Story Book Art!

Our last Little Artists class of October happened right on Halloween, so we read a spooky book and then we made ART! 

Story Book ART Time is all about reading children's literature together and then creating art based on the book. 

Our goal is to also ensure that these literature-based activities continue to be open-ended and process-based; not cookie-cutter craft projects.

This artwork is based on the book, I SPY Spooky Night, a visually exciting book in which we examined various spooky settings while searching for specific objects.

For our art, we created an I SPY collage of our own using pictures, stickers, and cutouts. 

Then each artist challenged the others to find an object or to count the number of a certain type of object in his/her artwork. 

For example, how many pumpkins can you find in Georgie's collage? How many school buses? How many animals?

Little Artists Story Book ART Time continues throughout the Winter Session (November 7 - February 27). You can learn more or register your Little Artist at the Art Center or on our website.

Open Studio Halloween Art!

Our October Open Studio classes always bring out the best, and this year was no exception! Such a great time to get a bit silly, roll up your sleeves, and create something awesome! 

For example, these Spooky Forest Jack-o-Lanterns. 

This cute - I mean SCARY - Halloween project is always a favorite! These two were created in our adult open studio art class. 

These two were created by  home schoolers on an Art Club open studio day.

One of our teen home schoolers painted this reflection of a black cat (below) for her open studio project. 

This is a great reflection of her awesome watercolor skills, wouldn't you say?

Our younger home schoolers painted several pumpkins and beautiful fall colors all over these big sheets of butcher paper.

Then, using thick black paint, we outlined pumpkins and a variety of leaves right over the the painted paper. 

After everything was dry, we cut them out and put them in the window for a beautiful autumn display of falling leaves in a pumpkin patch!

A big thanks to our young home schoolers in HSAC for 

sprucing up our front windows!

More Spooky Art!

Imagine - a whole month for Halloween art! The kids are having a great time using the studio as their own to create any Halloween art project they wish.

A few of our home schoolers brought pumpkins to carve. 

This little artist created a scary/silly pumpkin man, as well as a few Halloween drawings, such as this jack-o-lantern and a spooky blue ghost.

Another artist who painted an owl in oil pastels last week decided to use this medium again, this time creating a menacing black cat! 

These artists made Halloween Blockheads. 

These are holiday decorations made from scraps of wood, acrylic craft paint, fun foam, and other odds & ends.

This is a project we do almost every year because the kids enjoy adding to their collections for future Halloweens.

Here is a spooky pumpkin patch in the moonlight. In this oil pastel painting, the pumpkins were created separately and blended with baby oil on a Q-tip. Then they were cut out and placed in the original scene. 




This is a simple craft project called the Cozy Cat. Her paws are cut so that she can hold anything seasonal, like a pumpkin, a cup of hot chocolate, or maybe a Christmas gift for a cute (and versatile!) holiday decoration.





Here is another Picasso monster! This artist had a great time finding ways to make this one really scary, including blue bolts of electricity!

This is an interesting spider web in the grass. Apparently it catches yellow bats - or does it??? 

Also notice also the cute purple Halloween bookmark.

We Love Owls!

Owls' faces are so expressive! I believe owls are the perfect subject for oil pastel painting because of their large eyes and unique facial patterns, shapes, and feather textures. 

Plus, they are the perfect subject for Halloween! 

For this project, we extended our Halloween-themed inchies project to include these little oil pastel owls. These owls were created by adults and measure 4 by 4 inches.

They were painted with oil pastels on heavy black    4 by 4 inch sulphite (construction) paper.

The inchie owls below were created by children ages 6 through 12, some of whom had never used oil pastels (or even heard of them) before this lesson. I think their owls are awesome!

If Picasso Made Monsters!

Woman in Beret and Checked Dress
(1937)

What if Picasso did Halloween?

Our Home School Art Club explored this idea by creating these spooky Halloween creatures in the style of Picasso.

Pablo Picasso asked, "Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?" 

A good question -- and a great starting point for creating these unique portraits of witches, monsters, and other spooky beings. 

We started by pairing younger with older artists so that they could help one another with directional tasks.







Then we asked, how can we make our portraits similar to those of Pablo Picasso? We found several ways to do this. First, we created both frontal and profile views of the subject within the same face, using two different colors of paper. 





Picasso said, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

So we also made our artwork simple, spontaneous, and childlike, as did Picasso; and used collage techniques, as he often did. 





We also depicted strong emotion in each character's face; as did Picasso.











We used Sharpies to add linear details within each face, like hairy warts, wrinkles, and stitches! Some artists also outlined their subjects.

Then the background was filled in with cutouts such as moons, stars, and bats. Some drew patterns such as stars and swirls and spirals. 

These artists ranged in age from 4 through 15.

You can visit Mrs. Picasso's Art Room (thank you Mrs. Picasso!) for step-by-step instructions to create this spooky-awesome art project !!!