UFO's, otherwise known as Unfinished Objects and this and that

Wednesday was one of those days that just got away from me. I had this great project idea using gel medium as resist with dyes, but wanted to do the project myself just to make sure there were no kinks in the idea. So I headed down to the studio an hour before class to run through the project before presenting it to the students.

Except for the fact that I walked into the studio mere minutes before the first students arrived!  That's right, my day was off by an hour.

I blame it on the fact I had spent the day hanging out with a good friend sharing stories while showing her how to needle felt. We had such a good time, it felt like we were only together a couple of hours, when in fact it was almost four. So I thought I still had lots of hours in the day, when in reality, I did not.

By the way, she created this adorable owl. It's not quite finished, but it is oh so cute.

21 at heart

So now I had a room full of kids and a new project that had yet to be tested. Not to worry because UFO's came to the rescue, otherwise known as Unfinished Objects.

I put the project I had planned to test and introduce to the side when I realized each child had come to the studio prepared to work on projects they had either not finished yet or projects they had requested to try with me in previous classes.

Projects my failing memory had conveniently forgotten, just like when my husband request I do not go out shopping.

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus! I was off the hook for my blunder. I had not just a project, but PROJECTS!

The week before some of the students had finished their wood burning paintings with a chunk of studio time to spare. Luckily I had some palm size canvases tucked away from a couple of summers ago that I brought out and asked them to recreate their wood burning with just acrylic paint.

I figured like the plaques, they would look really nice as tree ornaments this time of year that the kids could either put on their own trees or send to a relative as a gift.

10 year old

One student really wanted to make a mini canvas painting the week before but spent the class time working solely on his wood burning, so I had promised him that he could do one this week. A fact his memory didn't fail remembering when he showed up early on time for class.

He painted Rudolph with ornaments hanging off his antlers!

8 year old

Then I realized that the two older girls in the class had yet to finish the ink and graphite birds they had started, so I pulled those down for them to complete. Aren't they great? I love Toucans.

10 year old

10 year old

I have one little boy who absolutely loves to sketch. If he had his way, he would lie on the studio floor and just draw with a pencil the entire class. So when he finished his project last week, he began to sketch whatever his heart desired. When finished he showed me the most adorable drawing, "Mr. Bobby the elf". 

I fell in love with the sketch and had told him he should paint it...this week! Woo hoo! another great project I had let slip my mind.

7 year old

It is almost identical to his sketch and I love it. To me is captures the magic, charm, and all the other wonderful elements that makes children's art great.

I also can't help but hear Whitney Houston yelling at Bobby Brown every time I look at this work either. 

"BoBAE! BoBAE!"

I'm probably the only person who remembers this reality show. It was all kinds of cray cray and like me, old, so just humor me the way all my poor students did last week when I kept singing the classic 70's disco tune, Burn Baby Burn, Disco Inferno while they were creating their wood burning pieces.

So now I had everyone busy with forgotten projects I had promised from previous weeks, except for one young girl. She liked the idea of creating an acrylic painting and she LOVED the idea that she could paint anything she wanted.

LOVED

Because she is absolutely fascinated with some video game that her parents will not let her play, (isn't that always the way), and whenever given the chance draws the characters from the game when sketching at the end of class. 

I used the opportunity to have her work on shading skills while painting the character with a Santa hat because ya know, 'tis the season! 

Scary video characters and the holidays go together like marshmallows and hot chocolate, don't you agree? They do in this child's mind and I am all about embracing their visions.

At first the background was all black, which wasn't very "christmasy" and she said she was now going to add red and green over the top.  I told her to let the black dry and then paint on top of it so she began painting the character.

When she came back to the background, she was so thrilled with the discoveries she was making in regards to how the red and green looked when placed on top of the dried black paint. It was exciting to watch her surprise and happiness with the results.  Then I had her focus on adding shadow and highlights to her work.

She was very happy at the end.

8 year old

So although I got off to the rocky start, the kids all left the studio that night happy and content with the variety of work they had completed. 

And thanks to my failing memory, I'm sure I'll never remember the rocky start and just the great work  the students yet again created.