Saturday, May 25, 2019

Indian Ponies!


Sometimes our classes paint by request. The kids become attracted to certain paintings hanging in the studio, so I adjust them for even the youngest artists to successfully paint in a 1-1/2 hour art class. 


For example, this Indian Pony (acrylic on canvas) has inspired a lot of interest, so we painted it in tempera paint on 135 lb watercolor paper. 

The kids were so excited!




We started by drawing the shape of the horse's head using a secret tool to help them draw it LARGE.

(The secret tool is a flip-flop, adult size large, which is amazingly similar to the shape of a horse's head!)





The next step was to paint the background. We decided on a simple blue sky, so we did this by double-loading our brushes with both blue and white paint. 



Now it was time to look at lots of photos of horses and decide what type of markings and colors our horses will have. 











Then we selected our paint colors, mixed more colors on our palettes, and painted away! Finally, we added the mane and the facial details, and we dried the painting. 







Now for the really fun part! We added the war paint.


War paint could be added with the fingers in the same way Indians painted their ponies.






Some artists used brushes as well as fingers to apply the paint. 


The last step was to add a few feathers. Some chose to paint them on, and others glued on real feathers! 
















Thursday, May 23, 2019

Watercolor Still Life


These are large format watercolor still life paintings (18" x 24") created by middle school students during after school open studio time on Wednesday afternoons. 

We used liquid and pan watercolors on heavy weight cold-press watercolor paper.

This is my sample, which I painted along with the kids.






First we set up the still life. Everyone had a chance to decide if an object should be added or removed and where to place each item on the still life "stage." 

This was our final still life arrangement. 




Next, we sketched the still life lightly with pencil and added a simple checkerboard pattern to represent the quilt, which we painted first using any colors desired. 


Our goal was not to duplicate the still life, but to create an original, interesting, colorful still life painting using the still life as our model. The artists chose to add or remove or rearrange within their compositions, as well as what type of color scheme would work the best. 

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Spring Floral Bouquets


More flowers! 

This time, we painted little bouquets of flowers in the style of French Impressionist Berthe Morisot, a 19th century contemporary of Claude Monet and Mary Cassatt. Our goal for this painting was to paint in a new way using thick, rich colors. 

To do this, we broke 3 common painting rules:




1) Draw your composition first. Instead we blocked in the basic shapes with black paint on a brush.
2) Use water to thin your colors and clean your brushes. We used NO water at all.
3) Blend colors on a palette. We blended tints and colors right on our painting, and we cleaned our brushes on a table mat.




The modern expressionist/abstract artist Paul Klee once said, "The painter should not paint what he sees, but what will be seen."







Our goal was to paint our impression of floral subject, not the actual subject itself. We were not looking for a photographic duplication. 






We would instead translate the shapes, forms, light, and colors into a piece of artwork that is simple, colorful, personal, and enjoyable for others to look at.
































My sample and two demos >






















I think the kids succeeded beautifully; and most of them seemed to enjoy breaking the rules too - which is an artist's privilege.

Our thanks to Painted Paper Art for this exciting art project idea! 




Project notes: We used liquid tempera paint on sulphite construction paper with one round and one flat brush to create these paintings. The completed 11" x 11" paintings are mounted on 12" x 12" black sulphite construction paper.