A Winter Art Project: Drawing Winter Birds

Birds can be an interesting subject to draw; and in the winter time, items such as leafless tree branches/trees, or evergreen boughs, can also be part of the picture.

In a recent art project with 4th grade children, their assignment was to draw a winter bird, along with some kind of tree branch or tree.  They sketched in pencil, then colored the picture with crayons.

There were some printed pages they could look at, to see different types of winter birds and basic bird shapes.

Here is what the birds shapes page looks like; I made these drawings by looking at bird photographs:

And here are the photo pages we used:

Using these pages as a reference, the children made a variety of bird pictures with various backgrounds, such as a city scene (Central Park in New York, including the Statue of Liberty off in the distance), birds in a yard, bird perched on an evergreen bush, etc.

If you would like to download these bird drawing reference pages, they are available on Gentle Shepherd's website on the Arts and Crafts Freebies page-- www.gentleshepcurr.com/arts-and-crafts-freebies

Here are some example drawings; the bird on the left is an imaginary type; the ones on the right are wrens.

Plaster Pictures

"Fresco" means "fresh," and in art a fresco is a wall painting, usually painted directly on wet plaster.  The paint will actually seep in and become part of the plaster.

Here is a fun way to try out painting on fresh plaster.  All you need is some plaster of Paris, water, some plastic plates, and some paints.

Mix up the plaster and water according to the proportions given on the package, then pour it into the plates. If you'd like to have a hanging hole in the plaster, shortly after pouring you can put a small (about 1 ") tubular piece cut from a plastic straw into the plaster, leaving it there while the plaster is firming.  It takes about 30 minutes for it to get fairly firm, ready to be painted on.  Just before painting, remove the straw tube-- which will leave a small hole.

Tempera paints can be used, but be sure to use a fairly undiluted paint-- because the plaster will absorb some of the paint, the design will tend to fade; you may want to put on a second coat of paint.

Using acrylic paint will result in brighter colors (less fading).

Here are some designs I made, using tempera paint:

I experimented with making some indentations in the plaster, also-- the design on the right has markings made with the end of a spool pressed onto the plaster, and the other two pictures had some lines made by "drawing" with a plastic straw (using something heavier, like a popsicle stick, didn't work well-- it went right through the plaster, tearing it).

Here are some plaster pictures by students in the 4th grade glass I was doing this project with:

Once the plaster is dry, it's easy to take it out of the plastic plate.  (Please note: don't try to do this project using paper plates; paper tends to bond with the plaster instead of resisting it.)

It takes several days for the plaster to completely dry; in the meantime it is especially fragile-- so the pictures need to be set somewhere that they will not be disturbed.

This was a fun project; next time, I'd like to experiment with making different picture shapes-- maybe rectangular or square, depending on what kinds of plastic plates or containers I can find, to pour into.

A Picasso Project -- Fragmented Faces

This drawing project can be a great way to introduce the idea of cubism; we did it when also reading about Pablo Picasso and looking at some of his works.  The children's biography we especially liked using was Pablo Picasso, by Linda Lowery; it was a book at the library.

Here is what a finished picture looks like. This is an example I made, using felt pens and crayon.

We decided to not make self-portraits, or to draw each other, but just to make random face pictures.  This one doesn't have hair, but it can also be put in by making some sections around the head . . . 

Here are some students' finished pictures:

Making these complex pictures was pretty simple-- here are some instructions:

Start by using pencil-- make a large oval shape for the head.  Then, make a side, profile view line going down the front of the face.  Then draw in the lips.  Next, make eyes-- keep in mind that they don't have to be aligned exactly like normal eyes are, and one could be drawn from a side-view angle.

Then add ears, and a hair section, if wanted.  Now make two large curving lines right over the face.  Add in a couple of straight lines, breaking the face (and hair) up into more fragments.

If needed, erase any unwanted lines-- especially where extremely small fragments have formed; you want the fragmented parts to be fairly large.

Then go over all these lines with a black felt pen.

The next step, using colored felt pens, is to make some line designs, dots, etc. in some of the fragments, and to fill in others with solid color, always having different colors in adjoining fragments.

After all the felt pen coloring is completed, you can add in some fill with crayon; putting crayon in over the felt pen designs in some of the fragments will help create more warmth and richness in the finished picture.

Here is another example drawing made entirely with felt pen (no crayon); you can see that having high contrast areas (colored felt pen and white paper) throughout is less pleasing to look at.

Here are a some more finished student pictures:

This was a fun exploration of cubism; the kids (third graders) seemed to enjoy the freedom of making all kinds of colors and patterns, and the results were amazing!

Watery Pointillism

I helped with a recent art project in my granddaughter's third grade class.  We were making "waterway" pictures, showing a stream or river (or waterfall) and scenery/background of some kind around the waterway.

We also learned about James Seurat, and the art technique known as "pointillism."  Using lots of little colored lots (pointillism) to make the water areas made them really stand out -- the rest of the picture was done in black line art.

Here are a couple of samples I made:

For making the dots, oil pastels worked very well; the colors were vibrant, and it was fairly easy to make small dots; but this same idea might also be done using color crayons.

Here are some of the many wonderful pictures the kids created --

This river was still in progress when the photo was taken . . .

and here is a waterfall . . .

and another waterfall --

I like all the animals, insects, and creatures of all kinds in this one, by my granddaughter:

Here is one more picture; in this one a stream is joining a river . . .

Pointillism worked out very well for making the watery parts of these art pieces.  Maybe we'll try out some partial pointillism pictures, for other things, too . . .  

Van Gogh - style art pictures!

Van Gogh used a lot of tiny dash lines in many of his paintings.  So using this technique, I made some Van Gogh-style pictures.

First, a sketch --

Then with markers, lots of little dash lines; some of them go in twirly patterns, and some are in straight lines.

Next, color crayon is added -- to put in some more color flecks and shading.

Here is another set using felt pen first, then crayon added in:

This is a pretty easy technique, and the pictures turned out so nice; kids could easily use this method to make some beautiful impressionist-style artwork!

Apple Mosaic with Paper Squares

Last Friday I was helping a group a kids make apple mosaics.  This was a project the kids really enjoyed; they were around age 6, and I heard several of them say, "This is fun!" as they were working on it.

My part was to bring all the supplies, and some finished examples.  I also used pencil to draw an apple shape on the papers beforehand, so all they would need to do was glue on the paper squares (our time was limited, but if you have the time, drawing the apple shape could be an extra step and some kids would probably like drawing their own or using a template to trace around).

The supplies:

colored paper for a background, cut to the small size we wanted (about 7' x 8 1/2").  I offered the kids a choice between four colors-- light blue, dark blue, yellow, and pink.  I was kind of surprised when every single girl wanted pink . . . so most of my pink supply was depleted.  The boys mostly chose blue, though one brave fellow decided on yellow.

glue and some small plates to put it on, and cottons swabs to use in applying the glue.

paper squares, in various shades of red, pink, and orange-- I did have a small amount of these precut, but mostly just had long narrow strips (cut with a paper cutter) and went around cutting these off into squares with a pair of scissors, to replenish the squares as needed.

some long strips of brown paper (even more narrow) for cutting the apple stems-- I saved this for near the end, when kids were almost finished with their mosaics.

Here is what a finished mosaic looks like:

One thing I did to make some different shades of colors for the squares was to use paint (tempera and also watercolor) and paint some cardstock with reddish paint.  This also gave an interesting texture to some of the pieces-- because there were brush stroke lines. It also gave more variation in the color among the squares.  Watercolor paint gave me pinkish-red shades; the tempera paint I used was reddish-orange.

In the sample above, some of the squares were cut into rectangles and triangles, to better fit in along the lines.

An apple is a great subject for a fall mosaic, because apples are harvested in fall, and it is a simple roundish shape.  I think this could be also be very easily done for pumpkins or jack-o-lanterns.

If you'd like to see some more mosaic ideas, using all kinds of materials, there is an assortment here on this Pinterest mosaics board:
http:// www.pinterest.com/weavings/mosaics/.

Styrofoam Prints -- Easy to Do, with Great Results!

I was looking for a technique to use for printing that would be somewhat similar to lithography (a design is etched into something, then ink-- or paint-- is applied, then paper is pressed on).  But I didn't want to use regular oily printing inks, and didn't want to have to purchase expensive special materials for scratching into . . .

After a little searching, I found this idea: printing using styrofoam from styrofoam picnic plates!  This looked very interesting.  Styrofoam plates are easy to find, at very little cost. Some styrofoam containers could also be repurposed for this, such as meat trays or fast food holders.  Using a large styrofoam plate gives a pretty big flat area (the center) -- so the tilted edges can be cut off, and this flat area can be used for making a drawing.

Using a pen cap that is kind of pointed (not the pen tip itself; that would cut into the styrofoam instead of pushing it down), a simple design or picture can be drawn in the styrofoam.

Then paint can be added, by brushing some on with a paintbrush, and then a print can be made by either pressing paper onto the styro etching surface, or picking up the etched and painted styrofoam piece and pressing it onto paper.

As you can see, you'll get a mirror image -- so if you want to put words in the design, keep it in mind that you'll need to etch in a mirror image of the word (write each letter backwards, and write from right to left).

Each print made with this technique is a mono print; you can reapply paint to make more of the same, but if you try to make more than one without repainting you will probably not have a very vivid print.  Here are some examples: the tulip on the left is a first print, and on the right is a second print made without repainting.  Sometimes a kind of faded appearance does look nice; so you can experiment with doing reprints, if you want to achieve a lighter look.

So the next time you have some leftover styrofoam dishes or containers in the house, remember "styro-printing!"  You might like to repurpose some containers and try this out; or you can easily find a package of styrofoam plates at the grocery store-- I was glad to find that this material was so easy to make designs in (with a blunt, rounded but kind of pointy instrument-- a knitting needle or crochet hook could also work for this; I think another time I'll try using those . . .)

Painting with Tissue Paper

Maybe you didn't know you can paint with tissue paper.  I didn't, until I saw this post about it by Jeanette Nyberg at Artchoo: http://artchoo.com/tissue-paper-art-valentines-hearts/.

She explains the process and has step-by-step pictures in her blog post.  I loved the idea of having a "surprise" painting project; it is a surprise because you put pieces of tissue paper OVER your design drawn with oil pastels, then use a paint brush and water to "paint" right over the tissue paper.  You don't know what the final picture will look like until after you let the wet tissue paper sit and "bleed" color onto the paper underneath.''

For some well-written instructions, take a look at Jeanette's post; I'll show some of the valentines we made here:

Please note:  To do tissue paper painting, you must use a special type of "Art Tissue" that will bleed color.  It won't work if you try using ordinary gift wrap tissue; I tried that before I knew what the difference was-- and the result was no color under some areas that had gift wrap tissue over them.  I had some of the right kind of tissue in our craft cupboard, but I had been trying to use a combination of both gift wrap tissue and art tissue.  In the picture at the left below, the white areas resulted because there was pink gift wrap tissue above.  So if you do want to have some white areas, you could use two types of tissue purposely.

I really enjoyed learning this new painting technique.  Of course, it doesn't have to be just for making valentines-- we'll be using it to do some other kinds of artwork, too . . . but since Valentine's Day is almost here, making valentines was a great way to try it out!

Epsom Salt Painting -- adds a crystal sheen!

Have you ever painted using Epsom salt water?  We were doing this as a science experiment at first, using just food coloring  (equal parts Epsom salt and water, heated on med heat -- with stirring-- to dissolve).  Here is one of the pictures made with the food coloring solution:

You can see the gleaming of the crystals; this painting is DRY, but it looks shiny as if it were wet.

This was very interesting, and added a new dimension as an art medium, so I wanted to try using actual paint instead of food coloring, and see what that would look like.  It worked well, except that on my first try I let the water and Epsom salt get too hot-- they were boiling-- and the mixture turned crystally and thick instead of being clear and liquid (as it should look when dissolved completely).

Here's what the too-thick boiled mixture looked like after mixing in paint:

If you paint with this, it is very globby and doesn't stick well to the paper; so after trying it out I decided to start over, and make sure to watch the mixture while cooking.

To my new batch I added acrylic paint (about a teaspoon in each small cup) and stirred it well. 

Here it is before and after stirring:

The paint mixture was less watery than when we used food coloring, but it was easy to use-- it flowed along on the brush just fine. 

Here are some pictures made using the paint:

Would you like to make some crystally pictures like this?  It's very easy to make the mixture (equal parts Epsom salt and water, put on medium heat and stir just until dissolved); I think next we'll experiment with using Kool-Aid as a dye; I'm wondering if we can get bright colors but keep the watery feel.





Texture Hunt

Do you ever wonder what to use in doing crayon rubbings?  I have usually put this art project on hold just because I'm not sure what else to use, besides coins and leaves and tombstones . . .

But recently, I decided to brainstorm and then try out some different textured items, as an experiment.

Here are some of the items that I found work really well when put beneath a piece of paper, to do crayon rubbings:

1-  paper cut-outs

Normal paper thickness works fine.  You can cut out letters, numbers, shapes of objects or animals or people, etc.

2- stencils

From cardstock or thin plastic-- these can be ready-made, or you can cut your own.  Large lids made of soft plastic (yogurt container lids, raisin cannister lids, etc.) work well for making stencils.  This is the same as the paper cut-outs idea, except that these are sturdier.

3-  rick-rack, ribbon, and lace

Rick-rack comes in many sizes, and makes an interesting pattern when used in a rubbing. Ribbons will make a long rectangular shape (they can be cut to different rectangle lengths). When using lace, small details are likely to be lost when doing a rubbing, so it's best to use laces with large holes.

4-  pipe cleaners

These can be bent to make different shapes such as a spiral, ocean waves, geometric shapes.

5-  pieces of leather

Leather lacing can be used, or leather that is cut into certain shapes.

6-  yarn or string

Using small thicknesses will result in a more definite line in the rubbing, so it's better to use baby yarn than regular yarn, and kite string instead of thicker string.

7-  rubberbands

You can use these to add circle or oval shapes to your rubbing picture.

8-  metal washers, coins

Washers will give you a round "donut" shape, and coins will also give you some interesting pictures (whatever raised design is on the coin).  For washers, thinner is better.


9-  pieces of hard plastic that have definite textures

You will most likely need to cut apart a plastic item, so you can use certain textured parts.
Some examples: one side of a plastic berry basket, or of a plastic organizer tray that has a pattern of slots on the side.

10- toothpicks and popsicle sticks

These could be arranged to make a design, or used with other objects.  They make straight lines.

Something NOT to use: 
One item that I found did not work well was buttons; they tended to slip under the paper while doing the rubbing (whereas metal washers and coins would stay put).

Here's a completed crayon rubbing picture.  Tree stencils, circle stencil, lace, and rickrack were used-- the rabbit, and details on sun and trees were added by drawing after the rubbing was finished.

What have you used for rubbings?  Do you have some more ideas to add to the ones here?

A Pinch of Salt . . .

Have you ever painted using salt?

I hadn't . . . and didn't really know what to expect, but this Friday when we did some watercolor paintings this one had salt sprinkles add in; you can see where the small "star-like" white spots are-- those are from salt that dissolved in wet paint.  It was a good fit for this picture, of ocean waves.

If you'd like to try painting with salt and watercolors, just remember that the effect doesn't happen instantly . . . it takes awhile to see . . . but after about 10 minutes the salt dots will be evident, and you can brush off any excess salt.

Dip Bowls-- A Preschool Art Teacher's Best Friend

You know a really good way to provide paint in separate colors for preschoolers' artwork? It's dip bowls-- those little bowls sold by kitchenware sellers for putting small amounts of salsa or other dips, in. They're fairly inexpensive, not as easily tipped as paper cups, easy for brushes to "dip" into, and easy to clean up when painting is done.

They have lots of other uses for crafts, too-- you can put out small quantities of sequins, beads, pom-poms, or other materials in these bowls. This is easier for young kids than boxes with dividers.

Also, they work well for putting glue in, and dipping a cotton swab or cardboard strip or wooden craft stick into, to apply glue for collage or other gluing projects.

These little bowls are great for crafts! You may be wondering why I am posting about doing preschool crafts when my youngest kids are 11 and 14 . . . well, my kids babysit for a young nephew, and I am also in charge of plans for crafts for young children for a Sunday School program. And besides that, these bowls are so handy that we often use them ourselves-- myself and my older kids-- when doing artwork.