clay bug pins

This fall I am running a lunchtime art program for a local elementary school. Their PAC committee requested I focus on Species at High Risk. It have been very excited to create projects inspired by this theme.

Of course October is also the month of all things spooky and so it seemed a perfect match to have the first project focused on bugs that are on the endangered list or high risk category. I thought letting the kids create creepy crawly pins to wear during the Halloween season while also pointing out that even the lowliest of creatures are important to our eco system seemed like fun. And I'm guessing from the excitement in the room as I gave them their pins to take home yesterday, the kids felt the same way.

The ages range from Kindergarten to Grade 4, although the bulk of the children are Grade 1. We have 45 minutes to create and they finished these bugs in one class period.

Grade 1

I had brought some reference material of bugs who for one reason or another are now at high risk for extinction. While they ate their lunch, I shared the creatures with them and then when they finished eating they broke into groups based on what bug they wanted to create so they could all share the reference picture.

I had brought oven baked clay in primary colors, plus black and brown for the kids to use. I showed them how they could mix the primary clay colors to create other colors if they wanted.

grade 1

I also brought some wire for them to use if they wanted for legs, antennae, and whatever else their imagination dreamed up.

grade 4

It was a wonderful opportunity for them to discover some basic anatomy facts about insects.

grade 1

grade 1

The kids all finished at the 45 minute mark and I then took them home to bake. Afterwards I glued a jewelry pin onto the back and then drew a mason jar using brown card stock to pin them onto for presentation. I took these pictures before I left for class, but each child then wrote their names below their bugs before taking them home.

I wanted to make sure the parents knew what bug their child had focused on in order to open up more dialog at home....who knows? Maybe they will discover together more about why these creatures are species at high risk.

Grade 4

It was interesting to observe how each child interpreted the bug of their choosing and watching them work through and solve problems as they arose. It was great insight for me when moving forward introducing the next projects over the course of six weeks.

grade 1

grade 1

And I think we all have a better appreciation that endangered animals come in all shapes and sizes and each and every one of them is important to our world.

children illustrator, Davie Wiesner, inspired clay and acrylics

The last camp of summer, hard to imagine summer has come and gone now.

The theme of the last camp was called Storybook Wonders and each project was inspired by the techniques of children illustrators.

Growing up my mother would always tell me I needed to do something with my art, however I knew I would never be a famous artist and felt that was the only way to make a living doing art. I had no idea how many opportunities were available to 'do something with my art' while being able to sustain myself independently as an adult and so I went to University to get a 'practical' degree in PR and was miserable.

It wasn't until thumbing through a Mademoiselle magazine that I happened upon an article titled, "A Day in the Life of an Art Director" that made me realize the perfect job was out there for me.

I immediately left university and headed to art school with a focus solely on putting together a portfolio so I could become an Art Director.

My hope with this camp was for children to realize that there is a vast array of ways to make a living as an artist and that they don't have to go to a museum or gallery to appreciate art, they simply need to open one of their children's books.

I started the week with author/illustrator, David Wiesner. While collecting information on his work, I happened across his biography where it mentions how he sometimes creates three-dimensional models of objects he cannot observe in real life.

Perfect!

I always like to present some sort of sculpture project and so I knew using Wiesner's books were the perfect match to make that happen. I focused on his book, "Flotsam".  A wordless book that allows a child's imagination to create the story from Weisner's visual narrative.

Each child started by creating their own imaginary character in air dry clay which they then painted.

flying leopard, 10 year old

polka dotted dog, 5 year old

pterodactyl with jet pack, 7 year old

Bunny, 7 year old

Diddly Doo, 8 year old

one pink eyed dog, 5 year old

flying snowman, 5 year old

flying snake, 7 year old

"cougie" the cougar, 6 year old

flying snowman with winged toque, 9 year old

Once they created their three dimensional models, each child created a narrative acrylic painting using their sculpture as reference.

They really enjoyed this process and there was a lot of animated discussions amongst themselves as they worked out their stories while sketching.

It was a great way for them to create an imaginative painting and seemed to add an extra sense of importance to their original sculptures, making both artworks special to them.

I tried to record their stories as they finished and described them to me, let's hope I do them justice in this blog as sometimes they were talking faster than I could write......

Flying Pterodactyl, 7 year old

"Pterodactyl saved the world from getting smashed by power balls and forcefields made out of electric balls." 

What an amazing amount of detail going on in this narrative painting! I think the viewer has such a lot to draw on to create their own story from this child's creation. He and his friend had a great time discussing their works of art while creating them.

flying snake, 7 year old

"Flying snake trying to save the world. He shoots cannons out of his jets that makes him fly. There is a flighting yellow wing bird he's up against."

You can certainly tell these two are good friends. At first I thought they were both doing flying dinosaurs, as there are elements of their stories that are very similar. I was thrilled to see though that each brought their own unique character to their art.

flying snowman, 5 year old

"Flying snowman lives on Mars. He has a flashlight on top of his helmet so he can see in deep, dark space as he is journeying to the moon."

Don't get me started on how cute this painting is! This young artist has the most vivid imagination when it comes to storytelling and so many times I am left speechless as he tells me about his artworks. This one was no exception.  I love the color choices and the sweet composition he created while his snowman is flying through space. Just check out those stars!!!

cougie the cougar, 6 year old

"Cougie the Cougar is up against a giant black spider swinging a wrecking ball who is trying to destroy the world. Cougie will save us all by head butting the spiders tummy until he is defeated"

I love the choice this artist made to keep the giant spider in silhouette, along with the swinging wrecking ball. It makes the enemy all that more ominous to me. And the choice to make Cougie the one lone warm color on the paper was brilliant. What great instinct this little artist had while creating his story.

Diddly Doo, 8 year old

"Diddly Doo lived in a cave on the hillside. There is a chute he can use from a giant tree root to slide down into the cave. Diddly Doo never sleeps."

He had me at "Diddly Doo". How awesome is that name? And the color choices? They are playful and charming, just like his character. And that night sky! Is it not lovely as night is turning into day? Love each and every artistic choice he made in this piece.

Bunny, 7 year old

"Bunny lived in a carrot. When he walked through the carrot patch, the carrots turned into houses"

Dear me, this story. When her three dimensional character was an ordinary bunny, I was wondering what she would do to make it "unreal" and then she made her painting. Silly me for ever questioning if there would not be an unreal, imaginative element to her artwork. She never ceases to amaze me.

flying snowman, 9 year old

Unfortunately this artist had to leave early every day for a soccer camp and I did not record his story prior to him leaving on the last day. Hopefully his mother will see this post and leave a comment where he tells us more about his story. Until then, as viewers we get to make up our own narrative.

Love the color choices and again, what a great job he did with that night sky and moon. Absolutely love the way the main character, flying snowman, if the focus between the two buildings.

one pink eyed dog, 5 year old

"Pink eyed dog is not a good sharer. She takes all the balls."

This very young artist had A LOT of balls to paint which quickly became overwhelming to her. So I showed her how she could put paint on the paintbrush, push it down on the paper and turn to create circles quickly. Depending on how much pressure she put on the brush determined how big the ball would be. She loved making circles this way and the project went from overwhelming to her wishing she had more space to add "balls".

polka dotted dog, 5 year old

"Polka dotted dog likes to swim in the lake in an inner tube"

This child loved mixing colors and had a good time adding a variety to her artwork. Because she was mixing directly on the paper, she created a lot of different and interesting values in her tints. Because she listened so well about painting her background first and then painting over top to create the mid and foreground, she ended up with a very neat piece. I quickly showed her how to "scribble in" the water to make it look like there was ripples as her interest level began to wane. This artwork just melts my heart it is so darn cute.

flying leopard, 10 year old

"Flying leopard chases away the rain clouds"

That this artist decided to do a leopard is no surprise, she loves leopards. I love that she decided to make it fly and of course adding the light behind the leopard just adds to the sense that the character is saving a summer day from being ruined by rain. Rain clouds never had a chance against this sweet but frightening flying leopard.

If Wiesner ever sees these works of art inspired by his illustrations, I hope he is as impressed as I am with the kids work. They so enjoyed creating these and I think were excited to learn about how this award winning children's author/illustrator creates his books.

I believe there is more than one award winning story just waiting to be flushed out in these artworks too. Don't you?

thank you to the children's librarian at the Lynn Valley branch for all their help in finding the long list of books I wanted for this camp.

relief tiles inspired by nature walk

Along with the acrylic paintings, one of the first projects I had the artist create in the "Drawing from Nature" camp was relief tiles.

I asked them to create a relief tile to tell a story about our hike in Lynn Canyon the day before.

They could use the sketches they made during the hike or create something that they most vividly remembered from the day.

Then everyone was given a block of clay and they carved out the middle to about a quarter inch from the bottom, creating a clay frame.

I told them the clay they dug out of the slab would be used to create their story.

First they smoothed out the bottom of their slab and drew into the clay with a toothpick to create the background.

Then they began to build up the middle ground, finishing with a foreground.

When dried, I used a spray gesso on the work and had them use Golden high flow acrylic paint I have in studio to add color.  These paints by far produced the nicest results ever on this medium. I was just beyond thrilled with how the projects turned out.  It was so easy for the kids to get into the nooks and crannies of their work without losing all the wonderful details they had already created in the clay.

Most of the colors you see produced in their work were created by them with primary color only. I did give them a couple of browns I had because the struggle is real my friends when it comes to kids creating brown. I figured they did not need to fight that battle this day since they were already challenged getting their paintbrushes into all the crevices of the work.

And because I knew the kids would love it, I gave each a few drops of iridescent blue to create a water shimmer on their work. For those without water, they used a little "sparkle" wherever they saw fit. That is if they wanted a little sparkle on their tile.

It should come as no surprise that everyone wanted a little sparkle on their tile.

10 year old,  "river's edge"

9 year old,  "River bed"

(love the fish hiding under the log)

9 year old, "waterfall"

6 year old, "pinecone"

8 year old, "wooden bridge"

8 year old, "waterfall"

8 year old, "river bed"

7 year old, "rocky shore"

6 year old, "mud monster"

I have to stop here because the above tile has quite the story. It was riveting to all the other kids as the artist explained what she was painting. This is a mud monster.  My original understanding was that it was in the bottom left corner, just the leg sticking up. She corrected me and told me that was the head. I mentioned about making sure she painted all sides of the log the mud monster was hiding under and she quickly told me how very wrong I was, silly teacher, THAT was the mud monster's brain.

And with that, every head swiveled her way and wanted much more information on what was going on inside that tile. I think the boys might of even been a little green with envy that they had not thought of a mud monster with brains and body parts on display.

It was quite an impressive imagination and I loved hearing the story. 

8 year old, "white moth and hydrangeas"

During the afternoon hike, I let the two eight year old boys lead us astray to a part of the trails I had never been on before. While hiking we came across all these hydrangeas blooming in the middle of the woods. I was genuinely surprised to see them and it was quite beautiful with the sun streaming in through the giant trees, especially when one delicate white moth began to flutter among the blooms.

The moment was striking to me and I was pleased to see that it had obviously touched the heart of one of the students too.

11 year old, "Inukshuk"

Why have I never thought of this solution? The artist painted the frame and sides of her tile as a continuum of her relief. Brilliant!!

6 year old, "baby duck"

You will be seeing a lot of baby duck over the next couple of post. The artist did several different art works using baby duck. This tile was truly precious and so I have to show you baby duck up close. However as you can see, the artist wanted baby duck displayed as if swimming away from the viewer. I even double checked to make sure she wanted the bottom where she put her signature and she was quite firm that yes, this was the way the tile was to be presented. So although I want to really show off the adorable baby duck, I also want to be sure I honor the way the artist wants the work presented.

10 year old, " bumpy branch"

Along the trails, this artist collected a small branch with knobby things all over it that no one could identify. It was fascinating however, so fascinating she made a tile out of it. How amazing is that spider on the lower right side hiding under it? Did you find it? 

Aren't they amazing? Don't you want to get up from your computer and head out for a hike right now? I know the next time I'm in Lynn Canyon, I'll be remembering all these great works created from our neighborhood trail.

air dry clay relief tiles

Each child was given a slab of air dry clay about a quarter inch thick.

I asked each of them to carve out the middle of the tile leaving at least a half inch on the bottom and a nice frame around the sides.

12 year old

Then with the clay they dug out, told them to build a Vancouver scene. I had brought along some pictures of the famous Inukshuk for inspiration that's in English Bay.

9 year old

9 year old

6 year old

Before they began to build the "hero" of the piece, I asked them to use a toothpick to draw in a background. They could also build a background using clay if they wanted too.

And of course some kids went another direction with the project, which is why I love working with children so much because you never know what element of surprise they will add to the project concept.

7 year old

9 year old

7 year old

9 year old

7 year old

For some reason the clay really inspired the kids to create reliefs highlighting the great mountain trails around the city. 

The giant trees of Stanley Park or just the beautiful cedars many of us are lucky enough to have towering in our yards.

despite the mess they leave on the ground

When they thought they were done, I reminded them of the importance of foreground and asked them to place some things in front of their trees or Inukshucks.

11 year old

Or in the case of the dry river bed, have some rocks and logs deeper into the clay than the rock in the front of the clay.

My plan was to paint them white once they were dry to resemble the marble reliefs they may have seen in museums. But then I began to feel a pang of guilt that they might not like me painting them out and so one morning left it up to them to make the decision.

Having created relief tiles in the past that I then let the students paint a variety of colors, I felt a lot of their detail work was lost. This time I really wanted to have them be one color so all the work they did creating the detail was the hero of the project. So I asked the kids if they would like to paint out their tiles with their favorite color, but just one color, or have me spray paint them out white.

I explained to them my past experience with this project and why I thought the work would be much stronger with just one color.

And then I left the decision up to them.

And unanimously they wanted me to spray paint them white.

I'm not going to lie, I was a little surprised.  I honestly thought they would want to paint them but in the end, I put a coat of spray paint over the tiles.

I'm not sure this step was completely necessary. They did look beautiful "as is" in their raw form. 

Next time I might even simplify the color process more and just give them a quick varnish spray for protection and leave them in their natural state.

But this time however, I had to paint them. One of the tiles was accidentally stepped on while it was in the sun drying midweek. The student felt horrible that he had broken another students' work, (so did I) and I was so impressed with the attitude of the child whose work was broken. He did not flinch and told the younger boy that all was fine, which made me want to figure out a way to fix the piece even more!

Thankfully the break was pretty clean and with some very strong glue, the heavy duty cardboard from the back of a drawing pad, and the white paint, I bet you can't figure out which piece was in four pieces.

(it's the last one!)

All's well that ends well as they say and this project all in all ended well.