inspired by the children's book "ish"

In the "Once Upon a Time" spring break camp, we read the children's book, Ish.

I cannot recommend this book enough as an art teacher. It is a lovely little story about a child who loves to draw. However one day after creating a vase of flowers, someone laughs at his drawing. The child then is frustrated with every drawing he ever makes because "it doesn't look real" and crumples each and every one up until finally he just quits drawing all together. Then the child learns that his younger sibling has quietly been gathering every crumpled drawing and pinning them to her bedroom wall. When he sees his drawings through her eyes, he realizes he doesn't have to draw things real. That a drawing that is "ish" is wonderful, a vase "ish" full of flowers is a beautiful thing. This discovery reignites his love of drawing and as books go, he lives happily ever after.

What a great story to read to a group of young children drawing with me, an affirmation that their unique style of drawing is beautiful. It was amazing to see this simple story boost their confidence as we ventured to create our own vase'ish' flowers.

8 year old

I brought in a bouquet of flowers from the corner grocer but told them to draw them anyway they wanted. Yellow flowers didn't have to be yellow, they didn't have to draw everything, and if they loved one particular thing in the arrangement they were welcome to draw ten of them even if there was only one.

5 year old

I first gave each child a water-soluble pencil to create a line drawing and then put out the water and brushes and told them to run over their lines. They were unaware until that point that the pencil marks would give them to lovely grey values. They loved this discovery and excitedly washed and rewashed over their lines.

9 year old

Then I gave each child some liquid watercolor in the primary colors. I quickly showed them a few techniques they could explore using watercolors, such as blending, wet on wet, and how to simple lay the brush onto the paper to create petals and then sent them off to create their masterpieces.

10 year old

I encouraged them to add flowers into their painting that they hadn't originally drawn if they wanted too.

8 year old

There was a wide variety of vase'ish' flowers in the room and the book seemed to give the campers the confidence to paint freely and in their own unique way.

8 year old

I was truly impressed and excited for each camper in the room as I was walking by them and viewing their artwork.

And then as I was pulling the papers off the table as they yelled out, "done", I stumbled across this.

5 year old

No watercolor at all. A vase of flowers with some pretty intricate work. When I began to ask about his drawing, I was fascinated. Evidently he has a secret code with his older brother, a code that is quite impressive in it's detail. Symbols stand for numbers and when put together, create other numbers. It was quite something and there is so much to look at in this drawing! I love how he placed his name amongst the flowers too. How much confidence this child had to create his very unique "vase-ish" flowers without ever touching the watercolors or water.

I so fell in love with the message from this book that I promptly bought one for my studio. To see it free the campers and reiterate to them that their drawings, their way were good enough was thrilling and the work speaks volumes to the power of books.

large watercolors inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe

During the hike at the Drawing from Nature camp through Seymour Art, the kids spent time collecting a variety of nature's treasures. 

It could be anything they found interesting.

There was quite a variety of items when we got back to the gallery, leaves, shells, pinecones and feathers just to name a few. There would of been a dead jelly fish amongst the list, but I drew the line at jelly fish coming back to the gallery.

Crazy, I know. 

maple leaf, 11 year old

Before starting this project, I showed the students Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings. We discussed why she chose to paint them so large. I also pointed out how abstract some of the flowers became by enlarging the flower so much only a small part was visible.

seashell,  11 year old

I then asked each student to go through their bag and find an item they wanted to enlarge and highlight in their artwork. An item they wanted the viewer to stop and notice in a new and interesting way, something they more than likely usually just walked by and didn't pay much attention to in the past.

fern leaf, 6 year old

I also let them know that they did not need to draw this realistically. I encouraged them to create their own unique style while paying attention to the details of the item in front of them. I also explained that they could use any colors they wanted for painting. I quickly went over how they could exaggerate the colors they already saw in the item or use color to create a certain mood. I wanted them to understand they had lots of artistic decisions, all of which should be made to please none other than themselves.

bird's eye view of pinecone, 11 year old

Since the paper was so large, the kids worked out their drawings directly on the final paper. I showed them how if they drew very lightly with the pencil, they could easily erase any unwanted lines without any trace being left on the paper of their existence. I find by drawing one line dark and one very light, then using the eraser and allowing the kids to visual see the difference, is really the only explanation needed to convince them to keep the lines barely visible while creating a sketch.

I also asked them to have their item touch at least three sides of the paper in hopes of encouraging them to draw big.

sea pods, 8 year old

When they were happy with their sketches, they went over their pencil lines with a permanent black marker.

sea pods, 7 year old

Then I gathered them around and show them a variety of things they could do with liquid watercolor. When you look at all these paintings, keep in mind the children were only given red, yellow and blue color. I am always so impressed with the color mixing they do when using this medium and for the most part, they do all the color mixing directly on the paper.

sea shell, 6 year old

Some of the techniques I showed them with the liquid watercolor before they started their paintings was wet on wet, blooming, salt, blotting, and scratching. And as usual, wet on wet and salt got the biggest response of "oooo's" and "ahhhh's".

By the time I was finished with the demonstration, they could not wait to get started.

barnacles on a shell, 7 year old

As always, I asked them to start with their backgrounds first. This is truly like putting kids in front of a Christmas tree with piles a wrapped presents underneath and asking them to wait for Christmas morning, the anticipation of waiting to paint the hero of the work is killer.

ferns, 11 year old

But the students also realize the reward is sweet. It is always easier to paint over the background with great results than painstakingly trying put the background in behind the focus of the artwork.

ferns, 11 year old

The kids had a lot of fun creating these works. The room got very quiet as they got lost in the process of working with the watercolors. Having the opportunity, (thanks to the Curator), to work on such large paper was a very big treat. And in the end, the kids were all so proud of these pieces.

maple leaves, 7 year old

Like Georgia O'Keeffe, I think they truly loved having the opportunity to make viewers take a second look at the many beautiful things we take for granted that nature provides.

clay and watercolor butterflies

While on a journey through the jungle at the "Jungle Jive" art camp for North Vancouver Arts Council, we discussed the beautiful butterflies that make their lives in jungles around the world.

I thought it would be fun to "capture" our own colorful jungle butterfly.

The Programme Director and I diligently collected our empty jars over a period of a month for the students to use to hold their wild butterflies.

And the kids were so excited to pick from them to hold their fluttering creation.

First using air dry clay, they created a body for their creature.

I told them to keep looking at their jar and making sure the butterfly would fit inside.

I said this over

and over

and over

and over.

Some added wire for legs, antennas, and even tongues!

Then I handed them a small piece of watercolor paper and a palette with the liquid watercolor in the primary colors only.

I quickly went over some of the techniques they could use with the watercolor and also a quick lesson on symmetry.

And then just so they didn't get to upset if their butterfly didn't come out symmetrical, I also talked about how artist Jack Shadbolt created asymmetrical butterflies.

Then off they went with me once again reminding them to remember the jars they wanted to fit their creation into and double checking that what they were creating would fit inside.

I said this over

and over

and over

and over.

Once the bodies were dry, they painted and I hot glued their wings onto the body.

The results are lovely

Even if very few are actually contained in the jars we worked so hard to collect for them because like my kids when I remind them over and over to clean their rooms, my chant of, "double check your butterfly fits into your jar" fell upon deaf ears.

9 year old

8 year old

9 year old

6 year old

6 year old

9 year old

9 year old

6 year old

7 year old

9 year old

7 year old

A whole new age group of students!

I am a member of the local P.E.O chapter. I'm quite proud to be a part of such an exciting organization and when they asked me to do a program at the last meeting, I was quite humbled.

The program criteria was that it had to be 20-25 minutes long and whatever I did needed to be simple enough that I could travel supplies easily without much mess.

And since I find that adults sometimes come with a whole lifetime of "issues" regarding drawing and can get quite intimidated worrying about the end product, I decided to do a project where there was no right way for the end product to look.

I decided to present Carla Sonheim's book, "Imaginary Animals".  This is where I found the always successful project of Blobimals.  A project I have yet had anyone not enjoy doing, even the teenager who at the end of tonight's class stated, "I don't like doing blobs" and then moments later was giggling while looking at one.

If you are not familiar with artist Carla Sonheim, I encourage you to look at her website.

carlasonheim.com

There are a lot of very good free tutorials on the site and her work is quite charming. She is quickly becoming one of my favorite "go to" artist for inspiration.

Anyway, I created a stack of watercolor blobs prior to the meeting since there would not be a lot of time nor space for the women to create their own blobs. I handed each woman a sharpie pen and told them to find the imaginary creature hidden in their blobs.

I'm guessing by the amount of laughing and the eagerness to create more than one blobimal, they had a good time.

I'm quite impressed with the results and the vivid imaginations of the women who were at the meeting.

Everyone quite enjoyed looking at all the creations while breaking for refreshments.