Sunday, February 05, 2023

Snowman Art!

 

At this time of year we just can't resist making Snowman Art!

Ours was not the usual snowman art, however. We put a fun little spin on our all of snowmen!






For example, meet Snowman Scoops!

(Can you guess where he got his name?) 

This is tempera paint on colored sulfite paper.  We worked on depicting volume by adding shadows and highlights. Then we used markers to add the details. 




We also made these adorable paper Snow Globes! 

Again, we used shadows to create volume, this time with oil pastels.


We also made stands with fancy gold name plates for our Snow Globes. The above snowman's name is Twinkle Nose.

This is Jolly.




Have you ever wondered what a snowman would look like if you were lying beneath it (while making a snow angel)?

Probably like this.

We painted our backgrounds in wet-on-wet watercolor, and completed the details with oil pastel - all while learning a bit about perspective. 




Here we have a more traditional snowman painting, only with a spin on it as well. This snowman was painted on wood!

The teen artist created this decorative winter artwork with acrylic paint on a weathered wooden plank (from an old fence).

Do you see the little bluebird?







Friday, January 27, 2023

Squirrel Appreciation Day


Fact: Squirrels are among the cutest creatures in existence. 

(Ask any child. They'll tell you.)

And did you know that January 21 is Squirrel Appreciation Day?

So, of course, we had no choice but to create these Little Squirrel  Portraits in celebration of our cute little squirrel friends.



We started by creating a background that shows the squirrel's tree home - from his point of view at the base of the tree. This was a great way to learn about perspective!

We also had to decide what kind of tree our squirrel lives in - is it an evergreen or a deciduous tree? The tree was drawn and completed with oil pastel.




Next, we needed to decide the season so that we could complete the sky and the background. Would we use warm summer colors or golden fall colors, or would the background be wintery and cold? The chosen colors were painted over the entire background with liquid watercolor.  If a snowy background was chosen, we also splattered it with thinned white tempera paint using a toothbrush.


We drew our little squirrel on a 1/2 sheet of brown construction paper (or sulfite paper).  The furry details and a cute little squirrel face were added with oil pastels, and the squirrel was cut out.

The tail was drawn on another 1/2 sheet of brown paper and lots of fur was added. It was cut out as well.


Then the squirrel was glued into the scene right over the tree, tail first. Note: As a fun option, you can glue a piece of foam (packing material?) between the squirrel's head and the background for 3D look!

"Tree Squirrel," by a teen artist
Acrylics on Canvas

These talented wildlife artists ranged in age from 6 to 13 years.

Saturday, January 14, 2023

Winter Landscapes

These lovely winter landscapes are created in the style of of contemporary artist and illustrator Jen Aranyi. 


We love the crisp clean lines that so aptly depict these icy landscapes.  




The simple wet on wet watercolor in the sky adds just enough color to these majestic little works of art.

This artist worked out a few winter landscape ideas in her sketch journal before proceeding with her final artwork. 


Here is a full sketchbook page illustrating the usefulness of the sketchbook to develop and work out ideas before moving on to the final artwork. 

As an option, the artist could finish this sketchbook artwork in the future.

Hatching is used to add shadows when using ink, to depict volume and three dimensionality. Also, perspective is attained by varying the tree sizes to indicate distance, the midground, and the foreground. The trees are completely filled in to create a stark contrast with their icy surroundings.



This is a practice sketchbook scene created by one or our younger students. She is learning to work with ink to create hatching for shadows in the mountains and also learning to incorporate perspective into her drawing. 




Here is her final artwork.  

We mounted our geometrically shaped artwork on black sulfite paper to create a nice black border. 
NOTE: We have created artwork in Jen Aranyi's style before. Check out our previous weblog post, Jen Aranyi-Themed Painting to see more. 

Here's another little wintery scene, by a teen artist.  
Watercolor and Tempera on Paper

Saturday, December 17, 2022

Wintering Birds


If you are a bird watcher (like I am) you know that many birds do not "fly south" for the winter.

They spend their winters in - and thrive in - cold, snowy climates. 


Black-capped Chickadee, painted collage



Last Thursday, I spent a good part of my day observing birds in my own Idaho backyard. There are about three inches of snow on the ground and the temps were about 20°F.


I saw: several flocks of starlings, a house wren, a scrub jay, two magpies, a northern red-shafted flicker (a type of woodpecker), and a robin!


Blue Jay, watercolor and acrylic on paper


Our goal as artists was to illustrate backyard birds that winter in cold climates such as ours in southeastern Idaho. Our artists used mixed media for their illustrations, including tempera paint, oil pastels, collage, watercolor, and acrylics. 
Blue Jay with Northern Cardinal, oil pastel and tempera collage

You can learn more about how to create this wintering bird mixed media collage on our original weblog post, Backyard Birds

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Christmas Ornaments Galore!

 

We've just made Christmas ornaments galore! 

Using patchwork, felt, wood, paint, buttons, and more!



Here's a striped Christmas blockhead! 

And cute scratch art stars!

There're Grinches down chimneys, to steal what's not theirs!





Here's Santa's log cabin,
and a penguin snow globe! 

We've got painted wood critters, and a snowflake that glows!


A small painting easel, and snowman art too!

More snowflakes, a tree, and a gift just for you!




We have buttoned up snowmen!

And Santa is here!

And a wood cookie Rudolf, to bring you good cheer!





Yep, you can make Christmas ornaments from whatever you have on hand. Tip: a hot glue gun is very helpful. Merry Christmas!!!

Saturday, December 03, 2022

Folk Art Santa

This week we celebrated Santa through the ages and as he appears in other
countries.


Also known as St. Nick, Kris Kringle, and Father Christmas, he brought toys and goodies to children on Christmas Eve just like our present day Santa. 

However, early images of Santa looked quite different than the Santa we know today. He wore long coats of various colors and ornamentation. 

He often carried Christmas trees and things like food and toys in baskets. He sometimes had large pockets, belts, and ornate shoulder bags. 

The children were very interested in these nostalgic images of Santa Claus and wanted to create their own. 

We originally created this type of Santa artwork in December of 2019. 

You can see more about this project and how we made it, including step-by-step instructions, on our original weblog post: Santa Folk Art.

Thursday, November 17, 2022

Thanksgiving Pop-Ups!

 We made Thanksgiving Pop-Up Turkey cards!
These pop-ups could be given as greeting cards or serve as perfect centerpieces for the big Thanksgiving feast!
          Check out smART Class: Pop Up Turkeys to learn how to            make your own!

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Magic Potions!

We artists love Halloween! So many spooky fun opportunities for art! 

This year I wanted to try something a little different: why not combine wizards and witches and mad scientists and alchemy and magic potions and moonlit nights and ghosts and spider webs all into one amazingly eerie painting?  

Thursday, November 10, 2022

Scientific Illustration

This month our teen artists have been working on their drawing and observation skills. They took on the role of naturalists and, through careful observation, drew detailed specimens such as those found in a field guide.                                                                      We decided to illustrate insects and bugs, since they are small, colorful, and have interesting shapes and designs. Also, we have plenty of resource photos of these little critters, so we didn't have to go out in search of them. Here are the how-to's:


First choose and study a resource photo of the subject to be drawn. We have a large file of old calendar photos (animals, insects, birds, fish, landscapes, you name it) as well as Zoo Books, reference books, and pictures found online. Use photos for your resource images, not paintings, drawings, or other artwork.

Using a drawing pencil, carefully sketch the shape and form of your subject on drawing paper. Do not make it too small! You want to make it large enough to add plenty of detail. 


Study the colors, including the highlights and shadows in the photo. 

Decide what art media you will use for this subject. Colored pencil works very well for scientific illustration. If you have large areas of color (such as the basic yellow of a tiger swallowtail butterfly) you might fill them first with soft pastel, then rubbed gently with a finger for a nice smooth background of color.

Select the colors and fill in your subject, layering colors as needed. 



Take your time. Start with larger shapes and distinctive markings first, then add smaller or darker details on top of them. You can also try using ultra fine Sharpies for the finer details and to define things like feathery antennae, hairy legs, transparent wings, and so forth.

Once the illustration is competed, be sure to label it with name of the specimen.


One student went further and completed this little fellow at home in graphite pencil. 

Please see our earlier weblog post, Drawing Bugs! for more about 
Scientific Illustration.