georgia o'keeffe inspired charcoal skulls and owl pellets

So I was trying to come up with some unique projects that would be very different for the kids in the Artistic Nature camp and happened to remember how excited my kids where when they were young and dissected owl pellets.

I purchased a box of them that arrived a few weeks ago at my home, the same time my youngest daughter had a couple of friends visiting from Germany. They asked me what they were and I explained that when an owl is finished digesting his kill, he regurgitates anything he cant digest in a pellet. They were quite fascinated so we opened one up and gave it a go. The older girls were transfixed but also curious as to how I was going to incorporate it into an art project, which is when I realized Georgia O'Keeffe's skulls were a perfect inspiration for a charcoal project.

When I first started explaining the owl pellets to the kids in the art camp, they are not sold. In fact, the first vote as to whether we were going to proceed had the majority voting no but as I started to put them away and introduce a different project the tides turned.

All but three children wanted to give it a try.

And so I partnered the three who were not wanting to touch them with a child who was quite eager and by the time the first bone was being discovered, two of the three were requesting their own pellet to dissect.

And by the end of the project, one of the children who was so adamant he didn't want to do it asked to take one home to do later.

These pellets come from a science store, so they are sterilized and very kid friendly. I printed off an identification chart for the kids to figure out what animal the owl had eaten too. This was a big hit and there were many rodents and shrews found that morning.

When they were all finished, I collected all the skulls they had found and put them in a bleach solution- 1 part bleach to 4 parts water- for a short while while we had snack and started another project.

Then I introduced Georgia O'Keeffe. Most of the kids were quite familiar with her flower paintings, but not the skulls. After a discussion of the different things they noticed about the works of art, I put out some charcoal and gave each child a skull to draw.

When finished they went back into the works with chalk pastels to create a finished artwork.

I think they came out quite magnificent and I am thrilled to bits that I found a way to incorporate some science into our art since to me Art and Science go hand in hand.

This was without doubt a very successful project that opened up a lot of very interesting discussions amongst the kids.

All of them were very happy to take a skull home, along with their art, to remember a fun morning in the studio.

a little bit of this and a little bit of that

Here are a few projects that have been completed in the studio that were "one off's".  Sometimes I just let the kids do whatever they want or create a project just for them that I think they will enjoy. 

I knew this 11 year old would find it interesting to draw unusually large. This deer is her mother's absolute favorite creation. The artist was pretty pleased with herself also. It is created with charcoal and it is poster size.

charcoal deer, 11 year old

This 12 year old really enjoyed the wood burning project we had done in the winter and asked if she could do another project using the wood burner. I happened to have four wooden squares that I gave her and she created this lovely hummingbird work. It was suppose to be for her Aunt but I don't think her mother let it out of the house. Can't say I blame her. Love the bit of paint she added to the work in the end.

wood burn  hummingbird, 12 year old

Then a couple of the girls wanted to create a mixed media work. They both chose birds for their subject matter, even though they were in different classes.

10 year old

14 year old

I am honestly blown away at the talent that walks through the studio doors. I'm so inspired by their enthusiasm, their courage and openness to try new things, and the genuine love they have to create. It is rewarding for me to see them from time to time want to revisit a medium or technique I introduced previously because it resonated with them or flourish in a project that I felt was suited perfectly for them. It is a little more work on my part to have a variety of different projects going on in the studio at the same time, but well worth it when I see how happy it makes the kids.

So I know I'll continue to have days in the studio where there's a little bit of this and a little bit of that going on in the future.

Summer camps are beginning to fill up. I have lots of exciting plans for projects this summer in the variety of camps. You can find out more at KudzuStudio.com

experimenting with charcoal in drawing class

Friday's drawing class tried their hand at charcoal drawing.

The first project I combined a portrait lesson with the charcoal.

10 year old

9 year old

7 year old

They all worked from the same early 1920's black and white photograph and this is a combination of black and white charcoal plus a gummy eraser. (their favorite) I'm so impressed with each of them.

The nine year old boy was quite pleased as he felt his work looked a lot like his grandmother.

Afterwards we still had some time left in class and so I told them to use the techniques they learned with the charcoal while creating their portrait and apply it to anything they wanted.

7 year old

How incredible is this bird? They start this project by just rubbing charcoal all over the paper. (they used a grey toned sheet) Then they sketch in the shape of their subject. 

10 year old

I love the angle of this bird.  After they have sketched in their subject, the kids used their very favorite art tool- they gummy eraser- and take out all the highlights. Then using the charcoal put in all the darkest shading.

"peek a boo seal"  9 year old

Then it just becomes a process of adding some white charcoal and blending or adding some black charcoal and blending until they are happy with the end product.

Needless to say at the end of drawing class, they were all very happy with their end products.

A little messier than they arrived, but happy.

Paul Emsley inspired drawings

One of the artist I introduced to the kids in the "Studying Under the Masters" camp was Paul Emsley. He is known for his large detailed images of people, animals, and flowers. He currently is living in the UK and I discovered him thanks to my sister-in-law, who use to work at Redfern Gallery where he was represented. One Christmas she gave me a book of his work and I have been enthralled with his work every since. I find the kids feel the same way whenever I present his art to them.

Although you might think you have never heard of him before, he was in the news quite a bit when he presented the first official portrait of Kate Middleton to the National Portrait Gallery that he had been commissioned to paint. It was widely controversial at the time.

I had the kids focus on his black and white work and created a charcoal project inspired by his pieces.  Since the cherry blossoms were in magnificent bloom at the time, we used them for reference.

12 year old

This kids started the project by rubbing charcoal all over the paper and rubbing it in with a paper towel. They then lightly sketched in the shapes of their drawing and then using a gummy eraser, took out all the highlights.

8 year old

They then went back in with the charcoal and blocked out all the blacks. At this point, I quickly discussed with them in the importance of the grey scale in work and told them we would now be adding it to their pieces. I handed them some white charcoal and a blender to add to their drawing tools.

8 year old

First they went back over all the areas they erased with the white charcoal and then began blending it in.  Where they wanted the areas whiter, they continued to add/blend in more white.

10 year old

9 year old

Then they went back with the black charcoal and did the same thing creating areas where they wanted a darker grey.

10 year old

7 year old

Each child continued this process of using the white or black charcoal, the eraser and blender until they were happy with their piece.

7 year old

What a wide variety of interpretation they created of the same reference material! I think they are all quite lovely and interesting and I believe the young artists enjoyed the process of learning to work in black and white inspired by the work of Paul Emsley.

poster size drawings

I have enjoyed introducing very large sheets of drawing paper to children recently. Each time I do it, I am met with the same excited reaction from the kids and they are always very eager to get started.

Drawing big is something I am always stressing in the studio because when children begin to "draw big" they also loosen up, which usually brings out much better sketches leading to very happy kids.

And shocked parents who will usually ask, "Did you really do this?"

I have a large roll of charcoal paper at the studio. For this project I rolled it out on the floor and taped it down. With a full camp of 8 students, there was not much space to walk around once they were all taped. As I was getting the project ready the kids' eyes grew wider and wider and they continued to ask me what were we doing with that paper.

Our theme this day in the "Creatures Big and Small" camp was underwater creatures. Each child picked some creature from underwater that interested them and sat down on the floor in front of a large paper.

To give you an idea of the size they were working on, here is one just as it was completed. You can see the reference picture at the bottom.

For some of the younger children, the paper was almost bigger than they were! To start the project, I gave each child a pencil poked through a paper plate. As if the large paper wasn't intriguing enough, now I was handing them something strange to draw with too. I told them I wanted them to first create a blind contour drawing of their creature and to not worry if they drew off the paper. I wanted them to try to cover the entire thing. 

The kids realized quickly they could not cover the paper sitting in one place. They had to reach, crawl, and really work their muscles in order to draw all over the paper. When they were finished with the blind contour drawing, I gathered the plates and pencils while handing out vine charcoal.

5 year old, electric eel

How amazing is this eel? What I really love is that he drew the shrimp the eel had captured in the original pencil sketch but decided to not do anything else to it. The contrast between the shrimp and the eel is quite wonderful in my opinion and I was very excited that he made such a choice at such a young age. I love the movement and the bold lines of this work too. I think this is the perfect example of what can happen when you give young children very large paper.

7 year old, sand sting ray

When they were finished with the vine charcoal and had made all the changes they wanted to their blind contour drawing, I traded the vine charcoal for very large block charcoal. I then asked them to find all the dark shades on their animal and color it in. 

I love the way the artist above interpreted the ray lying in the sand with the circle. He chose a pretty complicated reference picture with the ray half buried. I also like that although later in the project I offered a rainbow of color with pastel, he chose to keep a very limited color palette. It was a really terrific choice on his part.

4 year old

Once the kids had put shading into the drawing, I offered them some chalk pastel to work with also.  They went back into their work and added color. I reminded them they did not have to use the same colors they saw on the reference, as artist they could choose to use color anyway they wanted in their drawings.

There are no words for how precious the above fish turned out. Her paper truly was bigger than she was and she spent a lot of time having to move all around it in order to complete the artwork.

10 year old, sea turtle

I really like the way this ten year old decided to tackle the shell of the sea turtle by making it into a checker board. She spent so much time thinking through where to put each different color to create the right combination. It was so impressive to see someone her age really think about placement of color and make such well thought out and deliberate decisions.

6 year old, sea turtle

And just imagine what this six year looked like at the end of the project after smearing everything across a paper this size! I'm not sure why she wanted to do that, but man did it bring her extreme satisfaction. Along with turning her into a hot mess of charcoal and color pastel smudges. But she had fun.

9 year old, clown fish

What a wonderful way to create anemones! You can almost see them moving in the current of the water while the fish is safely hidden inside. And I love how she edited the color in the work also, just adding a bit of purple at the top was a great decision.

5 year old, snake

Now although there was a theme of animal for each day of the camp, if a child really wanted to draw something else I let them. After all, a child who is enjoying what they are drawing is far more likely to focus and be open to exploring my suggestions and putting time into creating something wonderful than if they are doing something they just feel so-so about because it falls within the theme.

Plus I really believe if anyone is going to work hard and spend a lot of time creating something, they should really like the subject matter.

So this five year old created a snake. And what a stinkin' cute snake it is too! Love those scales.

Other than learning pastel and charcoal are really messy, the kids also discovered that drawing this big is tiring. They used a lot of muscle to make drawing strokes this large. They were moving constantly to reach the edges of the paper and it was a good thing parents arrived for pick up as they were finished because I think everyone was looking for some downtime to rest.

I think I had to mop my floors five times in order to pick up all the dust left behind, but it was well worth it to see these amazing creations come to life. I will say that for the rest of the week, I did not have to suggest drawing big again to loosen a child's sketch up. They each did it instinctively for the rest of the week- well worth the multiple times I had to mop the floor!

I think the kids enjoyed the end result of this project also. Seeing their artwork at such a large scale creates quite a statement and I hope they have a wall in their room where they can place their "posters" of these amazing underwater creatures....and a snake.

Charcoal Birds

Last week on top of running the "Hello Vancouver" spring break camp out of the studio, I also ran an art camp for the North Vancouver Community Arts Council called, "Birds of a Feather". There were 12 children in the camp, ranging in age from 5 to 9 years old.

One of the projects they created on the first day of camp were these charcoal drawings. Needless to say, the kids looked like they had been in the coal mines when finished but I am so proud of the work they accomplished.

For the  younger ones, this project required that I introduce a new step each time they hollered, "I'm DONE!" To their testament however, they were open and eager to each new step suggestion I offered so in the end it is hard to imagine six year olds created some of these pieces. They even surprised themselves and from that point on were happy to listen and try anything I might suggest.

Wish my own kids behaved that way, I wouldn't need to break open the scotch some evenings.

7 year old

I began by simply having the students rub charcoal all over the paper and then take a paper towel and blend it.

6 year old

8 year old

From there I asked them to pick up the charcoal and find the shapes of the bird reference they had chosen. When they were happy with the shapes, they connected them together and sketched in the main details of the bird, the beak, the eye, and any 'feather caps'.

9 year old

At that point, I asked each artist to pick up the gummy eraser I had provided them and erase away all the light areas of the bird. Once they each got over their fascination with the gummy eraser, they enjoyed drawing with an eraser instead of a pencil.

6 year old

9 year old

The above eagles were created by a brother and sister. How lucky are the parents to have these lovely matching pieces to hang side by side? I was so impressed with the relationship between this brother and sister throughout the entire week, so very supportive of each other.

5 year old

Once they finished erasing out all the lights, I asked them to pick up the charcoal and begin adding all the darkest areas of the bird and then softly blending it into the piece.

6 year old

7 year old

By blending each time they added a dark, they began to create shades of grey into the work. I had them do this until they felt they are finished and then asked them to put in the blacks one last time. What you have is a lovely charcoal filled with tones of black.

7 year old

Then finally I asked them to go back and look at their reference and find some details they wanted to draw into the bird. What way do the feathers fall? Does the bird have any interesting marks? What happens around the eye? It was interesting to watch how each child interpreted this instruction.

6 year old

With a final instruction to add a little white highlight dot on the eye with the eraser, the works were complete. Although we were all a dirty mess at the end, the artworks were worth it.

Their beauty speaks for itself.