Drawing Bugs!

Every so often we have a lesson in 'scientific illustration' to practice our drawing skills. This past week we illustrated insects and arachnids -- 
in other words, we drew BUGS! 

This is a great project for student artists of all ages to practice observation and drawing skills. They are also required to find and write the bugs' names next to each of their drawings, which even the youngest can do. 

 NOTE: Made up or 'composite' insects can be created -- and given appropriate names -- by their inventors. Example: a "horned aracnion" (scorpion-spider-mosquito) that Eli created, shown above. An interesting species!

Birch Trees!

As the summer ends, we've been painting birch trees. We're always inspired by these beautiful trees, as well as the quaking and weeping aspens that grow in our area. The white and black trunks are so lovely, especially with the fall colors coming in. They're wonderful subjects for our little landscapes! 

This project is a small 6 x 9 watercolor painting, great for anyone 8 (or so) and up.      Our featured artists are ages 8-12.

If you would like to try one, you'll find detailed directions at the bottom of this page.

Artwork Gallery:

How to paint your own watercolor Birch Trees: 

Tape your watercolor paper, smooth side up, to a heavy board so your paper won't curl. Then tear pieces of masking tape to fit from the bottom to the top of your paper to represent tree trunks. Use a variety of widths (we used 1/2 inch, 3/4 inch, and 94/100 inch). If you have only one size, you can cut or tear some pieces down the center to create various widths for your trees. Stick the tape down in a very unplanned, random way (this is hard for some student artists!) Trees should look like they are growing naturally, not perfectly vertical or  lined up like soldiers. Tear smaller, pointy pieces of tape and attach to trunks, pointing slightly upward, in various positions to look like branches and limbs. Now you are ready to paint!

Mix a thinned blue color for a nice, crisp, autumn-like sky and paint the top of the paper. Dab the paint on right over the tape, and leave a few white areas, for a painterly, even an impressionistic look. Use a bit of tissue to pull out some of the paint for puffy white clouds if desired. Mix a few autumn colors, beginning with yellow, yellow green, and yellow orange and dab these colors in as you work your way down, filling in some of the white areas you left in the sky. Try not to create obvious layers or lines of color from one to the next as you move down to the bottom of the painting. Distribute the colors here and there around the painting. Next add orange and red-orange near and down to the bottom, as well as some of your earlier colors mixed in. This might create a few browns, which are also great colors for this painting! When done, allow to dry, or use a blow dryer so you can move on right away.

Now it's time to remove the tape - trees only - not the tape along the paper's edge! Slowly pull off the tape at a slant from the direction of the tree trunk. Also keep the tape flat against the paper - don't pull straight up. This will minimize any paper tearing problems. If any of your paper does tear, don't panic! You can easily incorporate the "textured" paper into your trees during the next steps.

Now mix a watery grey on your palette using black watercolor and water only. Decide which will be the shadow side of the trees and paint each one grey along that edge, filling in at least one-half of the tree trunk. Make sure your grey is not too light; it needs to look like a distinct shadow - but not black! Add shadows to your limbs and branches as well. Tall branches will be shaded along the same edges as the trees. More horizontal branches and limbs will have shadows along the bottom edges.

Time to add the details! Using black paint (not the watery grey) with a detail brush, add twigs and smaller limbs to the upper areas of the trees, and a few poking out of the trunks. Also add a few tiny lines in the distance to represent saplings, partially hidden trees, and bushes. Add a few more in the foreground to look like fallen twigs, dried grasses, and other woody foliage. Now, add the "eyes" and other black details into the tree trunks. These can be horizontal lines, which are slightly curved to indicate the round shape of the trunk, as well as interesting dots and dashes. The most important thing is to make them randomly! Marks should be unevenly spaced, unplanned, some short, some long: as natural looking as possible. You can also "carve" a heart or your initials into a tree. In fact, some of our artists signed their paintings with initials hidden in the trees.

After the painting is dry, remove the tape by pulling it off slowly, away from the painting and flat against the board to avoid tearing the paper. You will have a lovely white border around your pretty little painting!

Marbled Paper!

This week we made marbled paper! Lots and lots of it! 

We used two different methods. The first involved shaving foam and food coloring.















Squirt the foam onto a tray to the size and shape of your paper.
Using droppers, add two or three food colors (or liquid watercolors, which we also used).

Swirl everything gently with a skewer, a comb, or a feather into gentle shapes - not just big circles. And try not to make mud! This is one of those things where 'less is more.'

Now lay the paper gently on top of the foam and pat down all over with the palm of your hand.

Lift the paper and gently scrape off the excess foam into a bowl with an old credit card. Allow to dry. Beautiful!

The second method involves liquid starch, alum, and acrylic paint. Needless to say, our older campers tackled this one - and loved the results! We used the instructions found here:  https://skiptomylou.wordpress.com/2008/05/25/marbelizing-paper/ 

You can use your marbled paper to make things like cards and covers or end papers for your own handmade books. Drew made these gorgeous book markers from both types of marbled paper.

Concoctions, Slime, and Sand - Oh No!

Messy, crazy fun! That's what this week was all about.

We made flubber, and then we had flubber races (which we discovered are very, very slow - like watching paint dry).

We also pounded it, squished it, and cut it with scissors. Flubber is a polymer, which we decided is a liquid AND and solid too!












Our older campers made galaxy slime!

They also made sand castings, which they then painted.

We squirted water on bleeding tissue to make tissue paintings that looked like stained glass!

The we added glitter after they were dry (just for more messy fun!)







We painted with puffy paint, then we microwaved it!




(Funny - after we were done, everyone was in the mood for pancakes!)





We also made Artists Trading Cards (ATCs), some of which are shown here.

Notice the lovely blended subtle colors and bold lines! These were drawn with Sharpies on coffee filters, then colored with crayola markers and sprayed with water! After they dried, we used the ATC template to trace a card shape over the best part of each design, cut it out, and glue to cardstock.

This is not all we did during concoctions week. The last project deserves a post all of its own! Hint: Whirls and Swirls!

Make Your Own Toys!

This week we made TOYS!!!!!

Yep, it's true. We made balancing robots that can balance on the tip of a pencil or even on your nose!

We made a fishing game... and then we went FISHIN'!!!

We made ring toss games!

We made custom designed helicopters that really fly!

We made sun visors from paper plates and wore them to play indoor balloon tennis, which we also made!

We made mazes from paper plates, pipe cleaners, and anything else we could dream up. Then we made more mazes out of recycled CD cases.

We made a floating ball toy, an origami cyclops eye, and flexagon fidget toys.

We even made pompom catapults!!!

Best of all, we had a GREAT time, playing games and having fun with toys that the children made themselves. That's what a MakerSpace is all about, and we are proud to offer it to the Blackfoot community!