More Abstract Art

Our exploration of abstract art has been so much fun, and we are not done yet! We also painted these layered abstract pieces, suitable for framing.

These large format tempera paintings are brimming with bold shapes, patterns, and colors!  

We used heavy duty watercolor paper, 18" x 18" square before being taped around the edges. The final compositions were about 14-1/4 inches square (depending upon the width of the masking tape) within a nice white border.

For detailed instructions, please see our earlier post: Awesome Abstract Art.

In addition to our layered abstract artwork, we also created EXPLODING ART books! Also known as SQUASH books, these innocent little books are hiding an explosion of art excitement! 

These little gems are so much fun to make too. Start by making a bold piece of abstract art on a piece of 12" by 18" drawing or white construction paper. We used watercolors, metallic markers, and Sharpies for ours.

After they're dry, cut them up into squares, then cut some in half again to make triangles. Assemble your book by making two cardboard covers and then gluing the artwork pieces to folded construction paper inside the book. 

Here is a video showing how to make art explosion books, step-by-step. 

Oops!  

You may decide you love your abstract artwork so much you can't bear to cut it up.  Don't despair! Simply find a color copier and have your art copied and printed (in two halves if necessary - the cost is minimal), then cut up the copies and proceed to make your squash book!

For more about Art Explosion Books, 

take a look at our past weblog posts here and here. 

Abstract Art!

We decided to start off the New Year with some ABSTRACT ART making. 

We started our exploration of abstract art with these patterned cardboard collages. These are made by gluing corrugated cardboard strips and scraps to a square of cardboard, then painting the sections in various colors and patterns. 

Cardboard pieces are glued down with ordinary white glue (no need for hot glue), and painting can begin prior to the glue drying completely. 

You can use liquid tempera or acrylic paint; either type should sufficiently cover the corrugated cardboard. If a color seems too transparent, you can paint the substrate white first, then proceed with your choice of color.

The result is a colorful, unique, 3-dimensional work of art!

Next, we got a little (okay, a lot) more experimental with some playful layered abstract art. Working in layers on a square piece of white poster board, we used a variety of painting techniques, including brayer rolling, stamping, sponging, splattering, or whatever else we could think of, along with a little collage work. 

We decided on a theme along the way and incorporated it into the
piece along with a few descriptive words and/or illustrative images. 

Tip: Our artists found it's best to select a few analogous colors first, then add one complementary color to spice it up. It's more pleasing to the eye than attempting to use an entire rainbow of color!

We also made some circle & line abstract art in the style of Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. 

For these, we used masking tape, lids (to trace), cake temperas, and Sharpies on 12 x 18 drawing paper.

We decided that abstract art is not only fun to look at, but also fun to make!

Abstract Triangle Art

We decided to start the new year with some abstract art exploration. Our first explorations were these painted watercolor triangle collages. 

Pretty spectacular, aren't they? 

Lots of fun to make as well. Little did we know (for all those "I'll never use math" naysayers) that we would use plenty of math - specifically geometry and algebra - to complete these, without even knowing it. 

For example, how do right triangles, equilateral triangles, acute and obtuse triangles fit together evenly, while leaving equal spacing between each piece? Tricky - and fun! 

Also, knowing how large to make the substrate for the amount of painted/cut paper to be glued on it was another problem to figure out. 

Of course, running out of space would mean not using all of the collage pieces. Not enough pieces would mean cutting down the substrate to fit. In art, either solution is okay!   

We also made rules - such as cutting out triangles only for this piece. And none of them should touch - we tried to leave even spacing between each shape. 

Smaller cut, puzzle-like elements. Artist age 8

Abstract paintings were created with liquid watercolor (mostly using wet-on-wet techniques) on student-grade 90 lb. watercolor paper. Collages were then glued to black or white square poster board.

Learn more about this abstract art project on our earlier post.

Christmas Car Cards

We made Christmas cars ... and turned them into Christmas cards!

I just love how they turned out!

After completing the artwork, I took picture each one and formatted them to fit on a piece of folded colored card stock. Then I had them printed at our local print shop on premium white paper.

Of course, I could have printed them myself, but placing two art pics on one sheet of paper is so inexpensive to print compared to using a home printer, and the color is beautiful and dependable.

Cut the art prints to leave about 1/4 inch all the way around.

 

Our images were 5.25" x 7" for 5.5" by 7.25" cards (folded). Of course, your dimensions are up to you.

Simply cut them out and glue them on the face of the folded cards. We used glue sticks so they would stay flat and not wrinkle.

Now you can write in them as they are, Or, for darker cardstock, you can fold a slightly smaller sheet of white sheet of paper inside for your message. Simply add a dab of glue to the paper near the center fold to keep it in place.

For detailed instructions to create your own Christmas Car paintings, you can visit our previous weblog posts:

Christmas Cars

More Christmas Cars

We used purchased (5.75" x 8.75") peel & stick greeting card envelopes, which you can find at any stationary or big box store - ours came from Walmart. 

Pet Paintings

Choncho, 11" x 14" (artist age 10)

We painted pet portraits!

These artists tried an acrylic painting on canvas for the very first time.

These are painted on 11" x 14" stretched canvases. We used simple drawings traced to the canvas from b/w photo enlargement printouts. We also used at least two color resource photos to refer to as we created our palettes and painted the images on canvas. It helped to have at least one photo on an electronic device so that it could be enlarged enough to see and paint furry details.

Athena, 11" x 14" (adult artist)

Kitty, 11" x 14" (adult artist)

Josie, 11" x 14" (adult artist)

Pug, by B - age 10 (colored pencil)

Just for the fun of it, our younger artist decided to also try her hand at depicting her doggy subject in colored pencil. The result is this super expressive drawing that looks like a caricature. Wow!

The Colors of Autumn

Early October near McCammon, Idaho

The beautiful colors of autumn make it my favorite time of the year. I love leaf-peeping, fall photography, and of course, making colorful autumn art! I try to get in a few hikes during the peak of fall colors in "my neck of the woods," such as this photo: a perfect reference pic for a future painting!

Our most recent open studio sessions have consisted of fall-themed art-making, such as this this richly hued autumn scene of a country road meandering through the woods.

The artist, age 10, worked with soft pastels to create this piece, called "A Fall Walk in the Woods." You can see another post with more examples of this project here and a video showing how to draw it here.

We call these cheery birch tree paintings "The Colors of the Wind." We know we can't see the wind on a blustery day, but we can see the leaves swirling around and we can imagine the colors of the wind. To make create these, we first painted the backgrounds, then we painted, cut out, and glued our tree trunks and branches right over the painting. Fun for any age! Find out more about painting your own Colors of the Wind right here.

Most recently, we created these sunlit paintings of a walking path through the woods in autumn, with plenty of falling leaves and a cute little park bench so you can rest your feet. 

Notice how each painting of this basic scene differs from the others. The colors, the highlights and shadows, the pathways, the trees, the falling leaves, and the styles of the park benches are all based on the original ideas and creativity of the artist.  

If you would like to paint or teach someone to paint this colorful autumn scene, you can learn more in our original weblog post, Park Bench.

Birch Trees at Sunset
watercolor greeting card, by Braylie, age 10

Candy Candy Candy

Dots, tempera paint on paper

It's all about the candy! 

Actually, I loved Halloween because of the costumes. I loved that mother made ours and later I could make my own.

But later, in the end, it really was all about the candy! 

As a tradition around here - after the big night - we make candy art! We save a few leftovers to use as our candy still life subjects. (Then of course, it gets eaten.) 

Leftovers, mixed media on paper

We place our candy pieces on a tiny 'stage,' usually just 3 or 4 inches square. Then we copy the image lightly in pencil to a square piece of drawing paper, anywhere from 7" x 7" to 10" x 10" or even larger. 

The challenge is enlarging the tiny subjects on the tiny square proportionally to the large square. It's easy to draw too small.

Sweets, mixed media on paper

We have found that it helps to draw two pencil lines on the the tiny stage dividing it into quarters before placing the candy on it. Do the same to the drawing paper and then draw what is seen in each quarter.

After the initial drawing is completed, simply fill in the colors with art media of your choice: temperas, colored pencil, pastel pencil, charcoal pencil, etc.

When finished, erase your pencil guide lines and stray drawing lines. Then smear a bit of charcoal and/or charcoal pencil in the background to give the table surface some color and create shadows beneath and around the candies. 

Tip: if you are meticulous and cannot depend on your candy stage lasting forever, or if you may not finish your candy artwork in just one sitting, it may help to take a picture of your candy still life (from directly above, of course) for later. Have fun!!!

For more student samples and detailed instructions, see our previous post.

Halloween Workshops for Kids

Our Halloween Workshops are always so much fun! This year we made Silly Halloween Blackheads, Moveable Mummies, Freaky Fuzzy Spiders, Batty Bats, and our very most favoritist of all: Halloween Inchies!

These Silly Halloween Blockheads are made from wood scraps and various craft supplies, such as Fun Foam shapes, googly eyes, pom poms, and pipe cleaners. First they are painted (we use acrylic paint), then the other items are glued on 

over the dried paint.

 

Moveable Mummies are made from flexible garden wire, gauze (or strips of muslin), googly eyes, and are held together with a dab of hot glue after being wound up and wrapped.

Batty Bats are made from cardboard tubes (we covered them with black tissue paper), black construction paper, googly eyes, pipe cleaners (optional) and metallic markers.

Halloween Inchies are tiny works of art that are fun to make and can be displayed separately or in a group or in a grid pattern on a piece of poster board. 

Ours are each 4" x 4."

These Freaky Fuzzy Spiders were a favorite for this guy. He used pipe cleaners, pom poms, googly eyes, and hot glue. He even made a wearable web for his smallest spider, and a Spider Inchie, too. (Note: every spider appearing in this post was made by this amazing freaky-fuzzy-spider maker!)

This young artist created a cute portrait of her plush ghostly companion during open studio time. 

(Note - it would appear that there is a falling leave stuck in her hair! Actually, it's just an 

autumn-themed wall decoration behind her, created to set the mood.) 

Colorful Cactus Gardens

In keeping with our nature        journal drawing project, we created these beautiful mixed media cactus gardens planted in Mexican or native American inspired decorative pots. 

We had fun observing different types of small cacti to consider for our gardens, as well as various native American patterns for our pots as we planned our compositions. 

You'll need: 

a sheet of watercolor paper,      reference photos of cacti, a drawing pencil, fine and ultra fine black Sharpies, a watercolor board, masking tape, watercolors, and a few watercolor brushes of various sizes.

 

We started by sketching in our compositions lightly with pencil. We didn't put in every detail at this point; all we needed was to know what goes where and establish which cacti are in back and which are in front.  We also added a few lines in the pot patterns spikes in the cacti, just a few to show what they will look like.

Now the entire sketch is traced with your Sharpies, which will not run or blur when it gets wet. This is important for the next step. Be sure to add all of the details left out of the original sketch. 

Now you should have something that looks like a coloring book page for grownups! 

Tape your painting to a watercolor board (to keep it from wrinkling). You will fill in the background with two analogous colors (best to use liquid watercolors if your painting is larger than 9"x12"). We blended one color into the other from top to bottom, such as yellow to orange or blue to violet using a wet-on-wet technique. 

Then, once the background has dried (we used a blow dryer) you'll begin mixing various shades and tones of green for your cacti. Paint them in, and then fill in the rest of your painting as desired. After the paint is dry, you can go over some of your ink lines again if they don't seem dark enough.

NOTES: Creating this little cactus garden helps young students plan a composition, gain confidence with ink (Sharpies), blend a background using two or more analogous colors, use Native American-inspired patterns in artwork, and plan a color harmonious scheme. It is also a great way to encourage using the watercolor palette wells for mixing watercolors instead of simply painting with the colors directly out of the pans. We mixed a variety of greens to paint the various types of cacti after observing from photos how different each shade or tone of green actually was.  See more cactus garden ideas from our earlier posts here and here.