"drone" view clay tiles

I decided to try and become the "cool" art teacher and hip things up by creating drone view clay tiles instead of bird's eye view.

I didn't fool anyone.

But the kids did have a lot of fun and had fun working out a landscape from a drone or bird eye viewpoint.

I left it open ended as to what type of landscape the kids created with the air dry clay.

One young artist created her drone landscape tile focusing on cabins at the lake, just love the addition of the dock and canoe! And I thought her color choices she made when it came time to paint them with acrylics really reflect a lovely, sunny summer day. It certainly makes me wish to head off to a lake cabin!

This young boy created a snow capped canyon with rapids running through it. Although had to see, there is a wire running across the river to represent a suspension bridge. How brilliant is that?!!

And finally this lovely landscape created looking over the ocean. I really love the way the artist decided to show the water breaking by layering up the clay. She had a great time painting in the fish and then using washed of the acrylic paint to create starfish and such laying on the bottom depths.

I was so impressed with these students and how each came up with their own unique drone landscapes. I did my best to create a little video of the tiles as if a drone was going overhead.

Listening to me on this video pretty much seals my fate as a less than hip art teacher, but there's no doubt the kids embraced the idea of creating a drone view tile- regardless of how uncool I happen to be.

watercolor landscape triptychs

During the Landscape and Still Life spring break camp, campers had the opportunity to try their hand at creating watercolor landscapes. For fun I had each of them create a triptych of one landscape scene, just changing the composition of the landscape in each panel.

Watercolor is always a bit challenging as the kids tend to want to try to use the same techniques they do with acrylic paint. But by the end of the project, each camper got the hang of it.

Deep Cove at sunset, 11 year old

This artist had been living in Deep Cove while their house was being renovated. The landscape she chose is right in town of mountains, water and trees basked in the warm glow of sunset. I think her results are gorgeous.

waterfall, 8 year old

This artist focused on a waterfall landscape. He created a lovely composition of three different viewpoints of the landscape.

Vancouver coast, 11 year old

And it is easy to see how the progression in this triptych as the artist became more comfortable with the watercolor. When she was finished, she tried another quick landscape really allowing the watercolor to do all the work for her.

11 year old

I'm not sure all the campers became huge fans of watercolor at the end of the project, but I'm certainly a fan of the works they created.

Channeling the Wild Beast Within

I have a new student who has joined the weekly classes after participating in the Art and Animal spring break camp.

I decided that since he had just completed a week worth of animal drawings, I would introduce him to a landscape project.

But knowing how much he loves animals, I decided we would do the landscape in "wild beast" colors.

In other words, I introduced him to the Fauvist movement.

He pulled out a few pieces of landscape reference and I went over how he could pick and choose what elements he wanted to add to his work.

Then we went over how he could break down the reference into interesting shapes.

Then he got to work.

First he created a composition using shapes on copy paper and when he was happy, we transferred it onto his final paper.

Then starting with the background, he began choosing wild beast colors.  Red clouds, orange mountains, yellow skies, green water and blue trees, he was right into channeling his inner beast.

When finished, he went over the work with a black and a blue oil pastel just to clean up the lines.

But the best part of the work?

Look how he dated the piece!!

"made in 2015"

It put a smile on my face and warmed my heart.

And I wasn't the only one smiling, he seemed very happy too after an hour of fun channeling his inner wild beast.

acrylic on paper, 6 year old