Earlier in the week, we had created Sophie Blackall inspired watercolors after looking at the children's book she illustrated called, "Finding Winnie". A true story of the little bear that inspired A.A. Milne's classic children's book, "Winnie the Pooh".
So knowing how much children enjoy creating artwork with the fountain pens and ink, I knew the perfect way to end a week of camp was allowing them to create an artwork inspired by E.H. Shepard's illustrations for Winnie the Pooh.
E.H. Shepard illustration
For this project, I told the kids to think back on all the different illustrations they had created during the week. Especially the many different characters they had drawn from their imaginations! I asked them to create a pen and ink picture of their very favorite past piece inspired by the style of E.H. Shepard.
They each seemed to enjoy relooking at all the art they had created during the week and picking out their favorite character to redraw in a new situation with a new technique and medium.
I had created a zine book for each of them if they wanted to create a story or they could create a picture that I then mounted to frame to remember their week at camp.
Unfortunately I do not have pictures of everything since these were being finished as parents were picking up on the last day of camp.
However you can get a sense of how endearing these final works of art were by the few samples I did manage to capture on film before they walked out the studio door.
This ten year old created both a book and a drawing for framing. She was very happy with both and was very adamant that I photograph both together.
10 year old
She chose to focus on her flying leopard who chases away rain clouds. Isn't the illustration charming when framed?
I did have colored inks available for the kids to hand color with also, which they loved.
8 year old
Although there is something quite lovely about the artworks where children make the decision to stick just with black ink too.
7 year old
I encouraged them to add typography to their artworks as part of the art. It seems to me they find it very freeing to be able to express themselves with writing without having to worry about the rules, strictly using letters as another design tool in their compositions. I have a personal affection for the charming way children spell when left to their own accord. I mean, how absolutely heart melting is "ones a pon time"?! In a million years I could not capture the absolute essence of childhood innocence if I tried in my own artwork.
7 year old
All week long this young artist explored bird drawings. I am so impressed with her decisions in this piece. The graphic nature of the bird shape, the decisive use of color and then again with the spelling! Be still my heart.
5 year old
And finally there is this picture. As if the artist did not capture my heart earlier in the week with a flying snowman in outer space wearing a flashlight helmet on his way to visit one of the moons on Mars, he then created this charming piece. Here we have the flying snowman with a couple of outer space friends. Can you believe the composition of this from a child so young? That both secondary characters are peeking into the artwork just makes me fall in love with the picture. Is this not a perfect picture to be hanging in a child's bedroom?
OK, I'll stop now. Suffice to say, I fell head over heels with this finished work. Those characters peeking into the work just slay me.
I wish I had the rest of the artworks to share with you. They were all equally as charming as the ones I had a chance to record.
This was the perfect way to end a really lovely week of camp.
The studio is now closed for the month of September. Classes will start up again in the fall and I'm looking forward to getting back into the groove of after school art classes. If you are interested in having your child join in the fun, you can check out the schedule at KudzuStudio.com. I will also be teaching two workshops through the North Vancouver Community Arts Council, one for adults and one for children creating silk painted scarves.
I'll begin posting projects again once the fall classes start.
Hope y'all enjoy your fall until then!
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