pastels of Vancouver underwater

I love doing pastels with students in camp.  It is a very nice end of the week activity, although messy, and interesting from my perspective to watch children apply all the different skills they have learned throughout the week into the art.

10 year old

They explore using line and directional strokes to create movement.

10 year old

They also understand the importance of layering color and how complimentary colors can enhance a work. They also apply drawing skills on how to break things down to shape and use observational skills while looking at reference.

Once they create a composition, they first use a black oil pastel to draw onto the black paper.

8 year old

Then using the chalk pastels, they create at least three layers of color without using their fingers to blend.

8 year old

At the end of the project if they want to blend with their finger, I encourage them to do so. They do not end up with a picture of mud this way or looking like they got into a fight with a rainbow wearing every color of chalk on their clothing.

11 year old

I'm always so impressed with the results. I think it has a lot to do with the self confidence the kids have built up during the week. The drawings created in the "Hello Vancouver" camp of some of our local underwater neighbors are no exception. Aren't they beautiful?

Dye Paintings and Chalk Pastel Drawings

I have realized if I don't start combining some of the projects from the camps and workshops I'm running, I might be writing, "What I did this summer" post well into November!!

So here are the last two projects completed in the "I Love Vancouver" camp held through the North Vancouver Community Arts Council.

First, dye paintings.

For this project, I decided to have the kids focus on some of the Vancouver residents who live under the water.

(I might of told them under the sea, just so we could break out in an impromptu "Little Mermaid" sing-a-long)

And once they took their fingers out of their ears due to my inability to carry a tune, we brainstormed the different water animals found either in our bays or at our beautiful Aquarium in Stanley Park that could be interesting subject matter to draw.

There were some darling results and I have never met a child who doesn't like to use the dyes, so fun was had by all.

7 year old

9 year old

9 year old

6 year old

Note to self, never leave a six year old to their own devices too long with dye. The process is so interesting to watch when dye hits paper that it's just plain hard to not want to use every.single. color over and over until things begin to turn to mud. In this case, mud was good so that the salmon would once again stand out in all the multitude of colors being put on the page. 

7 year old

I love this waving seal. I love more that the child was able to look at a reference picture of hundreds of seals on a beach and zero in on this one particular seal who was balancing on one flipper and waving. 

11 year old

12 year old

9 year old

The two yellow fish were created by "besties" who all week wanted to create the exact same pictures. The artist above had a mild heart attack when the red dye didn't behave as planned. Things calmed down a bit when we talked about fan coral and how the viewer would assume it was an intentional choice to create it.

9 year old

7 year old

Then on the last day of camp, I wanted to make sure the kids all had a chance to use the chalk pastels. I brought out a lot of city landscape reference for them to be inspired by for their work. I gave them black pastel paper because I think it is much easier for them to be successful with the pastel when they can see all the black space they need to cover which always is missed when working on white paper. Plus it just looks darn cool too.

City Hall, 6 year old

City Hall, 9 year old

City Hall, 9 year old

Above is the artwork from two brothers and their best friend. They too like to mostly work on the same subject matter and I always find it interesting that although it is the same reference, the artwork looks different due to their unique personalities.

11 year old

12 year old

I immediately had to grab my phone and google Rothko's artwork for these two students to see as their works of a sunset over English Bay reminded me so much of his paintings.

9 year old, English Bay Inukshuk at Sunset

9 year old, English Bay Inukshuk at Sunset

7 year old, Dr. Sun-Yet Sen Garden

7 year old, Stanley Park

And with that my friend, the artwork from "I Love Vancouver" camp is finished. Great group of kids that I was sad to say goodbye too and hope to see again one day soon. I certainly hope they had as much fun as I did during the week.

mixed media inspired by Vancouver

Throughout the camp week, I had an ongoing project that used the ends and bits of mediums from the other projects we were working on.

We added the leftover dyes first.

Then after they had done several different works on Vancouver, I had them cut out a stencil which they then used with white acrylic paint over top the dyes.

While the paint was wet, they were welcome to scratch into it with the back of their paintbrushes.

Afterwards there was charcoal, oil and chalk pastel, pen and pencil at their disposal.

Below are the results of their hard work.

7 year old

7 year old

9 year old

9 year old

12 year old

7 year old

11 year old

9 year old

9 year old

air dry clay relief tiles

Each child was given a slab of air dry clay about a quarter inch thick.

I asked each of them to carve out the middle of the tile leaving at least a half inch on the bottom and a nice frame around the sides.

12 year old

Then with the clay they dug out, told them to build a Vancouver scene. I had brought along some pictures of the famous Inukshuk for inspiration that's in English Bay.

9 year old

9 year old

6 year old

Before they began to build the "hero" of the piece, I asked them to use a toothpick to draw in a background. They could also build a background using clay if they wanted too.

And of course some kids went another direction with the project, which is why I love working with children so much because you never know what element of surprise they will add to the project concept.

7 year old

9 year old

7 year old

9 year old

7 year old

For some reason the clay really inspired the kids to create reliefs highlighting the great mountain trails around the city. 

The giant trees of Stanley Park or just the beautiful cedars many of us are lucky enough to have towering in our yards.

despite the mess they leave on the ground

When they thought they were done, I reminded them of the importance of foreground and asked them to place some things in front of their trees or Inukshucks.

11 year old

Or in the case of the dry river bed, have some rocks and logs deeper into the clay than the rock in the front of the clay.

My plan was to paint them white once they were dry to resemble the marble reliefs they may have seen in museums. But then I began to feel a pang of guilt that they might not like me painting them out and so one morning left it up to them to make the decision.

Having created relief tiles in the past that I then let the students paint a variety of colors, I felt a lot of their detail work was lost. This time I really wanted to have them be one color so all the work they did creating the detail was the hero of the project. So I asked the kids if they would like to paint out their tiles with their favorite color, but just one color, or have me spray paint them out white.

I explained to them my past experience with this project and why I thought the work would be much stronger with just one color.

And then I left the decision up to them.

And unanimously they wanted me to spray paint them white.

I'm not going to lie, I was a little surprised.  I honestly thought they would want to paint them but in the end, I put a coat of spray paint over the tiles.

I'm not sure this step was completely necessary. They did look beautiful "as is" in their raw form. 

Next time I might even simplify the color process more and just give them a quick varnish spray for protection and leave them in their natural state.

But this time however, I had to paint them. One of the tiles was accidentally stepped on while it was in the sun drying midweek. The student felt horrible that he had broken another students' work, (so did I) and I was so impressed with the attitude of the child whose work was broken. He did not flinch and told the younger boy that all was fine, which made me want to figure out a way to fix the piece even more!

Thankfully the break was pretty clean and with some very strong glue, the heavy duty cardboard from the back of a drawing pad, and the white paint, I bet you can't figure out which piece was in four pieces.

(it's the last one!)

All's well that ends well as they say and this project all in all ended well.

Vancouver Inspired Acrylic Paintings

All this week, I am teaching a camp that is focused on Vancouver through the North Vancouver Community Arts Council.

This project was an opportunity for the children to focus on an aspect of our city that interested them.

Most chose to do a traditional style painting, but you will also see some Impressionism and Fauvist inspired work among the group.

What a talented bunch of artist I have the pleasure of working with this week! Regardless of age, I believe everyone of them was happy at the end with their creation.

If I didn't already live here, I'd definitely be booking the next flight out after viewing this beautiful group of works.

All of them were created with just primary colors, along with black, white and brown.

As if the artwork was not impressive enough, their color mixing skills are quite outstanding too.

Pan Pacific, 9 year old

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, 9 year old

Lost Lagoon, 9 year old

Vancouver at Sunset, 12 year old

Coal Harbour, 6 year old

Gastown Steam Clock, 7 year old

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, 9 year old

Harbour Centre, 7 year old

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, 7 year old

Lynn Canyon, 11 year old