Giant Snowmen!

We built these giant snowmen!

And we also learned about perspective. That is, you can look at something ordinary in a whole new way - even from the view of a worm!

We used a watercolor wash to paint the background, and oil pastels to add the snowman's details.

The best part: we learned how to use washable markers like watercolors! Draw with them, then paint with water over them, and they will "bleed" colors.

We used black markers to draw our snowmen that bled blue, turquoise, and mostly green! We decided these snowmen are very realistic - they are full of grass, leaves, and pine needles -  just like real snowmen!

The Snowy North

Here are some more versions of one of our favorite winter projects: the Snowy North.

This is a mixed media project with lots of steps and processes.

These artists chose the wolf and the mountain lion for their animal silhouettes.  





Madi is practicing with the fan brush before painting in her evergreen tree silhouettes. The goal was to build a natural tree shape in the correct size for the painting with an unfamiliar brush.  



Before painting in the trees, we added an animal using a template. Many went with the wolf shape, and some of them rendered it further to look like a fox.









The last step is to add your favorite quote about snow.

You can see how this project is created on our 2017 Snowy North post. 

The Grinch!

The Grinch is still trying to steal Christmas!

This is a simplified children's art class version of our Grinchy canvas painting. 

Instead of acrylic paint, we used mixed media to create this artwork.






We started by drawing the Grinch's arm in pencil on black construction paper; just the basic shapes. 


Then we painted the sooty red sleeve with the white fur and added a bit of gray to it. We used tempera paint for this.







Next, we painted the Grinch's hand green. After that we layered a mixture of yellow-green with a bristle brush, using a dry brush technique to create a furry texture. Then we did it again with yellow.  






While our paint dried, we made a big round ornament on heavy white paper. We used oil pastel, choosing three shades of one color and blending with a finger. Then we cut it out.   


We BROKE the ornament by cutting it and removing a piece from the center. We glued it to the black background just beneath the hand, and added a metallic (Sharpie) hanger and white shiny marks to make the ornament look like glass.

This Grinch has had a busy night; the fur is falling from his jacket!

The fur texture on the Grinch's hand is tricky and fun to create.

Winter Cardinals

These beautiful little cardinals snuggle up on a snowy branch in this frosty winter landscape.

To create this painting, we first taped a large piece of watercolor paper to our painting board. Then we painted the paper with clear water and added liquid watercolors to create a wash of wintry colors.



While our backgrounds dried, we practiced drawing tree branches and the cardinals. Then we painted in the branches in tempera and added bark and texture with oil pastels.



Next we painted in our little cardinals. We didn't draw them first; we just painted the basic teardrop shape above the branch and the tail below, then filled them in with red tempera. Then we added the facial features, the feet, and the tail feathers.


We dried the paint thoroughly, then we added thick white tempera paint along the tops of the branches to create a layer of fluffy snow. Finally, we dotted the sky with falling snowflakes!

These girls know this painting would have taken a lot longer without our trusty blow driers! 


I just love these cheerful little paintings!

Ginger Bag Houses!

We made these awesome Ginger Bag Houses out of lunch bags! 

This was a super-fun S.T.E.A.M. project. It was all about planning, designing, and constructing (that's engineering) and, of course, ART! 


First we selected our elemental designs:  doors, windows, trees, and candies. Then we colored the items, cut them out, and glued them to the lunch bag house. 

Here are our printable house details (pdf) such as windows, doors, chimneys, and roofs. Just print, and choose your favorites! Next, you'll need these printable candies and cookies (pdf) to decorate your Ginger Bag House. Of course, you can draw your own, too. 

We stuffed the bag with newspaper and stapled the roof to the top.  Finally, we added thick white tempera paint for the look of icing or snow.

Ginger Bag Houses are even more fun to make with your grandma!

A Home-School Christmas

Our Home School ART Club made beautiful tooled foil birds. 

These can be hung as Christmas tree ornaments or several could be hung on a mobile. 









A bird template was printed for each artist and traced with a pointed wood tool to a sheet of heavy-gauge tooling foil. The project was first placed on a piece of felt to provide a bit of cushion for the tooling process. 






The artists then tooled patterns within each section to resemble feathers and/or artistic textures as desired. They flipped the foil from the silver to the gold side as they worked to create 3-dimensional textures and patterns.






After the tooling was completed, they could choose to leave them as is, or to add color.  

Sharpies preserved the shiny surface and worked well as long as the artists was patient and didn't press too hard (which might damage the tooling).







Craft (acrylic) paint filled in the spaces more easily. The paint dried to a mat finish over which additional patterns could added.

(Note: The 3-D bird can be painted after assembly as another option.)





Once completed (tooled and colored or not), the bird parts are carefully cut out and assembled. The wings and tail are crimped to the body and stapled in place. Then we punched a hole on top of the wings and strung a wire hanger through it. 

We found that adjusting the wings helped to balance our birds.

Thank you to United Art and Education for this great project idea.

Home school art club members have plenty of open studio time as well. They work on all sorts of self-directed projects during this time, such as Joseph's mixed media painting, The Three Kings, shown below.

Handmade Tree Ornaments

We made these beautiful tree ornaments!


We crafted Christmas button trees, made wood-cookie Rudolf ornaments, and painted natural wood animal shapes. 


Most of all, we had fun!

Here's what we used to make button tree ornaments - plus a little hot glue around the outer edges to hold the felt front and back pieces together.






Rudolf was made from wood cookies, twigs, fun foam, googly eyes, shiny pompoms, and glue.

Here is a basket of wooden animal, insect, and bird shapes ready to paint.

 








We used craft paint for the shapes and maybe a little glitter. (Or a lot of glitter.)