We don't focus too much on drawing skills - this project is more about learning to work with oil pastels to blend colors to create shades and highlights, and adding texture such as fur, feathers, softness, roughness, etc. to the image.
An online journal of the Blackfoot Art Center, located in the small Southeastern Idaho community of Blackfoot. Our goals are to inspire artistic exploration, encourage creative growth, and foster curiosity and excitement about the visual arts.
Saturday, April 30, 2022
Critters in Oil Pastel!
We don't focus too much on drawing skills - this project is more about learning to work with oil pastels to blend colors to create shades and highlights, and adding texture such as fur, feathers, softness, roughness, etc. to the image.
Thursday, April 21, 2022
Rabbits and Wildflowers
To celebrate Spring, we painted these wild rabbits!
Over the years, this wary little rabbit, venturing out into a meadow of yummy treats, has become a favorite painting project!
Whenever we paint these wild rabbits our young artists particularly enjoy painting the dandelion seed pods floating around while their rabbits are munching on goodies.
These little fellows were painted with liquid tempera paint on lightweight, rough (not slick) poster board, 16 by 22 inches.
We used a variety of painting "implements" for the wildflowers, such as round sponges and frayed cardboard tubes. We used round stiff brushes and plastic scrubbers for the dandelion seed pods. After all, an artist is not confined to brushes alone!
We used Sharpies for the finishing touches, such as a bit of outlining and (of course) whiskers!
In an earlier weblog post, I included an original poem about our painted dandelion rabbits. My hope was, and is, to inspire young artists to write something creative about their artwork or to select some of their own creative writing to illustrate with a painting or drawing.
Friday, April 08, 2022
An ART Explosion!
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Cherry Blossoms!
These cheery little vases of cherry blossoms remind us that spring is here!
These are tempera paintings on grey paper, painted in the style of early 20th century Russian artist Natalia Goncharova.
You can learn more about how we did them on our earlier post, Cheery Cherry Blossoms! or you can download detailed instructions (pdf) from Painted Paper Art.
Monday, March 21, 2022
More Dragons!
Fantasy subjects such as, (and especially!) DRAGONS, are a popular art subject among many young artists.
The dragons were sketched in, painted with watercolor, and outlined with ink. Then details were added using Sharpies, metallic markers, and glitter pens. Finally, a background was painted in with liquid watercolors.
Take a look at our earlier Dragon post to see more spectacular dragon artwork!
Saturday, March 12, 2022
More Animals in Snugly Sweaters!
Wolf in a Snugly Sweater |
Our last winter art lesson of the year:
Animals in Snugly Sweaters!
So cute, and such a great art lesson, too!
Students learned to observe and sketch wildlife and how to work with ink to create facial details and furry textures.
Then they designed a nice warm winter sweater for their furry woodland friends!
For more details and how-to's, see our original weblog post, Animals in Snugly Sweaters.
Squirrel in a Snugly Sweater |
Bear in a Snugly Sweater |
Thursday, March 10, 2022
Beautiful Snowy Alpines!
Friday, March 04, 2022
We Love Penguins!
Who doesn't love Penguins?
Here's a cute little penguin saying hello!
This momma penguin watches over the little ones as the snow swirls around her.
All of these penguins were created on white sulfite paper with charcoal, pastels, and black ink, then cut out and glued to a painted and splattered background.
You can find our original posts about making penguin art here and here.
Friday, February 25, 2022
Frolicking Snowmen!
What do snowmen do at night?
They have FUN!
Skiing, snowboarding, tubing, and sledding!
Ahhh! Is this paradise?
What could be better for a snowman family than a house made of ice?
These 12" x 18" artworks consists of soft pastels and pastel pencils on blue construction paper. See our original post, Snowmen Having Fun for details about how to create this artwork.
Friday, February 18, 2022
More Painted Hearts
This week in honor of Valentine's Day, we created these fun Painted Hearts!
This Paint Like the Masters lesson has grown to be one or our favorites. Our hearts are (loosely) painted like those of Jim Dine, a contemporary American artist who has painted oodles of colorful, playful abstract hearts, many of which are gigantic!
Most of our hearts were painted on small 7-1/2 by 9 inch poster board, which was great because it allowed us more time to paint more hearts!
The main thing is to be playful and have fun making these awesome painted hearts!
Check out this step-by-step painting lesson in our original 2020 post: Painted Hearts. And here's a printable step-by-step pdf of this lesson. Have fun!
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Celebrating Polar Bears!
During the past few years, we have created a variety of polar bear-themed works of art to celebrate International Polar Bear Day on February 27.
If you love polar bears as much as we do, you might want to try some of these polar bear art ideas yourself!
Our preschoolers were so excited to paint these BIG polar bears! All we needed was 22" x 28" blue poster board, black and white tempera paint, water, a big flat brush for the white paint, and a round brush for black details and outlines.
These fuzzy little polar bears were created using chalk, soft pastels, oil pastels, a splattered watercolor background, and collage techniques.
Each little bear has a unique personality!
These polar bear mommas and cubs are so sweet, and also colorful! We discovered reflected colors in the fur of polar bears and used our artistic license to show those colors. Fun fact: polar bear fur actually has no white pigment at all; each hair is hollow. Look closely and you'll actually see all sorts of reflected colors in polar bear coats, from oranges and pinks to yellows, blues, and violets.
These polar bears are wandering the Arctic under the Northern Lights, which are made of blended soft pastels on black construction paper. We completed the background and while it dried we drew our bears, cut them out and glued them into their cold arctic homes.
Polar Bear Portraits in Soft Pastel
Our homeschoolers created these furry polar bears with white soft pastels on black construction paper. Then they cut them out and glued them to icy winter backgrounds that were made with wet-on-wet watercolor techniques and salt.
We hope you'll celebrate polar bears with us through your art! You might also want to consider supporting wildlife conservation organizations, which work hard to save some of the world's most endangered species - including these amazing arctic mammals.