Awesome Easter Baskets!

We love seasonal art projects; and this fun Easter basket was also a great skill-builder! 

As we worked on the project, we took note of each step and the skills being learned and/or practiced along the way. 

Some skills were easy and some were more challenging. 

For example, gluing, painting, and doodling are familiar skills. 

Tracing, cutting, resist painting, paper punching, and designing were more challenging for some artists, but fun to practice. 

Crimping, trimming (with funky scissors), and paper weaving were new skills for most, and very satisfying once accomplished! 

(What about shredding? Ah ha! I operated the amazing grass-making machine - also known as the paper shredder - for that!) 

Everyone had success creating this process-based art, and all were delighted with their amazing Easter baskets!

Our Little Artists made their own Easter Baskets, too!

Busy Easter Bunnies!

Our Paint Your ART Out kids created personal Easter Bunnies busily designing and painting Easter eggs! 

This is a large format tempera painting that incorporates mixed color tints, textures, collage elements, and personal details. 

The idea was to create a make-believe and/or cartoon image of the artist's own version of the Easter Bunny working away on those eggs. 


Other elements might include vases of flowers, designer clothing, and a messy paint palette on a sheet of newspaper (to catch the drips). 


We had so much fun with this project!  We'll be working in large format much more often in the coming weeks!

Wild Rabbits!

Rabbits are the perfect springtime painting subject!

These wild rabbits are busy munching on dandelions and peeking out of the tall grass for a quick look around.

The expressions on these rabbits' curious little faces are priceless!

We drew our basic rabbit shape, then mixed lots of lovely tints for the background. Then we painted our rabbit and added the facial details and whiskers. 

These large format tempera paintings were completed by adding grass, flowers, and dandelion seed pods floating away in the breeze.

My sample

Rainbows & Shamrocks!

St. Patrick's Day brings wearin' o' the green, pots of gold, shamrocks, and rainbows (at least according to the kids). 

So... we looked at a few photos of amazing rainbows and then we painted our own.  

We even added a few pots of gold - in fact one artist added three pots of gold, just to be sure! 

We also made Doodle Shamrocks! We painted our Irish-themed background, then we drew and doodled a three or four-leafed clover, cut it out, and glued it to our colorful background. One artist just had to add gold glitter as well for even MORE awesomeness! (Yes, I am still sweeping, vacuuming, and shaking it out of everything).

 

 

Plush Portraits

A plush toy or stuffed animal can be a child's best friend. Plushies have names and personalities, so they deserve a portrait! 






For this project, each child brought their favorite plush toy to pose for a very special pastel portrait. I am happy to report that all of our subjects sat very still while our artists drew and painted their  lovely portraits in soft and oil pastels. 

Steamy Hot Cocoa!

We sneaked in one last "wintery" art project for the year - these steamy hot mugs of cocoa! 

Of course, the lovely painted patterns were the plan, but adding the fun foam marshmallows and the tracing paper steam was a great finishing touch!