The theme of the last camp was called Storybook Wonders and each project was inspired by the techniques of children illustrators.
Growing up my mother would always tell me I needed to do something with my art, however I knew I would never be a famous artist and felt that was the only way to make a living doing art. I had no idea how many opportunities were available to 'do something with my art' while being able to sustain myself independently as an adult and so I went to University to get a 'practical' degree in PR and was miserable.
It wasn't until thumbing through a Mademoiselle magazine that I happened upon an article titled, "A Day in the Life of an Art Director" that made me realize the perfect job was out there for me.
I immediately left university and headed to art school with a focus solely on putting together a portfolio so I could become an Art Director.
My hope with this camp was for children to realize that there is a vast array of ways to make a living as an artist and that they don't have to go to a museum or gallery to appreciate art, they simply need to open one of their children's books.
I started the week with author/illustrator, David Wiesner. While collecting information on his work, I happened across his biography where it mentions how he sometimes creates three-dimensional models of objects he cannot observe in real life.
Perfect!
I always like to present some sort of sculpture project and so I knew using Wiesner's books were the perfect match to make that happen. I focused on his book, "Flotsam". A wordless book that allows a child's imagination to create the story from Weisner's visual narrative.
Each child started by creating their own imaginary character in air dry clay which they then painted.
flying leopard, 10 year old
polka dotted dog, 5 year old
pterodactyl with jet pack, 7 year old
Bunny, 7 year old
Diddly Doo, 8 year old
one pink eyed dog, 5 year old
flying snowman, 5 year old
flying snake, 7 year old
"cougie" the cougar, 6 year old
flying snowman with winged toque, 9 year old
Once they created their three dimensional models, each child created a narrative acrylic painting using their sculpture as reference.
They really enjoyed this process and there was a lot of animated discussions amongst themselves as they worked out their stories while sketching.
It was a great way for them to create an imaginative painting and seemed to add an extra sense of importance to their original sculptures, making both artworks special to them.
I tried to record their stories as they finished and described them to me, let's hope I do them justice in this blog as sometimes they were talking faster than I could write......
Flying Pterodactyl, 7 year old
"Pterodactyl saved the world from getting smashed by power balls and forcefields made out of electric balls."
What an amazing amount of detail going on in this narrative painting! I think the viewer has such a lot to draw on to create their own story from this child's creation. He and his friend had a great time discussing their works of art while creating them.
flying snake, 7 year old
"Flying snake trying to save the world. He shoots cannons out of his jets that makes him fly. There is a flighting yellow wing bird he's up against."
You can certainly tell these two are good friends. At first I thought they were both doing flying dinosaurs, as there are elements of their stories that are very similar. I was thrilled to see though that each brought their own unique character to their art.
flying snowman, 5 year old
"Flying snowman lives on Mars. He has a flashlight on top of his helmet so he can see in deep, dark space as he is journeying to the moon."
Don't get me started on how cute this painting is! This young artist has the most vivid imagination when it comes to storytelling and so many times I am left speechless as he tells me about his artworks. This one was no exception. I love the color choices and the sweet composition he created while his snowman is flying through space. Just check out those stars!!!
cougie the cougar, 6 year old
"Cougie the Cougar is up against a giant black spider swinging a wrecking ball who is trying to destroy the world. Cougie will save us all by head butting the spiders tummy until he is defeated"
I love the choice this artist made to keep the giant spider in silhouette, along with the swinging wrecking ball. It makes the enemy all that more ominous to me. And the choice to make Cougie the one lone warm color on the paper was brilliant. What great instinct this little artist had while creating his story.
Diddly Doo, 8 year old
"Diddly Doo lived in a cave on the hillside. There is a chute he can use from a giant tree root to slide down into the cave. Diddly Doo never sleeps."
He had me at "Diddly Doo". How awesome is that name? And the color choices? They are playful and charming, just like his character. And that night sky! Is it not lovely as night is turning into day? Love each and every artistic choice he made in this piece.
Bunny, 7 year old
"Bunny lived in a carrot. When he walked through the carrot patch, the carrots turned into houses"
Dear me, this story. When her three dimensional character was an ordinary bunny, I was wondering what she would do to make it "unreal" and then she made her painting. Silly me for ever questioning if there would not be an unreal, imaginative element to her artwork. She never ceases to amaze me.
flying snowman, 9 year old
Unfortunately this artist had to leave early every day for a soccer camp and I did not record his story prior to him leaving on the last day. Hopefully his mother will see this post and leave a comment where he tells us more about his story. Until then, as viewers we get to make up our own narrative.
Love the color choices and again, what a great job he did with that night sky and moon. Absolutely love the way the main character, flying snowman, if the focus between the two buildings.
one pink eyed dog, 5 year old
"Pink eyed dog is not a good sharer. She takes all the balls."
This very young artist had A LOT of balls to paint which quickly became overwhelming to her. So I showed her how she could put paint on the paintbrush, push it down on the paper and turn to create circles quickly. Depending on how much pressure she put on the brush determined how big the ball would be. She loved making circles this way and the project went from overwhelming to her wishing she had more space to add "balls".
polka dotted dog, 5 year old
"Polka dotted dog likes to swim in the lake in an inner tube"
This child loved mixing colors and had a good time adding a variety to her artwork. Because she was mixing directly on the paper, she created a lot of different and interesting values in her tints. Because she listened so well about painting her background first and then painting over top to create the mid and foreground, she ended up with a very neat piece. I quickly showed her how to "scribble in" the water to make it look like there was ripples as her interest level began to wane. This artwork just melts my heart it is so darn cute.
flying leopard, 10 year old
"Flying leopard chases away the rain clouds"
That this artist decided to do a leopard is no surprise, she loves leopards. I love that she decided to make it fly and of course adding the light behind the leopard just adds to the sense that the character is saving a summer day from being ruined by rain. Rain clouds never had a chance against this sweet but frightening flying leopard.
If Wiesner ever sees these works of art inspired by his illustrations, I hope he is as impressed as I am with the kids work. They so enjoyed creating these and I think were excited to learn about how this award winning children's author/illustrator creates his books.
I believe there is more than one award winning story just waiting to be flushed out in these artworks too. Don't you?
thank you to the children's librarian at the Lynn Valley branch for all their help in finding the long list of books I wanted for this camp.
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