Showing posts with label art blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art blog. Show all posts

Sunday, March 9, 2014

What I Wore #92 and Back to the Drawing Board, er, Sketch Book

When Everyone in the World Gets a Snow Day But You: You wear a sad-looking puppy sweater, smear read lipstick on your face and make the most of the day. Granted, we did get Monday off...but Tuesday we had to return. Meanwhile, the rest of ya's slept til noon (or later, how glorious!), ate bonbons and got caught up on Days of Our Lives. Jelly! sweater: Old Navy; dress: Francesca's a million years ago; crinoline: Amazon; boots: Lucky Brand; tights: dunno; leopard scarf and headband: gifts
Hey, kids! I hope there's some super happy sunshine in your neck of the woods as we are finally seeing some blue skies here. This weekend, I've spent time outside drawing and painting and the sun felt like heaven on my skin. Wouldn't it be so super rad if spring just decided to kick winter to the curb and make herself at home? I'd be down with that. 

Since the weather is so divine and...it's mah burfdey!...Ima gonna keep this post short with just a little of What I Wore and what I've managed to draw for the Artsy Book Club. However, I do wanna throw out a coupla questions to ya'll:

1. Are you going to the NAEA conference in San Diego at the end of the month?

2. I wanna have a meet up! Would anyone be interested in a little Crazy Art Teacher gathering? I know, the whole thing is One Big Crazy Art Teacher get-together, but I dunno. I'd just love to meet ya'll!

3. I'll be presenting! -Ish! I'll be presenting on a panel titled Elementary Division Carousel of Learning and Advocacy (side note: there will not be any actual "carousel" at the presentation. I already asked) on Sunday, March 29th from 9:30 - 10:20am in the Hilton Hotel/Indigo 2014B/Level 2 (you got that? Because I'm pretty sure I'm gonna need your help finding the place when the time comes). I plan to have a couple gifty-surprises for the first 20 folks that make it to my panel. Yay!

Alright, that's all I got. Off to roll around on the floor, eat copious amounts of cake and cookies and holler "it's my birthday, I'll do what I want!" to the cat and hubs. Have a great week!
So a couple of years ago, I took a pastel class from this seriously fun and kind dude named Paul DeMarris. Not only is Paul a fabulous teacher and artist, he is also the creator of his own line of oil sticks. They are like working with butter saturated in the most glorious of colors. He's recently branched out into the "crayon" market (I use that term loosely as they were more oil pastel-esque than waxy crayon). He sent me a sample of the primary colors and white to play with...and I cannot stop using them. They blend beautifully and when layered they almost have the appearance of oil paint. You should totally contact Paul (he's honestly the nicest and most friendly dude!) if you'd like him to lead a class or are interested in his sticks.
Blue Willow Pottery Wednesday: My art teacher BFF (Hi, Mallory!) did this amazing art lesson last year on Blue Willow Pottery. I borrowed pretty heavily from her lesson, especially telling the kids The Legend of Blue Willow Pottery. To set the mood, I went with this blue willow-wannabe dress. sweater: vintage, thrifted; dress: vintage; shoes: Anthro; tights and necklace: Target
Having worked for days on my sushi hat/dress ensemble, I had a hankerin' for the stuff. I picked up this lovely tray at the grocery and it was a battle of willpower to draw it before devouring it. I actually had to lock myself in my sewing room to draw this as the cat could smell it and kept pounding on the door. This drawing was also created with Paul's sticks.
Let's Go to the Art Museum Thursday: I had an inservice after school on Thursday that involved seeing an Asian art exhibit. I decided my sushi ensemble would be appropriate. Surprisingly, I was the only one wearing sushi that evening...what's wrong with people?! hat, dress, shoes: DIY by me, go here; bag and sweater: thrifted; tights: Target
The last two days have been this lovely. I seriously could have sat outside and soaked up the sun all day. This is a little watercolor meets Paul's crayons.
Thanks, Mom! Friday: So I may have dropped some not-so-subtle hints to the mom that I needed this skirt in my life for my birthday. And it managed to come in the mail just in time for me to wear on Friday which was perfect because I almost didn't have a stitch to wear (ha, I kid. I have enough clothing to blanket the state of Tennessee. Sometimes it gets cold). Thanks, ma!! pencil skirt with pencils skirt: Anthropologie; sweater, blouse: thrifted; necklace: The Paper Source; shoes: Dolls by Nina; tights: Target; palette pin: gift from a friend (thanks, Paul N.!)
So, I may or may not have a shoe addiction. Here are a couple that I love (despite what my feet say). These were such fun to draw that I might actually have to sketch some more from my growing shoe collection. This was drawn in crayon.






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Monday, February 10, 2014

In the Art Room: Creating a Narrative with Fourth Grade

Have you ever done one of those projects where you just knew it was gonna be quick -n- easy, everyone was gonna be successful -n- happy, finish at exactly the same time -n- be ready to move on to that Next Big Thing?

Yeah, me neither.

Take this "quick -n- easy" figure drawing experience. 

My fourth grade created gesture drawings of their classmates roller skating in P.E. The intent was for them to use those drawings as inspiration for a figure drawing of an ice skater. That ice skater will eventually be added to a school-wide mural (I'll keep ya posted).
Sounds easy enough, right? 

Wrong, dudes. Wrong.

Have you ever taught figure drawing to the under-10 set? It's, like, seriously tough, ya'll.
This artist told me her figure is diving for a starfish.
AND it took them For-Eve-Errr. Like three separate thirty minute classes. If you're good at math you know that's an hour and a half, people! Granted, their results were pretty rad and they were pleased as punch with themselves. However, I wasn't about to let their drawings just get glued to some mural. So I made enlarged photocopies of each drawing, passed 'em back to the kids along with their chalk stars and asked them to create a narrative using the two.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to that gesture drawing bit.
Gesture Drawing: If you've not tried this with your kids, you really outta give it a go. My students loved it. We spent about 5ish minutes in the art room chatting about gesture drawings just being quick and simple sketches that are meant to capture movement. I demonstrated a quick drawing of a student running in place. We all agreed my drawing looked terrible by normal standards...but had I captured movement? Yep. We also had a quick chat about how we were visitors to the P.E. room and we were to work quietly and stay outta the way of the skaters. Then we gathered up clipboards, newsprint, charcoal sticks (which they loved) and cloth erasers and spent about 15 minutes drawing as many skaters as we could.




I love their finished results. They are all so different in their style. I really love how so many of them look like Keith Haring people...which gave me all sorts of ideas for future projects.
Gesture drawing was all fun and games until we returned to art class the following day. I told the kids that we were going to be creating ice skaters for a school-wide mural. With their gesture drawings in hand, the kids were to pick their favorite, use a wooden mannequin to model the same pose and draw from there. Which worked for some. Others were still stumped. For those kids, we regrouped and I broke it down a little more: turn your stick man into a thick man by adding lines on either side of the stick drawing.
The drawing on the right shows someone who made their "stick man into a thick man" while the artist on the right used a mannequin. We struggled with proportions and just how the body works...but in the end, I was pleased if their peeps simply showed some sort of movement. And had a head.
From there the kids were to add clothing to their figures and trace with a thin sharpie. It was at this point that I decided to make enlarged photocopies of their drawings...I just knew we'd come up with another project for them.
So, after coloring and cutting out both of their people (small original and enlarged photocopy), I challenged the kids to create a narrative collage.

And they were like: A-Whah-Huh?
So I busted out some Marc Chagall and we talked about how artists often tell stories with their art. We chatted about Chagall's work and some stories that might be behind them. Then I told 'em that they were to create a narrative tale with two subjects: their figure drawing and their chalk star.

At our supply gathering area, I laid out tons of painted, marbled and sparkly papers along with boxes of scraps. I told the kids that they were to come up with a story that they had to present to me before they glued it down. I did this because I really wanted them to cut out shapes, move their papers around and really think about their story instead of just cutting and pasting.
After presenting their idea to me, we'd talk about whether or not their collage really told their story or not. For some, that meant adding a background to set the scene. Often, they were sent back to their seats to continue working on the visual details of their story. There was some grumbling and some "but it's finished!" to which I usually replied "Nah. Make it even more awesome."

Once finished, I asked the students to write up an artist statement to accompany their piece. We talked about how an artist statement could either reveal the entire story behind the work...but how most artists like the viewer to create their own tale.
Which you'll see most of these artists liked the idea of...

(Inside scoop: I was told that this dude is "emo", hence the hair stylin's.)


When I was snapping photos for this post, I came across this funny artist statement by the artist of this collage...
Um, looney toones?! Ha!

Have ya'll taught figure drawing before? Do you have a sure-fire method? I know if I teach this again there will be some mucho tweaking. So I'd love your input. 

Thanks, ya'll!


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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

DIY: In the Kitchen (You Know, that Weird Room that Came with the House)

Lemme just be honest with you: cooking is not really my thang. Because when I'm hungry, I like to eat. Like, that very moment. So playing around with the cutting and the chopping and the measuring spoons (where I have to stop and think "wait, what does TBSP mean again?!") isn't my idea of a good time. Naw, I'm more into the eat-a-bowl-of-cereal-and-move-on scene.

Howevers, there's this dude that lives in my house who seems to enjoy a hot cooked meal now and then. I don't know why. I blame his makin'-food-from-scratch mother. 

For that reason, I force myself to cook at least two giant meals a week. What we don't eat, that aforementioned dude and I freeze into lunch-sized portions and dinner-sized meals. A coupla years ago, we stopped eating meat (well, he did. I can't seem to give up sushi which is kinda like food-crack so it's not my fault) which means I gotta be creative with the meal planning. Because, as much as we've tried, one cannot survive on Butter Noodles alone. 

Now, not all vegetarian recipes are created equally. Some taste like, well, boiled down celery stalks and gym socks. With a TBSP of wheat germ. So when you come across a good one, you wanna keep it. For that reason, I recently started jotting down my fave recipes. I settled on this sweet little recipe box a buddy had given me to house my new recipes in.

Like, super cute, right? And while I totes love anything vintage, there was something about this that I just didn't love. So I decided to give it a fresh coat of paint.


But here's the deal: I wanted to keep the carved lettering of the box the original wood grain color. To make that happen, I used a little paint roller and simply rolled over the front of the box. This (for the most part) prevented the paint from completely covering the designs. And, done.
For the recipe cards, I decided to use the postcards I'd purchased from Anthro. I scored 'em at their 1/2 off the sale price sale (which is like Christmas only better because you don't have to be around family to score the goods) and I used a stash of vinyl stickers I found in my craft stash for the labels.
Yes, one of those recipes is for Krispy Kreme Donuts. Vegetarian Meal of Choice, yo.
By the way, I learned how to not cook by one of the best non-cookers I know, my crazy mama! This is a super rare photo of us for a coupla reasons: 1. We're in the kitchen (I think we got lost); 2. Mom's holding a cookbook (definitely a photo prop as this book looks like it's never been opened); 3. We're smiling. Which isn't unusual. Unless we're cooking. In which case we're usually cursing and calling each other names. And then ordering pizza.
And now my recipe box has a home! But, let's be honest, the only reason I'm showing you this cupboard is so you can look on in jealousy at my newly acquired ceramic bird house collection. Drooling yet? Again, that Anthro sale was nutz, ya'll! Got each house for about $20 each. I love 'em so.
If you were in my kitchen right now, you'd find dishes in my sink, an overweight cat tiptoeing on the counter scouring for scraps and this new painting hanging above the window!
I got this really cool, super long frame years ago and promptly painted it black and added this flower. It hung in our bedroom for a while but recently decided that I wanted it for a new sign in the kitchen. So, before I could change my mind (cuz I really did like that flower!), I repainted it black and started planning my new sign.
I measured the length of the sign, divided that by the number of letters in the word "Tennessee" and scoured the interwebs for a fun and funky retro font. I settled on this and began sketching our my lettering. Each letter was then cut out and traced into place on the black panel with a white colored pencil.
(This is how our dining room table always looks. And no, that's not an ashtray. I'm not allowed to smoke in the house.)

 Now I was gonna paint each letter outline...until I had flash backs of this and this lettering experience and decided that I was being ridiculously cray-cray. So I dropped by the craft store and picked up a couple of those white paint pens and just traced my pencil lines. WHAT?! So super easy, ya'll.
Now, I gotta admit, I'm still not certain that this is complete. The letters seem a little...empty? I don't think I wanna fill 'em in necssarily...but maybe just add a little design on the inside? A buddy of mine who has far better taste than me (which, honestly, wouldn't take much) said to leave it. Whatcha'll (translation: "What Do You All") think? Ideas? Thoughts? TBSP of Wheat Germ?

Alright, my friends. That's all I got. Now, unless you plan on doin' those dishes, ya'll best get outta my kitchen!
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Thursday, January 23, 2014

In the Art Room: Floating Chalk Prints

Ya'll might recall the suminagashi or paper marbling technique I recently shared. In that post, I shared the pros and cons of the whole experience. They kinda went like this. 

Pros: 
  • The kids loved it. Just the idea of making paint float, creating a design and then capturing that floating paint on paper was thrilling for them. 
  • The results were usually pretty rad. 
  • Each paper piece was unique, just like the artist.
Cons: 
  • The carrageenan (powderized seaweed) and water mixture had to be blended the night before and left to "rest". Which meant I had to remember to do it before leaving for the day. And me remembering ANYTHING at the end of a school day, other than picking up dinner at the drive thru, is a miracle.
  • The stuff feels like snot. Like super snotty snot.
  • Near the end of a marbling run, the designs were often not as vibrant because of the muddied waters.
Having experienced all that, I shared my love-hate on the aforementioned post and asked your advice. And ya'll delivered! This here floating chalk project was one of the mentioned ideas that I thought I'd share with you. But before I get to that, here are some other great ideas that were suggested: 
  • Ingrid of NorridgeArt wrote: I've used Elmer's art paste, which turns out to be methyl cellulose, which works great and is really comparable in price as far as I can tell, to buying it in bulk. I would second using the tote-trays. After many uses, the remaining acrylic paint sinks to the bottom, and eventually, it does gray the water and dull the transferred colors a little. I haven't done this for years and I think I will crack into this soon! Fun! 
  • Phyl of There's a Dragon in my Art Room said:  Hey, Cassie, I don't know why I didn't think to tell you this before: liquid starch (the inexpensive blue stuff in the bottle) works GREAT for marbling, using watered down acrylic paint just like you did. And we used cheapo plastic forks for marbling. Only when we were done, we used tissues to blot them gently. THAT was the disgusting messy part, but the results looked a lot like yours, brighter than shaving cream marbling. Test it! (She also wrote on my facebook page): Have you done shaving cream marbling? It's easy, it makes your room smell good, and when you are done the shaving cream all over the place cleans the tables!
  • Laura wrote:  Do not be afraid to experiment with India inks. The best color you can get is to use thinned down oil paints but with students it's not the safest method. (I too teach kids in my private studio) I have gotten the best results with kids using air brush paint. The createx brand is the one I have used with good results. My friend told me the best description she could give to how much to thin down the paint it get it to the consistency of whole milk. I found that those plastic utility tubs are perfect for using to put the mixture in- keeps the paint contained better when they are putting it on the moss mixture. I use small paint brushes to put the paint down because they seem to have better control than with the eye droppers.
  • Amazingly awesome author Pam Stephens (of the Dropping In book series) wrote:  I have a never-fail method that Nancy Walkup {editor of SchoolArts} taught me. It's nothing more than a tub of shallow water, Prang Freeart chalk, something to scrape the chalk with (plastic knife works), an old comb or fork (to stir the chalk), and heavy white construction paper. I wear plastic gloves because the chalk stains like the dickens. Just hold the chalk over the water and scrap whatever colors you want. Stir with an old comb or whatever you have to get a nice design. Drop the paper on the chalk. Let it sit for about 30 seconds. Pull the paper off the water and TaDah! Marbled paper. Dries in a jiffy (about half an hours). You can also use colored construction paper depending on the colors of chalk you use. WARNING: This is addicting.
  • Mrs. Walton commented:  Use tote trays instead of cookie sheets. Fill half way with water. Have one sheet of posterboard directly next to the tote tray so you can immediately have a place to put the soaking paper. Use pastels and a cheap pair of scissors to scrape color onto the water and let it float. If they accidentally break the chalk into the water, tell them not to fish it out. The minute you stick your finger in teh water, it breaks the tension on the water and the chalk sprinkles start to sink. Folding (not creasing) so that the ends of the paper are up (think U shape), set the paper in the water center first. Slowly let the edges go onto the water mixture. This keeps water bubbles from forming (as badly) on the paper. Then, I tell the kids to grab the corners closest to them and drag the paper up towards them #1 so that they are dragging more chalk onto the paper as it's lifting, #2 so they can see what they are getting when they lift it, #3 so that the water is still dripping downwards when it's lifting into the tote tray. Then, simply place it onto the posterboard next to it.
Aren't those just the best suggestions?! Thank you, art friends, you're the best. When I ran out of carrageenan the day before my last group of students were to marble, I decided to give Mrs. Walton's idea a go as I had all mentioned supplies on hand. And it was a total success! Here's how we did it.

Just like she mentioned, I filled some tote trays with water. I decided to cut some old plastic lids in half as scrapers and laid out some chunky chalk.
Now, I have to recommend that you not use any ole chalk for this project. I mean you could...but the small stuff will probably just break and side walk chalk is just too lacking in color. I strongly recommend ordering a couple sets of Prang's Freart chalk (I think I ordered mine from Nasco). It's vibrant and big enough for little hands.
Ya'll, the process was so super simple it was kinda ridiculous. The scrapped their chosen colors with the cut lid until their tray looked like this...
(ooooh, pretty.)
Then, holding their star parallel with the surface of the water, they dropped it onto the water while I lowered their paper on top of the star. Together, we "massaged" their paper to capture the chalk. We knew it was working when we saw a faint outline of the star and the colors of the chalk through the back of the paper. Slowly, I lifted the paper out. Sometimes, I would see a white spot where it didn't take at which point I would lower the paper again and attempt to pick up the chalk. Once I lifted the paper out, the student plucked the star from the water. They looked a little like this.
Amazing, right?
I love the layers of vibrant color.
And their stenciled papers looked like this. The kids thought it was Christmas.

Once dry, these were sprayed with fixative (or AquaNet if you live in the 80's) so the chalk wouldn't smear.
So. Would I do this method again? Definitely. It was so much easier and the results were ALWAYS amazing. It was a fun and new printing technique that fascinated the children. 

However, it just wasn't the same as suminagashi. This isn't true paper marbling because you cannot really manipulate the chalk once it's on the surface of the water. For that reason, I will continue to also use the suminagashi technique...even if the stuff feels like super snotty snot.
By the way... I'm so super stoked about this Saturday's conference, you don't even know! I cannot wait to see what other art teachers have to share. Are any of you lovelies attending The Art of Education's online conference this Saturday? If so, just an FYI, my presentation is off the chain goof-ball. Just so's ya know. Looking forward to chatting with you!
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