Christmas Car Cards

We made Christmas cars ... and turned them into Christmas cards!

I just love how they turned out!

After completing the artwork, I took picture each one and formatted them to fit on a piece of folded colored card stock. Then I had them printed at our local print shop on premium white paper.

Of course, I could have printed them myself, but placing two art pics on one sheet of paper is so inexpensive to print compared to using a home printer, and the color is beautiful and dependable.

Cut the art prints to leave about 1/4 inch all the way around.

 

Our images were 5.25" x 7" for 5.5" by 7.25" cards (folded). Of course, your dimensions are up to you.

Simply cut them out and glue them on the face of the folded cards. We used glue sticks so they would stay flat and not wrinkle.

Now you can write in them as they are, Or, for darker cardstock, you can fold a slightly smaller sheet of white sheet of paper inside for your message. Simply add a dab of glue to the paper near the center fold to keep it in place.

For detailed instructions to create your own Christmas Car paintings, you can visit our previous weblog posts:

Christmas Cars

More Christmas Cars

We used purchased (5.75" x 8.75") peel & stick greeting card envelopes, which you can find at any stationary or big box store - ours came from Walmart. 

Pet Paintings

Choncho, 11" x 14" (artist age 10)

We painted pet portraits!

These artists tried an acrylic painting on canvas for the very first time.

These are painted on 11" x 14" stretched canvases. We used simple drawings traced to the canvas from b/w photo enlargement printouts. We also used at least two color resource photos to refer to as we created our palettes and painted the images on canvas. It helped to have at least one photo on an electronic device so that it could be enlarged enough to see and paint furry details.

Athena, 11" x 14" (adult artist)

Kitty, 11" x 14" (adult artist)

Josie, 11" x 14" (adult artist)

Pug, by B - age 10 (colored pencil)

Just for the fun of it, our younger artist decided to also try her hand at depicting her doggy subject in colored pencil. The result is this super expressive drawing that looks like a caricature. Wow!

The Colors of Autumn

Early October near McCammon, Idaho

The beautiful colors of autumn make it my favorite time of the year. I love leaf-peeping, fall photography, and of course, making colorful autumn art! I try to get in a few hikes during the peak of fall colors in "my neck of the woods," such as this photo: a perfect reference pic for a future painting!

Our most recent open studio sessions have consisted of fall-themed art-making, such as this this richly hued autumn scene of a country road meandering through the woods.

The artist, age 10, worked with soft pastels to create this piece, called "A Fall Walk in the Woods." You can see another post with more examples of this project here and a video showing how to draw it here.

We call these cheery birch tree paintings "The Colors of the Wind." We know we can't see the wind on a blustery day, but we can see the leaves swirling around and we can imagine the colors of the wind. To make create these, we first painted the backgrounds, then we painted, cut out, and glued our tree trunks and branches right over the painting. Fun for any age! Find out more about painting your own Colors of the Wind right here.

Most recently, we created these sunlit paintings of a walking path through the woods in autumn, with plenty of falling leaves and a cute little park bench so you can rest your feet. 

Notice how each painting of this basic scene differs from the others. The colors, the highlights and shadows, the pathways, the trees, the falling leaves, and the styles of the park benches are all based on the original ideas and creativity of the artist.  

If you would like to paint or teach someone to paint this colorful autumn scene, you can learn more in our original weblog post, Park Bench.

Birch Trees at Sunset
watercolor greeting card, by Braylie, age 10

Candy Candy Candy

Dots, tempera paint on paper

It's all about the candy! 

Actually, I loved Halloween because of the costumes. I loved that mother made ours and later I could make my own.

But later, in the end, it really was all about the candy! 

As a tradition around here - after the big night - we make candy art! We save a few leftovers to use as our candy still life subjects. (Then of course, it gets eaten.) 

Leftovers, mixed media on paper

We place our candy pieces on a tiny 'stage,' usually just 3 or 4 inches square. Then we copy the image lightly in pencil to a square piece of drawing paper, anywhere from 7" x 7" to 10" x 10" or even larger. 

The challenge is enlarging the tiny subjects on the tiny square proportionally to the large square. It's easy to draw too small.

Sweets, mixed media on paper

We have found that it helps to draw two pencil lines on the the tiny stage dividing it into quarters before placing the candy on it. Do the same to the drawing paper and then draw what is seen in each quarter.

After the initial drawing is completed, simply fill in the colors with art media of your choice: temperas, colored pencil, pastel pencil, charcoal pencil, etc.

When finished, erase your pencil guide lines and stray drawing lines. Then smear a bit of charcoal and/or charcoal pencil in the background to give the table surface some color and create shadows beneath and around the candies. 

Tip: if you are meticulous and cannot depend on your candy stage lasting forever, or if you may not finish your candy artwork in just one sitting, it may help to take a picture of your candy still life (from directly above, of course) for later. Have fun!!!

For more student samples and detailed instructions, see our previous post.

Halloween Workshops for Kids

Our Halloween Workshops are always so much fun! This year we made Silly Halloween Blackheads, Moveable Mummies, Freaky Fuzzy Spiders, Batty Bats, and our very most favoritist of all: Halloween Inchies!

These Silly Halloween Blockheads are made from wood scraps and various craft supplies, such as Fun Foam shapes, googly eyes, pom poms, and pipe cleaners. First they are painted (we use acrylic paint), then the other items are glued on 

over the dried paint.

 

Moveable Mummies are made from flexible garden wire, gauze (or strips of muslin), googly eyes, and are held together with a dab of hot glue after being wound up and wrapped.

Batty Bats are made from cardboard tubes (we covered them with black tissue paper), black construction paper, googly eyes, pipe cleaners (optional) and metallic markers.

Halloween Inchies are tiny works of art that are fun to make and can be displayed separately or in a group or in a grid pattern on a piece of poster board. 

Ours are each 4" x 4."

These Freaky Fuzzy Spiders were a favorite for this guy. He used pipe cleaners, pom poms, googly eyes, and hot glue. He even made a wearable web for his smallest spider, and a Spider Inchie, too. (Note: every spider appearing in this post was made by this amazing freaky-fuzzy-spider maker!)

This young artist created a cute portrait of her plush ghostly companion during open studio time. 

(Note - it would appear that there is a falling leave stuck in her hair! Actually, it's just an 

autumn-themed wall decoration behind her, created to set the mood.) 

Colorful Cactus Gardens

In keeping with our nature        journal drawing project, we created these beautiful mixed media cactus gardens planted in Mexican or native American inspired decorative pots. 

We had fun observing different types of small cacti to consider for our gardens, as well as various native American patterns for our pots as we planned our compositions. 

You'll need: 

a sheet of watercolor paper,      reference photos of cacti, a drawing pencil, fine and ultra fine black Sharpies, a watercolor board, masking tape, watercolors, and a few watercolor brushes of various sizes.

 

We started by sketching in our compositions lightly with pencil. We didn't put in every detail at this point; all we needed was to know what goes where and establish which cacti are in back and which are in front.  We also added a few lines in the pot patterns spikes in the cacti, just a few to show what they will look like.

Now the entire sketch is traced with your Sharpies, which will not run or blur when it gets wet. This is important for the next step. Be sure to add all of the details left out of the original sketch. 

Now you should have something that looks like a coloring book page for grownups! 

Tape your painting to a watercolor board (to keep it from wrinkling). You will fill in the background with two analogous colors (best to use liquid watercolors if your painting is larger than 9"x12"). We blended one color into the other from top to bottom, such as yellow to orange or blue to violet using a wet-on-wet technique. 

Then, once the background has dried (we used a blow dryer) you'll begin mixing various shades and tones of green for your cacti. Paint them in, and then fill in the rest of your painting as desired. After the paint is dry, you can go over some of your ink lines again if they don't seem dark enough.

NOTES: Creating this little cactus garden helps young students plan a composition, gain confidence with ink (Sharpies), blend a background using two or more analogous colors, use Native American-inspired patterns in artwork, and plan a color harmonious scheme. It is also a great way to encourage using the watercolor palette wells for mixing watercolors instead of simply painting with the colors directly out of the pans. We mixed a variety of greens to paint the various types of cacti after observing from photos how different each shade or tone of green actually was.  See more cactus garden ideas from our earlier posts here and here.

Thievin' Seagulls!

We decided to take a break from our Nature Journaling endeavors to hit the beach (so to speak) and create these "thievin" seagulls! (Okay we don't have an actual beach here in landlocked Idaho, but Blackfoot has a river-fed lake and it is frequented by seagulls.)

If you've ever tried to have a picnic at the beach, you know that the neighborhood seagulls will try to steal your lunch. Do not walk away, or your meal will walk, hop, or fly away. 

Besides working on our cartooning skills and adding bit of humor to our artwork, this project invited experimentation with a number of different art media and techniques:

Soft pastels on construction paper

Wet on wet watercolor

Torn paper techniques

Collage using a variety of materials

Oil pastel techniques

Drawing skills

If you would like to make your own Thievin' Seagull art, take a look at our earlier Seagull posts for detailed directions: Sneaky Seagulls and Seagulls!

Seagulls can be very crafty, and they are not afraid of  humans. If they want it, they take it, even from a convenience store (oops-sorry-forgot my wallet).

So, feel free to give your seagulls a few appropriate 'accessories.' We decided a pirate theme would be very appropriate - such as pirate hats, eye patches, and/or a peg leg!

Or... add some warning signs on the beach! True story - this actually happened in Maine. The culprit: Cecil the Seagull. 

Magnified Critters

Wasp, mixed media on paper

After working so hard on our Nature Journals the last few weeks, we decided it would be fun to make some special artwork focusing (get it?) on a few of the backyard critters we discovered.  

Results: These amazing mixed media Magnified Critters!  

Below, I will show you how to make your own.

Cucumber Beetle, mixed media on paper

Supplies needed:

- 9" x 12" dark-colored construction paper

- scrap of black construction paper 

- drawing pencil / eraser

- colored pencils and/or markers

- tempera paints or oil/soft pastels

- paint brushes / water 

- scissors / glue stick

- round templates, such as lids: one slightly smaller than the other

- resource pictures of chosen insect

Choose a critter to illustrate in your artwork (insect? spider? butterfly?) and find a good resource photo of it to refer to as you draw. 

Plastic lid templates, 4.5" & 5"

Lightly trace the smaller template on a piece of white drawing paper. This will be your 'art canvas.' (Tiny, huh?) Sketch the insect somewhere inside the circle, being sure to include as many details as possible. Fill in the body of the insect with bold colors using markers or colored pencils. You might want to outline the insect with an ultra-fine Sharpie before or after filling in the colors. You decide!

Where is your critter resting? Draw a leaf or flower beneath it. Add distinct details and bright colors to this background, just as it would be seen through a magnifying glass. Fill in the circle with colors and details. Don't worry about any stray lines or color outside the circle, which will be cut off later.

Original Rainbow Leaf Beetle artwork

Paint the background using your media of choice: tempera paint, oil pastels, soft pastels or (???) Paint loosely and quickly; don't worry too much about details or perfection - the focus of the artwork will be on the magnifying glass art. 

Use the larger template to trace and cut out a black circle (or rather a big black dot) and use a scrap of that paper to make a handle for your magnifier. (Fold it in half lengthwise, then cut it out and unfold!)

Enhanced Rainbow Leaf Beetle artwork

Carefully cut out your magnifying glass artwork. Then, glue it to the center of the big black dot, and glue end of the handle to the back of the dot to complete your magnifying glass.

Once your background has dried, you can glue the completed magnifying glass to it. Make sure you move it around first and decide where the best position would be to place it. 

The last step is to go back and add a few more details, shadows, and other enhancements.  Beautiful!

Orange-Belted Bumblebee, mixed media

For more ideas like this, check out this post: Scientific Illustration.

Nature Journaling - Part I

A Nature Journal is simply a nature-themed sketchbook filled with observational sketches of your outdoor environment. 

You can use an ordinary sketchbook for your outdoor sketches, or you can create your own unique, personalized, customized Nature Journal. 

Your journal can include lots of small descriptive sketches or detailed scientific illustrations - or both. You can use dry drawing media only (drawing pencils, charcoal pencils, colored pencils, Sharpies, markers, pastels), or you can also include watercolor pencil, ink, and watercolor sketches.

If you enjoy being outside and you love to draw, nature journaling is for you! Get started by taking a Nature Walkabout. 

You will need:

A drawing board, drawing media, a camp chair, a few sheets of drawing or sketching paper, (or your sketchbook), masking tape, cellphone (camera), sun screen, and a brimmed hat.

If using drawing paper, tape two corners of each sheet to your drawing board to keep it in place. 

Drawing tips: 

Feel free to use more than one art medium for your drawings. Mixed media is great for depicting nature! 

Move in close! Look for details.

Sketch your subject lightly with a drawing pencil first, or skip the pencil and be bold! Start with markers or ultra-fine Sharpies, and dive in to the drawing - trust yourself! 

Observe your subject closely. Rule of thumb is to spend more time examining your subject than looking at your drawing. 

Mistakes can be fixed. If the art medium is un-erasable, no worries! Remember nature is not perfect and you can adjust your drawing to look like the subject without looking exactly like the specimen in front of you. 

For example, a pepper in your garden can take on innumerable shapes and variations in color as it ripens. And every wildflower is slightly different. Use your mistake to your advantage to individualize your subject: change the shape slightly, add deeper shadows, or create more texture. Or turn boo-boos into bees (or hover flies, like these).

If you run out of drawing time (or your subject skitters, hops, or flies away) consider taking a picture of it with your phone before drawing. That way you can finish your drawing in the studio. 

You may be able to ID your subject using an online app or locate your subject in a field guide such as a National Audubon Society Field Guide. 

Another option for future sketches is to collect specimens to draw in the studio. Collect objects that are laying on the ground such as pinecones, bits of bark, broken twigs, acorns, feathers, seedpods, leaves, and rocks. You can also use items like (realistic) artificial  flowers and specimens from your seashell collection. These photos show just a few studio specimens that we collected to observe when the temperatures got too hot for us to work outside. 

Choose a specimen and place it on a sheet of white paper directly in front of you. Study it carefully, then draw it in detail, adding color using your art media of choice. These two scientific illustrations were completed using colored markers and colored pencils:

Polyphemus moth specimen (top) with two artists' illustrations

This moth was found at the end of its life cycle in our walk-about space (my yard). Notice how ragged the wing edges are! We looked it up and found that the the Polyphemus moth lives an average of 6 to 7 days after emerging from its cocoon. It has no mouth or digestive system so it cannot eat: its only function is to reproduce.  We also learned we were very lucky to find it because this moth is normally active only at night, and also that some people believe finding a Polyphemus moth is a sign of good luck!

Next: How to assemble a Nature Journal using your drawings.