Canadian animal acrylic painting

The kids decided together the theme of animal they would work on each day in the "Creatures Big and Small" camp.  One of the "themes" they chose to do was Canadian Animals for which they created acrylic paintings.

Spirit Bear, 10 year old

Have you ever heard of the spirit bears that live in British Columbia? They are my very favorite. In reality it is just a black bear with a recessive gene, but they have a special place in the oral traditions of the indigenous people of the area. 

loon, 5 year old

Each artist first began the project by working on a sketch. To help them along, we discussed finding the different shapes that made up their animals and then connecting the shapes to create the animal. Once they were happy with their compositions, we transferred the sketches onto acrylic paper.

Eagle, 6 year old

I then gave each child a limited palette of paint which include the primary colors, black, white and brown. From there they each did all their own color mixing. As always, I strongly encouraged them to mix color directly on their paper so that they would get an interesting variety.

Orca, 4.5 year old

I also stressed the importance of paying attention to brush stroke and picking the right size brush for the 'job'. I even told them that might mean they used more than one brush on a particular part of their painting. 

hawk, 9 year old

I also went over not loading your paintbrush with copious amounts of paint, that one actually has more control over the paint on the brush when you use a little bit of paint and how to take paint color from the side of the paint "blob" on the palette instead of off the top in the middle. 

Eagle, 7 year old

I am always so impressed at the kids ability to grasp all of these concepts and how successfully they incorporate it into their painting process.

There was one child in the class, who although was excited about creating a Canadian animal on the day the kids picked the themes, decided he wasn't really interested in using one for his painting. I strongly believe that every artist needs to work on something they are interested in and so asked him what he would like to paint.

A frog.

But not just any frog.

poisonous tree frog, 5 year old

He chose a poisonous tree frog that as far as I know (and hope), does not reside anywhere in Canada. He even gave the frog the most ominous expression. Would you mess with it? I know I wouldn't.

I so enjoyed watching each child create their painting. I love how each child's personality is reflected in their finished work too.  

Each and every painting is so creative and I'm so proud of each of them for the beautiful works they created.