Children's Book Festival 2013

Each November the City of Savannah and Live Oaks Public Libraries presents Savannah Children's Book Festival. It is a WONDERFUL event full of fantastic authors, illustrators, and other activities designed for children. We have had the pleasure of participating the last three years!

 

A few of this year's featured authors and illustrators were:

 

*Nick Bruel, "Bad Kitty" & "Bad Kitty School Daze"

 

*Marc Brown, "Arthur's Teacher Trouble" & "Arthur's Nose"

 

*Rachel Renee Russell, "Dork Diaries"

Tad Hills, "How Rocket Learned to Read" & "Duck and Goose"

 

 

Each Spring the library holds a poster contest with a new theme for the upcoming festival. Like many art teachers I love a good contest! Our talented students have created some truly great pieces and consistently earn awards! Here are some past entries along with tips for what makes a successful illustration at any age!

 

*Brainstorm! Start by coming up with at least out 4-5 ideas or concepts. Your first idea is rarely the best and it's a good way to work on problem solving skills.

 

*Thumbnails! Always use thumbnails. Thumbnails are simplistic mini sketches that shouldn't take more than a minute or two. Thumbnail sketches allow you to quickly work out a few options without getting too detailed.

 

*Composition! Kids tend to make their drawing small to medium sized and in the middle of the page. An illustration can be totally transformed by enlarging the image or changing the symmetry.

 

*Execution! When executing artwork consider age, materials, and size. Materials like pastels and acrylic paint do not work well with small scaled works. Watered down acrylics and Sharpie pen are a good way to preserve a beautiful drawing, especially for young artists. Colored pencils can look thin unless layered. Use colored or toned paper to punch up a colored pencil piece.

Bunny Portraits!!

 

I'm a sucker for Animal Portraits of any kind! It had been a while since we'd done them at the studio, so this week we painted Bunny Portraits. I did these with my 4-6 year olds, but would work for slightly older ages as well!

 

Materials:

Bunny Sample Drawing
Practice Paper
Pencils
Bristol Paper
Black Crayon
Brown, Cream, Red, and Black Acrylic Paint
Paint Brushes
Glue
Scissors
Scrap fabric or other embellishments

Step One:

Bunny Practice Drawing!
I started out by explaining that placement is very important while drawing bunnies since it's necessary to leave room for the ears. With this in mind we drew a large U shape on our page, leaving room at the top. Next we closed in the U shape and added long ears, then the face and neck.

 

Step Two:

Time to Paint!
Once we finished our practice drawings, we redrew our Bunnies on Bristol paper and outlined with black crayon. Next we painted the outside of the ears, face, and neck with brown paint. The inside of the ears and circle with nose and mouth are painted with a cream color and background with red. *Outlining the bunny head with paint, then filling in the background is a good way to avoid having little ones paint on their bunnies!

 

Step Three:

Outline!
Lastly, we took a small brush and outlined our bunnies and their faces with black paint. Add any embellishments or fabric to finish the portraits!!

Meet Abigail Kokai!

Interview with Abigail Kokai!

 

Scribble Art Studio's ultra talented sewing and fibers instructor! Abigail is one of those people who gets 27 hours out of a 24 hour day. Whether she is teaching a workshop of 20 or working one on one, Abigail shows a huge amount of patience, energy, and excitement!

 

 

Where are you from originally?
The small town of Clyde, Ohio.


What kind of art do you make?
Quilts that tell stories.

How would you describe your art? your process?

Quilts are domestic objects that preserve a record of time and place. I keep sketches and write stories of memorable day-to-day experiences, be it mundane or remarkable. My sketchbook reads more like a simplified graphic novel, full of text and drawings. Occasionally, a moment will invite particular colors and patterns that I abstract to create a geometric quilt pattern. Then I figure out how to insert the text and line drawing into the quilt surface.  When the quilt is done, it is layered  with fabric and meaning...and purpose as a functional item.

Why do you like to work with kids?
Kids are little people that are always excited about learning new things. Art is such an abstract subject, it allows one to learn so much about the world and in so many different ways. Making art lets them explore the most essential of all life skills: creative problem solving. And sewing with kids gives them a hands-on awareness of 'how things are made'. That is such a fundamental concept, yet often overlooked. And when a child has finished an art project that you know they really had to think about and figure out, the joy in their expression is palpable. 

That, and it's just really fun to be creative and make things.

 

What inspires your art? Your life?

Social interaction and the obscurities about people. It's kind of difficult to look at a squirrel and think, "Hmm, that is one very bizarre squirrel." But pass a few people walking down the street, and chances are you'll recall at least two that kind of stick out in your mind. Perhaps it was a cologne you noticed from someone, or the outdated fanny pack around someone's bulging waistline. Those are the things that make people obscure creatures. And those are the things that become the memorable day-to-day experiences.

Who are some of your artistic influences?

Graphic novelists: Craig Thompson, David B., Andi Watson

Artists: Jacob Lawrence, Trent Doyle Hancock, Aminah Robinson, Nick Cave

If you could meet any artist from history alive or dead who would you want to meet and why?

Benjamin Franklin. Talk about a creative problem solver!

If you could own any piece of art from history or modern day to look at every day what would you want to have?

Any small piece of early Inuit animal carving. Preferably of some ocean mammal. Or just lots of small pieces of early Inuit animal carvings. 

 

What Fun We Had!

 

 

Summer is almost over and that means fall is right around the corner! We hope your summer was as wonderful and productive as ours. As usual, lots of fantastic artwork was created in the studio over the last few months. Here are some highlights, including work from our Summer Art Show "Imagine Me" Self Portraits with a twist!