Autumn Art Class- Fall Trees / perspective painting

I saw this Leonoid Afremov painting on Pinterest several months ago and timidly decided to add it to my autumn line up. 

This lesson I knew would be the biggest challenge I'd attempted with 7-12 year olds because of time constraint, mixing paints, and several layers. So, we started right off the bat with a few drawing perspective exercises then dove right in to painting. 

Didn't take many pictures because we were painting each step together but we started by lightly drawing our horizon & our lane (or creek as some saw it) added an area of green than got lighter towards the middle and painted a rainbow of hot colors for our ground. Whew that was a long sentence!!! 

Second, the kids finger painted a layer of hot colors in the sky.

One found their nose more suitable than fingers..... 

Then, we painted some hot colored dashes on our forest floor to imitate leaves on the ground. Which there is no picture to show this step unfortunately.

Next, they painted their tree trunks & limbs keeping in mind that the closer an object is the bigger, and the further away the smaller. 

Lastly, they got back in the rhythm (literally) of finger painting the leaves. Towards the end most were using all digits and tapping out a groovy beat lol

Here they are!! Aren't they amazing!!

Sadly, I realized I forgot to take pictures of all the individual pieces AFTER cars were pulling out of my driveway. Sigh. But a few parents snapped some! Yay!

Autumn Art Class- scratch art owls

I splurged for this lesson and purchased artist grade scratch art board and metal scratchers and boy am I'm glad I did!  

We started class by coloring a page in our art journals, painting over with tempera and going on a search in my yard/chicken coop/pasture for some pieces of inspiration. Some girls found a feather and others a leaf they liked. When our journal pages where dry, (with the help of my handy dandy hair dryer) we used metal scratchers to draw our design. Thrilled isn't a word I'd used to describe the results but I knew they'd be better with the scratch boards. 

To prepare for that we practiced drawing several types of owls. Here was my example sheet they got and we went through each one and practiced. 

After trying out each owl all, the girls picked the one they liked best and drew it again but this time much larger.

After stressing that scratchers do not come with erasers, all lines are final, to take your time, and draw big, I handed them a board and scratcher and held my breath lol and to my joyous surprise they listened!

They loved this activity and I really think they slowed down because it was such a different feeling and texture than simply drawing with a pencil. 

One amazing flock of owls and girls!

Autumn Art Class- Watercolor Spiderwebs

Little apprehensive when I chose to do this lesson because watercolors aren't my first choice (or second or even sixth) when making art and I'd never used masking fluid. But I am glad I took the risk. 

We practiced 4 different ways to make spiderwebs. Starting with basic and trying one more detailed. 

The weather was splendid so we strolled down the pasture to my parents dock that has great spiderwebs. The kids picked one they wanted to sketch and I sprayed the web with water so it would be more visible in the bright sunlight. No spiders were harmed in the making of any sketches.

After that we set to work testing out the masking fluid, which creates a barrier when it dries, meaning that the underneath stays white. You'll see what I mean in a bit. I had never used it besides trying it out for this lesson so I was nervous to see the results. The kids kept their brushes moist and painted the masking fluid on their canvas in the shape of a web. 

When it dried they picked either hot colors or cool colors to paint their canvas.

After showing proper watercolor usage, I let them choose what they thought would look best as far as color placement. Some where very deliberate choices, while others were a bit more, ummm...free!

This project took a while to dry so we busted out my handy dandy hair dryer (one more plus for having class at my house) and dried them speedy fast! 

When the canvases were dry the kiddos pealed the masking fluid off (which had turned into a solid) and it was SO fun seeing their reactions! 

Lastly, they added a spider with sharpie and we called these masterpieces finished!

Autumn Art Class- zentangle pumpkins

I know, call me crazy. 18 weeks pregnant and doing two classes each day of fall break lol I found out I was pregnant the last day of summer art academy and since I don't need to tote a table and supplies to and from town, I decided to do these classes at my house (10 miles outside of town in the country) and luckily I had 12 kiddos eager enough to make the trek out to the sticks! This kind of ended up being a blessing, more room, nature walks, and when it's over I can shut the spare bedroom door and go kick up my feet!

Anyways, onto the Zentangle Pumpkins! I got the idea for this from Angela Anderson Art Blog which has lots of super cute lessons!

We started out by drawing a basic pumpkin two different ways, from the inside out and outside in. Inside out is staring with an oval then adding C's to the sides. Outside in is starting with C's, working your way in, then connecting them with an oval. It was incredible to see how some kids did better inside out and others did better outside in. Everyone is truly different and there are several different paths to get to a final result, none of which is right or wrong.

After sketching our pumpkin lightly on a watercolor canvas the girls set to work first putting an even coat of orange all over, going back with more orange in the cracks to create shadows and then putting a hint of yellow in the middle of each bump for highlights. 

While those dried we practiced making some zentangles. Zentangles are designs and patterns that are drawn intuitively. Meaning that it is marks that just flow naturally from you. We practiced starting with basic shapes like X's or wavy lines and building on them. Here is a few one girl came up with.

Lastly, the girls set to work creating different zentangles in each bump on their pumpkin with a sharpie.

Here is how they turned out :)

Super sweet bunch of girls and their amazing crop of pumpkins!

Face Vase Collage

Nothing quite like the sticky, gooey goodness of mod podge! Ah! The feel of creativity!! Oh sorry..... collaging is my drug of choice! 

For my last day of my last class of the summer we made still life collages. I took silhouettes of the kids during the previous class (or had their parents text me one since I have seem to have forgetful tendencies...) 

As the kiddos came in, they painted a checkerboard tablecloth design on dictionary pages (that were previously glued on by yours truly to save time) 

We used blue card stock to make vases with their silhouette on each side. This was done by folding a paper in half, tracing the silhouette on the paper then cutting and voila! Mirror image silhouette! 

I let the kids decide which way to glue it, face right side up or upside down, depending on which they though looked more like a vase.

Next, they started adding stems & flowers made from painted paper or scrapbook paper. I had been using up left over paints from each project this summer so they had a wide variety of colors to choose from.

The neon pink was so bright we needed shades :p

I didn't give specifics on flowers just that they had to have at least seven. I wanted their flowers to be as unique as they are!

Here is how they turned out! Eric Carle would be proud! 

This one cracks me up! Kids don't see much Made in the USA these days!