Tools and instructions
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Halloween Project #3 - Paper Mache Skulls
MATERIALS & TOOLS
Balloons
News paper
elmers glue or flower
paint
decorative bits: glitter, foil paper, coke top beads, yarn or whatever
INSTRUCTIONS
Blow up balloons, rip newspaper into shreaded bits (1-2 inch wide strips are fine) mix glue with water (maybe 1/2 - 2/3 elmers to water) or make a thin paste out of flower and water. You might just have to experiment. This method can be more bumpy too.
Drag strips through mucky bowl of sludge that you've created and slap on balloon. If you can finesse the balloons into longer shapes (think skull) thats great. If not, you get a sort of more tim burton effect - which is cool too.
Do a couple or more layers leaving a bit of space around the stem for balloon extraction later.
Let dry
When dry, pop balloon and remove. now you can either push the paper in at the eyes a bit, or cut holes to cover with some sort of paper. You can also at this time, sort of push some cheeks into it depending on how thick and dry it is.
Experimentation is essential.
If you can prime or gesso the skull before painting your colors will pop more and I reckon it will last longer. Get some primer or gesso at any art supply store or probably DIY store too.
Add paint, glitter etc. Ideally you will have many reused decorations you've made to add. I'll add links here as I get them in the blog for you - but in the meantime have fun imagining your own! (tea light metal bases are AWESOME for projects...)
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Halloween Project #2 - Tin Can Lanterns
MATERIALS & TOOLS
Saved tin cans of any size
Hammer
Icepick or screwdriver (phillips works well)
water
a freezer
Optional: a dishtowel and some wire
INSTRUCTIONS
Collect the cans, clean, fill with water ALMOST to the top and put in the freezer to freeze. Take out when frozen and cradle the can in a dishtowel or something that will help it not slip around. A dishtowel on the grass is good (it makes a bit of a mess when the ice starts chipping out). Bang as many holes in it as you want.
If you want to hang them you will need some wire of some sort to make a handle with.
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Halloween Project #1- Giant Spider web
MATERIALS & TOOLS
A big sheet, old white curtains, giant old lacy stuff or something like that
Scissors
A porch, some trees, shelves or whatever....a structure to tie it in
INSTRUCTIONS
Rip said giant white thing into long strips and start tying it to the structure that will house it. Its fun to do with kids if they like tying, and you can be as free or anal about the web's construction as you want. We like tying my daughters stuffed animals in the web and i do recon I should do a giant paper mache spider or something too. I'll post that when I do it!
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Drawing: 45 mins a week with a second grade class
Week One
1. Introduction: we asked the children what they thought art was and if they knew anybody that was an artist, then we gave them a general definition of art. Well, sort of...:)
art is the process of putting things together (composing) in a way that evokes the senses, emotions or intellect. The nature of art, and the definition has been the topic of many conversations over the years and has changed, and will continue to change. It is studied in a branch of philosophy called aesthetics which explores the nature of beauty. Art can take many forms ranging from paint, to instruments, dance, film, photography, theater, singing and so much more. Although generally the word art refers to the fine arts, or visual arts like drawing and painting, it encompasses all these other disciplines too. Fine art can be differentiated from craft (generally) in that 'crafts' are objects made by hand by someone with a particular skill, but that have a practical application (a tea pot made by a craftsmen would be functional, one made by an artist would not).
All of this is just very simplified and one interpretation. I would love feed back from everyone about any of this.
2. We talked about allot of jobs done by artists, we showed them examples of fine art, actual paintings and story boards we both had, and showed them a bunch of objects that artists had a hand in making. For these items simply use your imagination and raid your house.
3. Drawing Projects:
A. Draw a plant as best you can. We put succulent cutting in the middle of each table and let them draw with pencil and paper. I asked them not to use their eraser and showed them a drawing I'd done that morning in which I would incorporate those 'wrong' lines. 15 or so mins.
B. Sit in a circle and everyone look at the drawings. Click here to see some of them and my comments and thoughts. 10 mins
C. Blind Contours: This is when you look at an object, put your pencil to the paper and draw the objects contours without looking down at the paper. This was hard for the children, and if they cant resist looking down, have them partner with a friend and take turns holding a sheet of paper between them and their drawing surface so they cant see what they're doing. I discuss the reasons and techniques more here.
OBJECT of the day:
1. To see what they know and talk about art very generally.
2. To see what they can do now, how they draw, and document it (all drawings are to be signed and dated on the bottom right hand corner and kept for future comparison).
3. To introduce them to the blind contour and one of the fundamental principals I will be working with them on:
Draw with your eyes, not your brain. Let go of what you THINK an object should be and try to see it for what it really is. Your eyes are a tool, observation is key to many disciplines - but none probably more than drawing, and through learning how to observe in detail then translate that information from their eyes to their arm to a piece of paper they learn lessons which will benefit them not only in drawing, but in every day life too. Some are:
HONESTY - in learning how to draw realistically, you have to learn how to relinquish what you thought something was, your pre conceived idea or mental image. It's hard! You quickly learn that there's a big difference between your own concept of a thing and what it actually is - and this incites inquisitively, excitement and growth. It is my experience that repetitively experiencing this during the drawing process is humbling, and naturalizes the process of 'mistake making', these 'mistakes' or 'mis-reprentations' become important stepping stones in that through comparison you learn what a thing should look like and you can grow your own powers of observation. This learning to embrace mistakes, cop to them and learn from them is an important part of learning to draw...and indeed of living.
ENGAGEMENT - once you start really observing things, it changes you forever. You can be anywhere that used to be boring, but now instead you begin to look at corners and texture, composition and the light and you start to draw the scene in your head. Learning to draw makes the world SO much more of an interesting place.
Oh there's so much more but I should stop! That was basically what we did in our first class. Again, for details and other comments click here.
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MATERIALS
RECOMMENDED MATERIALS for workshop #1
1. Have the children collect recycling such as: yogurt, cottage cheese, humous containers, TP rolls, plastic bottle tops, corks, plastic canisters or jars, soy, rice or almond milk containers, egg cartons etc.
2. A brown paper bag for each child
3. Scissors for each child
4. For a table of 5 children: 2 Elmer's glues, 3 glue sticks, one stapler, 1 roll of blue or brown tape
5. 1 glue gun and hot glue sticks and a glue gunner
RECOMMENDED MATERIALS for workshop #2
1. Decent tempera paint (not really watery, un-pigmented stuff) - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black and white
2. A fat and a skinny paint brush for each child
3. A cup of water for each table to clean brushes in
4. Newspaper or other table cover
5. Paper towels or rags for wiping little hands and brushes on
6. Elmer's glue
7. Glitter and a tray for each glitter color
8. Any colorful recycled bits, pieces of tinfoil etc. that they could attach AFTER the paint dries
9. 1 glue gun and hot glue sticks and a glue gunner
10. 1 or two paper plates or pallets with the paint in for the kids to share
INSTRUCTIONS
In workshop one you're going to make the plants or flowers. The brown paper bags are great f or allot of the leaves, and the other recycling bits better for bases, stems etc. You want to make sure that things are fastened together - use hot glue for connections to plastic, staplers if you can and Elmer's and glue sticks only for paper to paper.
In the second workshop you are going to paint the things. I spray painted them white first so the paint would be bright, and adhere better....but tempera sticks to allot of stuff pretty well so it may not be necessary. After they are dry the kids can add edges and decorations with glue and glitter for extra sparkleability.
Click here to see more photos and the blog entry
Click here to see more photos and the blog entry
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