finger painting with acrylics

Last week I had a "Back to School" party in the studio for seven little girls, three 6 year olds, three 8 year olds, and one preschooler.

I decided to introduce a project I did a couple of years ago focused on what else? apples!

First, I explained why the plate of apples was sitting on the floor. I told the girls we would be painting from a bird's eye view perspective.

Then I brought out some work of Cezanne to inspire them. Afterwards, they could either do a working sketch or take a piece of charcoal and draw directly onto the acrylic paper. 

When everyone was happy with their composition, I gave each girl a palette of the three primary colors, black, white, and brown. However there were no paint brushes. I explained we would be using our index finger instead. Although if a child could absolutely not stand getting their finger covered in paint, I would hand them a paintbrush instead. I am happy to say that each girl gave painting with their finger a try although a couple of them then asked to finish with a paint brush.

When painting with their finger, I find it does a great job of keeping the style loose and most importantly really helps emphasize using brush strokes as a tool to create an interesting painting.

The girls also did all their color mixing directly on the paper which went a long way to creating some incredible work. I asked them to all start with their background, then work on their plates, and finally to paint their apples.

I also brought out a color wheel and went over how to use complimentary color to create shadow instead of black.

When they were finished, I gave each girl the charcoal one last time.  I showed them Cezanne's work again and asked them to pay attention to his use of black line. Then they had the opportunity to use the charcoal wherever they felt it should be added to their work.

As the mother was taking a group picture of the girls with their finished artwork, I mentioned to one of the other adults there for pick up how amazed I always am at the variety of work from one set of instructions. I love the way each girl was inspired by Cezanne's work and how they worked out the project instructions to appeal to their aesthetic. What a wonderful way to kick off a new school year.

I will be taking a short break at the studio after a very exciting summer. Don't forget to check out the school year art schedules at KudzuStudio.com. Classes will start the first week of October and I am so excited about the project ideas. There is something for every age group and I'll be introducing some adult workshops and holiday workshops at the end of September too. Be sure to check it out.

Bird's eye view on finger painting

There's always an excited energy as students walk in the door for class. 

When they walk in and are greeted by plates of apples on the floor, the excitement level goes up tenfold.

And then when you tell them that when we finish at the end of class they can eat the apples,  HELLO! Just go ahead and place the best art teacher ever crown on top of my head full of glitter hair.

Yes that's right, glitter hair.  God bless the child who deemed all my grey hair "glittery".  As a southern woman, I'll love her forever because there is nothing a southern woman loves more than all things glittery...even if that is grey hair.

9 year old

Between every two seats, I placed a white paper plate and three apples onto a piece of white poster board.....on the floor.  

The poster board was mostly to keep said apples off the floor since I knew they would ultimately become the snack that would earn me high accolades as greatest art teacher EVER but also because it is easier for the kids to see the shadow marks created by the objects.

I then gave each child a palette with primary colors plus black and white acrylic paint.

No paintbrushes.

WHAT!?!?!???

I believe the kids figured along with the excessive glitter hair their fabulous art teacher had also lost her mind and forgotten the need of paintbrushes.

I did however hand them some popsicle sticks in order to mix paint colors.

8 year old

That's right, all the colors were mixed by the students from primary colors only. Pretty amazing, right?

We discussed what a bird eye view meant and prior to sketching, talked about what they noticed about the apples from the perspective of looking down on them.  We also discussed what they noticed about the shadows, were they really just black?  Was color reflected in it?  Was an apple really only red? Was a plate only white?  We then talked a bit about impressionistic painting and I encouraged them to not over blend and to even blend colors directly on their papers!  I also encouraged them to create energy in their artwork by paying attention to use of paint strokes.

11 year old

All fine and good, but where in the world were the paintbrushes?!

You should of seen their faces when I told them their finger was the paintbrush.  That's right, they were to use their index finger to paint.  Honestly, I thought this would cement my best teacher of the year award as who does not like finger painting?

Evidently once you reach the ripe ol' age of six, you don't like to finger paint anymore because my room of students between the age of 6 and 11 let out a groan the likes mothers around the world hear every morning when they wake their kids for school.

Once the shock wore off however, they were all in!  And set off to work to create apples on a plate in an impressionistic style.

I told them to feel free to place their plate on any color background of their choosing, since the poster board was white, and of course that led to some students even adding more things of their choosing.

Like more apples.

6 year old

7 year old

5 year old

And one student who went off on an entirely different path, ignoring not only the plate, the three apples, and the choice of color background, but also the bird's eye view.

10 year old

I'm quite glad he did as I think he ended up with a beautiful piece!

When the work was finished and dry, I let them take a black oil pastel and add any line work they wanted to the piece.  Some choose to do this and some did not.  I love the variety of work even though they were all given the same subject matter to observe and they were all thrilled with their results.

Hooray to rediscovering finger painting!

Learning grey hair is really glittery!

And teachers who allow you to eat your assignment at the end of class.

All in all, it was a good day.