British Columbia animal acrylics

The lunch art program I am running at a local elementary school is focused on creating art highlighting high risk species.

For their acrylic paintings, I introduced them to some animals right here in British Columbia that are considered at risk

My hope was that by highlighting animals close to home, the issue would take on a personal meaning to them.

I brought some photos of several animals, a grizzly bear, a Vancouver Island marmot, snowshoe hare, and the spotted owl.

spotted owl, grade one

The majority of the children decided to draw and paint the spotted owl with a few kids who picked the hare, the bear and the marmot.

Vancouver Island marmot, grade one

That sounds like the title of a children's book!

Each child spent time working on a sketch first. I used this as an opportunity to have them start focusing on what they really saw in the pictures and how to record on paper the observations they were making.

spotted owl, grade one

Since for the most part this is a very young class, I began by having them find the shapes that made up the animal and then combining the shapes with line to create their drawings.

This was also an opportunity to share with them how to make conscious choices about composition and creating one that pleased the eye and drew the viewer into their works of art. Sounds like a lofty concept for young children to comprehend, but they always seem to get it.

Vancouver Island marmot, grade two

Never underestimate the mind of a child.

As the class ended, they each used a piece of carbon paper to trace their sketch onto acrylic paper and then went over the drawing once it was transferred with charcoal.

This past week, they painted. Each child had a palette of primary color plus black and white. I used this as a real opportunity for them to practice color mixing. I encouraged them to create their own colors instead of just using the blue, yellow or red someone else made.

spotted owl, grade one

Immediately the question was raised, 'Do I have to paint my animal brown?"

Which was a wonderful opportunity to discuss how many artist use color to show emotion and create mood or abstract a work for interest. I emphasized that color was an important decision they would make as artist when creating their work.

spotted owl, Kindergarten

For a couple of children, it was also a great opportunity for them to explore how to create mood with tints and tones. These two artist had made some very interesting choices with their backgrounds- one using a lot of white and the other mixing with a lot of black. As I walked by, I encouraged both of them to continue adding this element to the colors they were mixing for their owls and was so excited to see they decided to give it a try! 

The black certainly leaves the viewer feeling like they have happened upon this spotted owl at night.

spotted owl, grade three

I like to share with the kids what I call, "artist secrets". There is something about calling them secrets that really captures their imagination. The first one I shared was starting with painting the background first. I also encouraged them to mix their colors directly on their paper instead of the palette.

ninja fighting snowshoe hare, grade four

I also spent some time as they painted showing them how to use brushstrokes to add interest to their works of art.

Finally as they finished their painting, I gave each child another opportunity to use the black charcoal to add any black lines they wanted. By adding charcoal while the paint is just semi-dry, it adds a very interesting look and adheres to the painting without the need of fixative.

spotted owl, grade one

spotted owl, grade one

It also gives the students more control than trying to add black line with the paintbrush.

In the end, there were some absolutely adorable works of arts. Each and every child should be incredibly proud of themselves and hopefully their artworks share with others some of the animals right here in our own part of the world who need a little extra TLC from us.

grizzly bear, grade one

Halloween inspired shadow boxes

I love when students take a project idea and make it their own.

I learned a long time ago to trust children when they divert from an original project plan. Great things have always been the result.

My original project was to have the kids create Day of the Dead inspired boxes. I had pulled several reference photos and as a group we discussed the details they discovered in the photos. I told them about the Day of the Dead celebration in Mexico and they shared with me storied of loved ones who had passed away in their families. We talked about how when we shared stories of our loved ones who were no longer on earth with us, they continued to live through those stories- the basis of the loving and beautiful holiday tradition in Mexico.

I learned about Pancake Grandma. A child's great grandmother who was famous in the family for making the world's best pancakes and several other wonderful family members.

But in the end, the kids were not to interested in creating decorated skeletons. 

Not interested at all.

They wanted to create Halloween boxes and sculptures of themselves trick or treating.

9 year old.

One wanted to create a box of bats flying on Halloween night.

9 year old

So while using the design elements of the Day of the Dead boxes as inspiration, the class project took a sharp turn left with the students at the wheel.

Using oven baked clay, each child created the characters for the narrative scene they wanted to create. They also painted the box with acrylic paints.

Close up of 9 year old box, she's a cheerleader this Halloween and she even added details like the skeleton on the shirt and her pigtails with ribbon, along with the black stockings.

At that point, the hour and a half was finished.

The following week, they painted their sculptures and then built their boxes to tell their unique Halloween story.

Close up of 9 year old box, he consciously chose to simplify the bat form and make one bat a different color. This was a great example of learning about back, mid and foreground.

There was A LOT of glitter applied to the backgrounds.

Rhinestones and holiday themed wasabi tape I picked up on clearance along with some holiday theme greenery.

5.5 year old box. Mom and dad are pirates, she is a princess and their dog is dressed up as Olaf. She added spooky faces to the tree branch! And enjoyed creating a stack of jack-o-laterns for the dog.

I had sticks and wood blocks the students could apply their imagination too.

And they had a ball painting their characters and assembling their shadow boxes. Most of them were creating until the very last minutes of class and they were so thrilled with their final results. 

Close up of 8 year old box, "Vampire" Love the "harvest moon" he created in glitter.

I had them each take a moment to write a note to their future selves on the back of the boxes. The wrote Halloween 2016 and then the story they had created. Since most used themselves as the hero/heroine of the box, in their costume holiday choice for this coming trick or treat night, I believe these will become a cherished decoration of their childhood in years to come.

Close up of 9 year old box. Best friends (you'll notice the cheerleader again from the above box) out trick-or-treating with the artist's pet cat, Taylor. Again the Harvest Moon makes an appearance.

Regardless I am glad I handed control of the project over to the students so pure magic could happen in the studio this holiday season.

Happy Halloween Everyone! 

shopkins assemblage boxes

This past weekend there was a birthday party of an 7 year old in the studio. All the girls were grade 2 and all seemed to be enthralled with Shopkins.

In fact, that was the theme of the birthday party.

I strive to learn one thing new everyday and for this day, it was all about Shopkins. I had never heard of them before and so spent some time online figuring out what they were so I could create a project around them.

birthday girl

At first I thought I would have the girls create little oven baked figurines of their own design, however after seeing how small this toy actually is was concerned they would finish them way before the 1.5 class finished. Plus I thought it might be a bit of a challenge to paint in the details with one 4 year old in the mix. (which did turn out to be two little 4 year olds in the end)

As I was cleaning up the house, a time for some reason I seem to have creative breakthroughs, I remembered the Affirmation Boxes the elementary class created last year and thought it would be a great match for a Shopkin party.

Each girl started by sketching their own Shopkin creation. I suggested creating a character that might be associated with birthday parties and the girls all through out ideas of birthday foods in a quick brainstorming session.

Once they had their own Shopkin design, I asked them to paint an environment on the inside of the box I gave them.

As they finished the boxes, I gave each girl a piece of acrylic paper and asked them to draw their Shopkin character. When finished they traced over the lines with acrylic and again started painting.

When finished, I took a blowdryer to the parts of painting that hadn't quite dried. Thankfully they were all finishing at staggered times, so I didn't have a long line waiting.

Then I handed them some scissors and asked them to cut out their Shopkin character.

Finally I showed them how to draw a banner on a piece of cardstock and asked them to put the name of their character on it in Sharpie and again cut it out.

Now it was time to assemble the pieces. I gave them some adhesive little dots to tack their pieces into the boxes.

The girls were all excited with their finished results.

Then it was time for snacks and cupcakes and lots of giggles and chatting.

Thank you Miss S for letting me be apart of your special day.

Happy 8th Birthday!!!