant

 

ENJOY!

 

New Project for Little Ones!

 

Here's a easy, fun project designed for young children! I did this project with two of my younger classes last week (ages 3-5) and loved the results! It's easily modified for older students as well!

 

 I used illustrations from Elmer the Patchwork Elephant by David McKee as inspiration. Elmer is the story of a colorful elephant celebrated for being different!

Materials:

*Elmer drawing sheet print out

*Bristol Paper

*Practice Paper (for older students who will draw their own Elmer)

*Pencil

*Oil Pastels

*Watered down Acrylics

*Brushes

*Markers, Colored Pencils, or Crayons

*Scissors

*Glue

(This project can be done with only paper, Elmer print out, scissors, glue, and crayons/markers. Paint, Bristol, and Oil Pastels are not necessary, it's just how we did it at the studio!)

Step One:

Start by creating a background for Elmer. Draw lines from one end of Bristol paper to the other with different colored oil pastels. Next turn the paper and draw another set of lines from one end to the other. You should end up with a grid of squares. (make sure lines go all the way to the end of the paper for complete squares).

Paint squares with different colored acrylics. Encourage lots of different colors in different squares, colors will bleed into each other, that's OK!

Step Two:

While background is drying start coloring in your Elmer print out with markers, colored pencils, or crayons. Encourage stripes, patterns, or just lots of color. This part should be fun and left up to the artist! To modify for older students just have draw Elmer instead of using print out. Any type of paper will do!

 

 

Step Three:

Once Elmer is completed, cut out and glue onto background. Feel free to add jewels or sequences! Check out these cute Elmer's!

Savannah Children's Book Festival!

 

 

The Children's Book Festival is this Saturday Nov. 10th, 10am-4pm in Forsyth Park.We were blown away by the festival last year and are super excited to be included this year! Stop by our tent to say Hi and pick up a complimentary gift bag! We'd love to see you!

Our very talented student Lauren Shweiky won the poster contest! Her adorable artwork of a bird reading will be on display through out the festival.

 

In October we collaborated with Dick Blick and Live Oak Public Libraries to create a TWIGS Portrait Show. Some of our students were chosen to contribute to the new TWIGS coloring book.This Saturday drawing sheets featuring their TWIGS drawings will be available at the festival.Don't forget to pick some up!

 

 

Lastly, check out the wonderful Rocket artwork created in last month's free art class at Southwest Chatham Public Library. How Rocket Learned to Read by Tad Hills is just one of the fantastic books you'll find at the book festival!