This book was the first I knew for sure I would be using for the camp. I love the Canadian history involved in the story and the kids sat riveted while I shared it with them. More than once they actually had to ask if it was a true story, as it was exciting for them to learn that Winnie the Pooh is in fact, Canadian. Well I guess in reality Winnie the Pooh is a dual citizen but the kids were mighty proud to focus on the fact that he shares Canadian citizenship with them!
"Finding Winnie" is the true story of a little bear who was bought for $20.00 by a Canadian solider getting ready to ship off to Europe during World War I. This little bear becomes a morale booster for the troop and travels across the ocean with them. However the soldier thought it would be too dangerous for the little bear to ship off to France with them and so the London Zoo offers to care for the bear. Winnie becomes a highlight at the zoo for visitors, where they were actually allowed to pet and feed the bear! Can you imagine that happening today?
Anyway one the visitors who came to visit was A.A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin. The little boy so loved the bear that he named his stuffed bear after him.
And the rest is history!
Sophie Blackall, Finding Winnie
The story was perfect. The illustrations are a beautiful combination of watercolor and colored pencil, a perfect inspired artist project for the children to explore at camp.
However the part I was most excited about was what I learned by reading Sophie Blackall's blog. There are several entries where she shares with the reader the immense amount of research she did before creating the artwork. What a great thing to share with the kids!
I think a lot of people just think artist sit down and paint pretty pictures, yet many artist spend an enormous amount of time researching and learning about their subject matter prior to sitting down to draw and such was the case with this book.
The book has several photographs at the end of the actual bear and materials associated with the book and along with pointing this out to the kids, I also shared Blackall's blog entry about creating the ship crossing to Europe.
Then I put out a bunch of old photographs I had in the studio for the children to use to create their own illustrative artwork.
10 year old
This artist used a sepia photo of my silly bulldog, Suzy-Q. In the photo she was lying on her back with an amusing expression on her face that captivated the artist. She took that face and put her bulldog under a bed, wearing a mustache disguise and guarding a giant blueberry.
Each child used a combination of watercolor and colored pencil. In this case, I showed the artist how to allow the watercolor to run on the paper to create the bed skirt and then go in with the pencil to highlight the natural folds created.
6 year old
I love this piece because this child got completely lost in the process. He had an original sketch that was forgotten as he blended colors and just added water and color and watched them blend. Afterwards I gave him a water-soluble pencil that he could go back in and draw. He didn't realize the pencil reacted with water until I gave him a bowl of water and told him to wet the brush and go over his pencil lines. He was so surprised and had fun once again using the water and brush. Finally he added color pencil and lo and behold, created this darling little monster.
7 year old
The two amigos, the pair of friends who spent the week enjoying creating similar paintings. This time they were drawn to a reference picture of a little penguin hiding in a cave. Can you find their penguins? I love the scale and the sense of vulnerability you feel viewing their works of art.
7 year old
So many stories are waiting to be told about this little penguin and why it is hiding in a cave among giant trees in a forest.
5 year old
These two blue birds were created by sisters. Aren't they sweet? Love that the younger one wanted to be like her big sister and what an amazing big sister she is to her! She eagerly helped her sister by drawing next to her and these two lovely works are the result. Love that they used the same reference picture yet came up with two pictures that show off their own unique styles of drawing and painting.
7 year old
These two young artist had fun using the watercolors.
5 year old
During the week, this artist truly loved mixing colors. She used her polka dotted dog as the subject, the dog she created in the Wiesner's inspired art project. Do you see it in there?
5 year old
There was quite a story being told with this young artists' picture. Unfortunately I just caught bits and pieces of it while he shared it with the two amigos privately.
8 year old
And finally this eight year old boy, who obviously liked learning about the research Sophie Blackall did for the boats in "Finding Winnie" so much, that he honed in on a vintage photograph I had of a freighter coming into Vancouver harbor. What's not to like about this beautiful work of art?
The kids enjoyed experimenting with the watercolor. I think going back into the painting with another medium is something they had not thought of before and liked being able to add details with the pencils. But most importantly, they learned a valuable lesson in taking the time to learn about the subject they wanted to draw- whether that was doing research or gathering photographs.
They went home with lovely pieces of art, fans of Sophie Blackall's illustrations and proud of the Canadian connection to one of the most beloved children's stories ever, Winnie the Pooh.
No comments:
Post a Comment