Making Mask

While the Wednesday class were making their sugar skulls, one student asked if we would be making Halloween pails like the year before.

http://doodlebugdabblings.blogspot.ca/2014/10/happy-halloween.html

I told her we would not be able to create the pails since I did not have enough of the clean paint cans left for everyone.  Then another student asked if we could do some other kind of project for them to use on Halloween which sparked another student to remark, "Can we make mask?"

I hadn't planned on making mask, but why not? To me, this is their class and I do want to honor their request on activities they would like to create and so I came up with a mask making project.

They sketched out their ideas on paper first. One boy proudly brought his new sketchbook to the studio and did his sketching in it. I love that he has a sketchbook and encouraged him by telling him about all of Picasso's sketchbooks I had seen in Barcelona.

I also had some mask that I have collected over the years on display to help the students figure out how to build their mask with paper. They had a great time putting them all on too.

When they were happy with their sketch, they used them as templates when possible for their final work. I also had some templates for those who had drawn their mask too small so they would end up with a mask that actually covered their face.

They built their mask by adding paper parts with glue sticks after painting the pieces with acrylic paint. I had given them watercolor paper to work on since it was by far the heaviest stock paper I had in the studio.  The patch on the above mask actually lifts up! And she worked quite hard to make sure the teeth on the mask look like they are in her mouth. She was quite happy with her results.

This girls' mask at first glance looks pretty simple, however take a look at  that mustache! She built it so that her nose would actually fit through.  So clever.

The Mario mask is actually five parts put together. He wanted the lid of the hat to stick out, so he created a separate piece there in order to fold it out. The nose and mustache are also separate pieces in order to create depth.

And finally this sweet mask. There was no convincing him to add any color or details to his mask. I discovered why when he stood next to the black refrigerator in the studio. His mask blends into the dark and makes him look headless!  Oh my word, the creativity in this group of children knows no bounds.

I usually do not put pictures of the kids on my blog in order to protect them but since their identities are protected by the mask, thought it would be fun to share them wearing their creations.  (I hot glued the black ribbon on the mask so they could wear them for the pictures)

I was thrilled with this project. Even more thrilled that the project was brought forth by the students in the class! I hope they have as good a time wearing their mask on Halloween as they did making them in studio. 

Preschool Monoprints

I'm learning a lot with the preschool class.

My goal the last two classes has been to try to develop an understanding on what happens when you mix the primary colors together. In other words, how to make orange, green, and purple.

The results at the end of class have been just about having fun blending the primary colors and enjoying the process.

I first had the three girls use the brayers and roll out a primary ink color onto a plate.  That alone was lots of fun. Using copy paper, we then laid it over top of the ink and pulled a print.  Again equally exciting and we hadn't even drawn anything!

Then using another primary color they rolled the ink across a plate and this time, drew into the ink with a Qtip.  When finished they used the same piece of paper, placed it on the ink with their drawing,  rubbed, and pulled another print.

The hope was they would see a new color created by combining two primary colors.  

We drew pumpkins in red and yellow ink and when I asked what color they saw, I got a resounding "GREEN!"

So I quickly abandoned the original plan and just let them explore rolling the ink onto the plates, drawing lines into the ink, and pulling prints.  

They had a lot of fun and after several prints, I quickly pulled out another type of plate I thought they would enjoy too- the gelatin plates I made during the summer.

"cat" 3 year old

I gave each child a little palette of ink in the primary colors, included white to create tints,  and a paint brush. I let them paint ink onto the gelatin plates until their hearts were content. (more ink than you can imagine was on the plates) I encouraged them to not completely blend all their colors with varying degrees of success.

"cat" 3 year old

Then again with the trusty Qtip, I had them draw a picture into the ink. 

I asked them what each of their favorite animals were and brought out some reference material for them to look at also.

Stop laughing. 

I know, reference material with three year olds. It was completely unnecessary but they did enjoy the idea of looking at the reference and putting it next to them to utilize while they drew, even though they paid no attention to it whatsoever.

"bunny bun" 3 year old

This child brought her stuffed bunny to class called, bunny bun. She had so much fun drawing it in both these prints,  although the top one is quite an abstract "bunny bun". 

Without doubt that was exactly what she was going for because I work with nothing less than genius three year olds,

Isn't it funny how as adults we want to create product out of projects? She certainly wasn't concerned with anything more than getting lost in process and was quite enthralled with the results from that simple perspective.  

I don't think she spent one minute thinking about what an amazing abstract bunny bun she created........

"bunny bun" 3 year old

I am quite proud of her with the above print. No doubt restraint when it came to not blending all the inks into one color was challenging. Not only did she not blend everything, she even created that pink shape by painting the negative space purple! (not that she realized that, but still, impressive) 

"penguin" 3 year old

And finally this little girl, you know that friend who isn't afraid to cannonball into the water without first checking to see if it's cold? I can think of no better way to describe this child.  She is ALL IN, all the time. No time to wait when there are things to be explored, just give her the paintbrush and let her go. I love the movement in the above print. To me, it captures her personality perfectly.

"cat"  3 year old

And then there is the penguin who became a cat. How great is her composition of thirds? You know she was completely thinking of that when she created this work.  Because again, genius child.

In the end, I know they enjoyed exploring the world of monoprints. And although they may not quite have the whole orange and green thing down, they certainly learned from their experience with color blending.

They learned it was fun.

And isn't that the most important thing of all? 

There are two spaces left in the preschool class. This is a drop off class, however I am perfectly fine with parents staying if that makes their child more comfortable. Please contact me through KudzuStudio.com if you are interested in your child joining the fun.

acrylic pumpkins

The preteens worked on acrylic pumpkin paintings their first night back in the studio.

I had a pumpkin set up in the middle of the table and asked them to sketch with charcoal, not only working out compositionally where they wanted to place the pumpkin on the paper but also spending time to really look at the placement of the stem and the shape of the pumpkin.

Using primary colors, they each blended their own background colors.  I encouraged them to do the blending on the paper, but they also chose to create colors on the palette also.

Once they had their backgrounds complete, I demonstrated how to create an interesting mix of oranges by placing the yellow on the top and the red on the bottom of each section and bringing the colors together to blend.

Finally I encouraged them to use the complimentary color of their pumpkin for shading, instead of using black. 

I think their work came out stunning.

11 year old

11 year old