Color Theory

I taught about the colors and meanings, mood, and drama of the colors. The younger students were told that we would do an experiment and that they should color the orange slice yellow the lightly color red over it.

We went through each color that way and students were really amazed, this was a much more interesting way to learn about color mixing than lecturing on it.

The Creative Process Thumbnails

3rd Grade students learned the concept of using thumbnail sketches to plan art work . 

Students were taught to simplify the art and to make 4-5 miniature versions of the art, we then had a class analysis to help choose and develop a concept.

Chinese Characters & Genesis

Students learned about Chinese New Year and even some ancient Chinese characters that tell the Genesis story! (By the way I did verify that the characters with native chinese professors.)

More on the Genesis account in ancient Chinese characters.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v20/i3/china.asp

 

Winter Trees in Perspective

This project is a 2 step project. 

I did a deom of how to use curvy "y's" to make tree branches. We talked about perspective and how nature is full of variety. 

The goal was to draw trees up close and far away.

The next step we added the snow making sure to leave some blue showing.

Parrot Drawings

Parrot Drawings were done with Crayola Color Sticks, my new obsession. They are like thick pencils with no wood all lead, very sturdy and clean. They are awesome for laying down vibrant color without mess.

I did a little demo of how to use a "candy cane line to begin this drawing. Then they added the chin and a thin "c" for the bird's tummy and a long line for the tail. I added feet and a beak. Then I gave students thumbnail size scrap paper to practice 3 or more  parrots. When they got a parrot that they were happy with I gave them blue construction paper a little less than a half sheet. I find that smaller sizes help students to stay on task without getting tired.

 

Students drew the bird with blue to match the paper as I did a second step by step demo with them.

We colored the bird yellow then drew around the bird using a blue to match the paper.

Then the drew huge leaf outines and swirls. They hatched the leaves using small lines. then they used dark blue to make shadows in the leaves and yellow to highlight leaves. (They loved that part)

Then we layerd colors on the bird, orange, red, then dark blue making sure to leave some yellow showing.

Last we made waterfalls in the back using white. 

Koala Watercolor Paintings BLue and White Chinese Plates

Today we painted watercolor Koala Bears and Chinese Blue and white plates.

We had a great time painting.

6 years old and 10 years old.

Christmas in Palm Beach Ornaments

These are hand painted ornaments that I made for Christmas this year, now if only I would have actually decorated the tree...

Jupiter Beach Water Color Illustration

This was a fun little watercolor that I did one day. I saw how much fun the students were having painting turtles and I decided to have fun too!

Fabric Designs: Kissing Carp & Peacock East Meets West

I went out for Indian food with my husband and cousin and we started talking about fabric design and it has got me thinking about fabric design more, so I decided to look up my old designs and post them.
So far I only have two SoDanica fabric designs.

I hand drew these then scanned and vectorized the images.  Both designs are an east meets west theme. The first piece is Kissing Carp:

Elephant:

Victor helped me design this one:

 Peacock:

One day when I make it to India I hope to have some fabric printed! 

THis website looks really neat you can custom print designs:

http://www.karmakraft.com/

Chinese plates

We are studying Chinese New Year and I have been trying to come up with projects for 1st-3rd grades.
I happened upon a really fun art project all you need is a blue marker white paper & 2 circular objects to trace and a tiny paint brush. (I used a really large brush which was a mistake.) 

Anyway this is a super fun project and really doesn't take many supplies or anything special.

For reference images: try to get a blue and white plate or look up blue willow online and print.
I used 2 plates with different patterns, you can use one or more  piece, combine patterns if you like!

This project teaches students about composition, planning, creativity, patterns and monochromatic colors.
I had a great time with this project and when I applied the water I found myself saying "awesome!!!"

It was a funny aha moment that I can't wait to see in Art class next week I can just imagine the 1st and 3rd grade students now!

You can cut out the plate as I have done below:

Anyway I hope that you try this on a rainy day, it is quite addicting! This seems like project to work on along side children, it is so relaxing and fun!