It seems we just got started as I was waving goodbye and wishing all the kids a Happy Halloween.
We have done several projects throughout the month that are now completed inspired by this holiday month, starting with painting pumpkins in acrylic paints.
I think my oldest daughter is the most excited to see the project come to an end because she can FINALLY carve the pumpkin I have been using in the studio for real life reference.
I love doing this project with the kids because it is a great opportunity to have them focus on blending colors, complimentary colors, and practicing creating a pumpkin not as we have learned to draw it symbolically but how it really looks in real life.
I have one tween in the Monday class, who because of a dance conflict cannot participate in the Tween Night Tuesday evening group. To add a little extra challenge for her, I gave her the hardest angle of the pumpkin, with the stem facing towards her. I think she rose to the challenge magnificently and her piece turned out beautiful.
11 year old
No this artwork was not photographed in reverse. When I asked this six year old to write his name, he did it backwards by choice! I was quite impressed as I don't think I could whip my name out backwards as quickly as he autographed this work.
He worked hard on paying attention to his brushstrokes and enjoyed mixing the colors directly on the paper in the background. I think he did a really nice job blending the red and yellow too!
The kids all used charcoal to sketch in their pumpkins before painting. I like how the charcoal gives them a lot of opportunity to choose how much of the black lines they will keep in the end.
This seven year old didn't want any of his lines to show in the end. He was quite adamant about that desire too when I suggested he consider adding them back in the work. I really enjoyed watching him work out his background color. Believe it or not, during the course of the project it was three different colors. He truly loved the process of mixing and blending and watching what happened to his background color. I think he made some great choices, including not adding lines into the pumpkin.
7 year old
This painting is exactly why I leave projects open ended and stress to the kids over and over that they are the artist and their artwork is their vision. By no means do they ever have to draw EXACTLY what they see, evident here since I did not actually have a pumpkin patch sitting in the middle of the tables. He asked me if he could draw more than one pumpkin and I told him of course. At first they were all separate and I suggested he let the "hero" pumpkin overlap the ones in the background in order to make it look front and center. I think he did a lovely job and his color choices certainly makes it look like you are visiting the pumpkin patch on a moonlit night.
7 year old
This eight year old asked me if we could work on color blending a couple of weeks ago and so for her, I really stressed blending colors. She was quite happy with the results of her background as she was experimenting with gradually changing the color from light to dark. It made me smile as she could not stop herself from exclaiming out loud how thrilled she was with the results of her sky. She worked really hard blending her yellow and red and then I had her really find the highlights and shadow on the pumpkin we had as reference. I even showed her how to shadow with blue (orange's complimentary color) instead of black to make her work seem more alive. I think she did such a great job working on blending with this project.
8 year old
Why choose one color when there is a whole rainbow of colors to use for your background? That was the philosophy of this nine year old. He wanted to create all sorts of color from the three primary colors I gave him, along with white and brown. I think he did an amazing job really paying attention to the details of drawing the pumpkin and he placed that stem on so accurately from his viewpoint. He showed great restraint painting the pumpkin after creating the multi-color background, really taking his time to blend the colors in each segment of the pumpkin. Because of this, the background really worked nicely. Again, love to see how uniquely each child interprets the project.
(he was actually eight when he created this work but just turned nine last week and I think would be quite insulted if I put his age down as eight. Happy Birthday Mr. D!!)
9 year old
And last but not least, the two ten year olds.
This artist started putting her background in by dotting the colors with the paint brush. The best way to describe her process is to relate it to pointillism. She is quite focused when she works and tends to spend a lot more time than the others paying attention to details. I think her choices in this work are marvelous, look at that moon! And as time began to get away from her, she made the choice to use a brushstroke much like the other students for the pumpkin. Interestingly she is the only one who decided to include the vines coming off the stem. I think this piece is amazing.
10 year old
This artist has been with me for a year now and I am just so proud of her with this work. I love her composition and use of color. Her eye for detail interpreting what she was seeing in the middle of the table is quite awesome too. As I was taking the tape off the paper when she finished, I told her I thought this was one of her best works. It's like she has suddenly taken a big step forward in her art and for me, it is very exciting to see all the skills we have been working on come together naturally for her when she paints.
10 year old
These paintings were all completed in an hour and a half class. In fact Wednesday's class finished with almost 40 minutes to spare and so we began working on some bird drawings...focusing on line. Here's a sneak peak of one of the seven year olds' work.
I think as October comes to a close, all the kids are looking forward to saying goodbye to skeletons, mummies, and pumpkins at the studio. Although like me, they are all quite proud of the work they have created over the month. I think each and every one of these pumpkins are stunning in their own right.
Happy Halloween everyone!
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