She Used to Paint Rainbows

Tree of Life Art Project

The Goobs and I haven't done an art project for a long time.  We've been watching art appreciation videos (Sister Wendy) and art history videos (Masters of the Italian Renaissance) and going to museums and art galleries, and The Goobs draw fairly regularly (if I could provide them with one more type of lesson it would be drawing lessons) but I haven't tortured them with an art project in months.  I'm partial to trees (and to metallic markers) so when I went over to The Crafty Crow and saw this entry on a project based on Klimt's "Tree of Life" at Miss Julie's Place, I was sold.  

Here is JellyMan's tree:

JellyMan took about a week to finish his tree.  This was not his favorite project (he pointed out that this really looks nothing like "The Tree of Life," you know) but he was a good sport about it, especially once I started reading from The Two Towers while he worked on it.  I think he did a fantastic job!  I especially love the right hand edge.  His tree looks like a fun place to hang out.  In fact, JellyMan described his tree as a 60s bachelor pad tree house.  Groovy, baby

Here is Anemone's tree:

Anemone really enjoyed this project.  (I think she is partial to trees and metallic markers too.)  She whipped through her tree in no time flat.  I love the ground in this picture.  The dashes look like rows of people in a distant valley.

Anemone liked drawing her tree so much that she immediately drew another one, this time on blue paper:

This tree is so cool - it looks like it's thrashing around in a storm.  And there's a fire in the middle of it!  And it's suspended in the night sky!  Look at that wind!  

I love kids' artwork.  It always looks so free and unrestrained.  My artwork didn't look like that even when I was a child!  And it certainly doesn't look like that now:

It's safe, it's regular, and let's face it, it's dull.  There's nothing fantastic about this tree, except maybe the line of caterpillars marching up the bottom left hand branch.  You don't see that every day.

So.  We've done another art project, and can rest easy for a month or two while we enjoy our Sister Wendy videos. 

A Whirlwind of Activity in Atlanta, Georgia

I never told you about the rest of our visit to Atlanta!  We went to the King Center to pay our respects to Martin Luther King, Jr.:

And we went to the Fernbank Museum of Natural History:

Hey, look!  It's the South.

And we went to the High Museum of Art.  I didn't take any pictures there because I think people who take pictures in art museums are obnoxious and I only do it if we have a gallery to ourselves.  It was a blistering Saturday afternoon which meant we were standing cheek to jowl with sweaty strangers (who were plenty obnoxious, by the way) so my camera stayed in my bag.  Luckily just about everything you see in an art museum can also be seen online, so I can show you my favorite thing, which was the Baptistere de Saint Louis.  

It was amazing, and I'm so glad the Louvre decided to share it with us for a little while.  You know what else was amazing?  It had its own oxygen-free display case.  The Goobs were impressed.

After the art museum we went back to the hotel to swim, and then we headed over to Stone Mountain to watch the laser show.  We would have skipped it but my mom's friend's grandpa helped with the blasting of the rock face (or something) and we couldn't leave Atlanta without clapping for my mom's friend's grandpa. We clapped, but we left when the monster truck started chasing the devil across the mountain.

We so don't belong down here.

Oh, the Dreaded Gaps

Once upon a time, I thought I was on top of this whole homeschooling thing. Doubting neighbors would ask me how in the world I would manage to cover everything and not leave any gaps, and I would wave a hand through the air and reply, "They're seven and four. How hard can it be?"

A year later I realized I had forgotten to teach my boy about time zones.

Since then I've been a little more humble, but I was still taken by surprise when my Goobs couldn't place the subject or the creator of this work on sight:

There are other gaps, too. I overheard my mom telling her mom that my Goobers "might be able to argue with each other in Latin, but they can't pick up a dish to save their lives." Ouch.

I wonder what else we've missed?

Art Supplies

A little bird recently asked me a few questions about art supplies.  This little bird also suggested I write a post about it.  Hint, hint.  Okay, little bird.  I'll do it.  But not because I actually know anything about art supplies.  I don't know anything about art supplies.  I am the blind leading the blind. 

The little bird asked me, "Is Prismacolor worth the money?"

Yes! We have the Prismacolor colored pencils and the Prismacolor markers, and they are wonderful. We started with the 48 color set, but naturally we wanted more. The great thing about Prismacolor is that you can buy individual pencils and markers. We buy one or two whenever we go to the art store, and they make great stocking stuffers.  Of course, the Prismacolor products don't make the artist any more than the camera makes the photographer, but they make the process so much more pleasant.  My Goobs draw much more often than they did before I bought the Prismacolors, and that alone makes them worth the money. 

The little bird also asked, "What kind of watercolor stuff do you use?  Paint or pencils?  What brand?"

I have Van Gogh watercolors in tubes and a travel kit with cakes.  I prefer the tubes, but the little travel kit is great for when we're, um, traveling.  A very little paint goes a very long way, so if you buy these, supervise your younger kids so they don't empty an entire tube onto the palette.  It wouldn't be the end of the world (the paint will dry eventually and you can use it like a cake) but it's a pain in the butt that you should avoid if at all possible.  Also, teach your children to wipe off the tubes so the caps don't stick when the paint dries.  Again, not the end of world (you can run hot water over the tube for five minutes to loosen the paint) but again, it's a pain in the butt, and my butt doesn't like pain.  The Van Gogh paints are infinitely better than the generic paints in the white plastic box that I grew up with, but they are still not "real" watercolors.  I'd like to try some artist grade paints someday.

We do have watercolor pencils, but nobody really likes to use them.

The little bird wasn't finished yet.  It asked, "When you use acrylics, do you use heavy duty construction paper or art canvas?"

We use canvas.  We're not picky about our canvas; we just buy it at WalMart or Michael's or wherever we happen to be.  Sometimes we're out of canvas and The Goobs use pieces of cardboard instead. 

Finally, the little bird asked, "What other advice do you have?" 

My advice, little bird, is to not come to me for advice about art.  (The blind leading the blind, remember?)  Visual art is our weakest subject.  I am just not equipped to deal with it.  If I could stretch my budget to include one more outside class, it would be a drawing class.  But I'll go ahead and tell you what we do.

• We watch Sister Wendy and other art programs.
• We read books about famous artists.
• We visit art museums and galleries.
• We give the kids free access to whatever art supplies we have, even if they seem to just be "wasting" them.
• I force them to do 8-10 directed art projects per year.
• If they ask for help, I stop what I'm doing and try to help them.
• Otherwise I leave them alone.
• I spend time drawing or painting myself, so that they see that art isn't something only children and "professionals" can participate in.

Now, will someone please give ME some advice about art?  I sure could use some.

Oh, I have one more piece of advice - if you buy the Prismacolor colored pencils, go ahead and get the Prismacolor sharpener.  Best five bucks I ever spent.

Birch Tree Art Project

 If I could do one more thing for my Goobers, I would find someone to give them drawing lessons.  Unfortunately, I would have to sell my internal organs on the black market to make that happen, so The Goobs are stuck with whatever drawing books I can find and whatever simple art projects I can pull off the internet.  I found Multi Media Winter Birch Trees at Deep Space Sparkle and decided to give it a whirl.  I set up all the supplies (watercolor paper, tissue paper, Modge Podge, and watercolor) while The Goobers were outside doing yard work, so when they came in they were pleasantly surprised. 

The thing about Goobers is that they are not interested in art instruction.  They like what they are doing just fine, thanks.  So it's very important to catch them off guard with these art projects - they're much more likely to follow directions when they are physically tired and grateful that I don't have any more chores for them to do.

We followed the instructions given very closely, and ended up with pictures which look very much like they are supposed to.  I don't really like the shadows; they're "off" somehow, but I couldn't figure out how to fix them so I just let it go.  That's a big deal for me.  It's hard to let things go.

Here is JellyMan's picture:

And Anemone's:

And mine:

And here ends another successful art lesson.  How do I know it's successful?  Because they are making more pictures, this time incorporating the technique they learned during this lesson.  And I won't be at all surprised if Anemone ends up with candy colored trees and a dragon. 

An Art Project

Sometimes I feel guilty that I don't do much in the way of formal art lessons with The Goobers.  Yes, I take them to galleries and museums, we watch Sister Wendy, we learn about great artists and I make every effort to provide quality art supplies and books, but creating?  I pretty much stay out of it because that is not where my talents lie.  My drawings are never quite right and I am hopeless at abstraction, and so I hate to sit my Goobs down and make them do what I say because I don't know what I'm doing 95% of the time.  That's why I appreciate our library stocking such books as Celebrate Your Creative Self: More Than 25 Exercises to Unleash the Artist Within, by Mary Todd Beam.  Mary Todd Beam does not expect me to execute a flawless drawing of a small furry creature, or a majestic desert scene, or even a vase full of flowers.  Mary Todd Beam just wants me to get a bunch of art supplies and make a glorious, creative mess.  I'm terrific at making messes!  See that mess up there in the left hand corner?  That's mine.

To make this mess, all you need is a piece of board or canvas, some acrylic gel medium, aluminum foil, salt and acrylic paints.  I actually had enough of these things for the three of us, which is a miracle in and of itself.  When I went up to our "studio" to look around, I figured I'd find one canvas, a mere dollop of gel medium, and maybe three colors of acrylic paints.  I was spot-on regarding the paint, but I had tons of everything else.  And three colors of paint is all you really need anyway.  We were on our way.

The first step is to spread acrylic gel medium in a thick layer all over your canvas.  Mary Todd Beam says to use an adhesive spreader for this, but we just used the handle of an old paint brush.  It worked great.  Then grab a piece of aluminum foil and push it into the gel medium.  Scrape a thin layer of gel over the foil, leaving some of it exposed.  Sprinkle salt over the canvas (we used both table salt and kosher salt for contrast) and let it dry.  We let ours sit overnight.

JellyMan's canvas  

I'm sorry to say that we did not listen to Mary Todd Beam at all when it came down to painting our canvases.  She suggested colors like Phthalo, Quinacridone Gold and Quinacridone Crimson.  Well.  We had plain old red acrylic paint from Wal-Mart, grayish green unlabeled acrylic paint from who-knows-where and gold metallic acrylic paint from Michael's.  Mary Todd Beam said to mix a little Quinacridone Crimson with the Phthalo (which is, I gather, a fancy word for turquoise) and to paint a wash over the foil to give it a patina.  She covered her whole canvas with it.  Then she used the Quinacridone Gold to create the look of rust on the foil.  What we did was to water our red and grayish green paint down and drip it randomly onto the canvas.  Then we went and watched Mulder and Scully subdue some sort of cross between a man and bat.

Anemone's Canvas

After X-Files the paint dried, we used a dry brush to apply the metallic gold paint in more or less random patterns.  We tried to keep it interesting by applying the paint more thickly in some areas, but mostly we just dabbed until it looked right.

Do you see the different colors on the upper half of Anemone's painting?  She used a piece of half painted canvas, and since the acrylic gel medium dries clear, those colors showed through.  We thought that was fairly nifty.  In fact, we thought the whole process was fairly nifty, so I had to run out and buy more canvas and paint for The Goobers to play with.  And I think I'll just fade into the background and let them have at it on their own - I got them started, and that's plenty good enough.

Watercolors

I found this simple watercolor project in the archives of The Crafty Crow, who found it at Bloesem Kids.  I was too intimidated to show The Goobers the example; I just described what we'd be doing, and set about doing it myself.  First we reviewed how to PROPERLY remove the stuck cap of a tube of watercolor pigment (wrap some duck tape around the shoulder of the tube so it doesn't crack) and how to PROPERLY squeeze a dab of paint onto the paint tray, and how to keep our colors from running together and looking like mud - and how to sit back and go with it if that is what happens!

This first picture is mine:

See? I had a little bit of a mud problem, but I went with it and called it a meadow.  A muddy meadow.  Why can I never just leave well enough alone?  I might have been less tempted to keep adding things if we had used India ink and a bamboo skewer as the instructions specified, but we don't have India ink or bamboo skewers.  I know.  What sort of mother am I, anyway?  We tried using black watercolor on a nearly dry brush, but The Goobers couldn't get a clean enough line to suit them so we went with drawing pens instead.  I don't sweat the small stuff. 

This is JellyMan's painting:

JellyMan likes his flowers regimented, thank you very much.  When he has his own garden, it will be of the formal boxwood and roses sort.  I love the big mass of circles on the left side - it looks like a clump of frog eggs.  So cool!  (Sorry if that wasn't what you were going for, JMan.)

And here is Anemone's painting:

Anemone decided her watercolor blobs looked more like flying fish than flowers, so she went with it.  I love her seaweed!  I also love how she is able to leave well enough alone.  Less is more.  Unless, of course, more is more.

I enjoy painting.  I should do it more often.

Art Lesson

We had a fantastic week of school last week, and we actually had time for an art lesson! Yeah! I decided The Goobers needed to work on perspective, and I found this little activity over at The Crafty Crow, who found it at Art Projects For Kids, who found it at Artsonia. I thought, "Hey, I can do that!" So we did.

Right away we had a few issues. My Goobs don't think they're any good at drawing but that's ONLY because they REFUSE to take even the most BASIC instruction.  Usually I'm cool with that.  After all, what do I care if they grow up unable to draw a cat or a tree or a face or a pinecone?  But this time I'd had enough of their whining and insisted that they do it MY way for this ONE LOUSY PICTURE or they'd be really, REALLY sorry.  And they did, and they were glad.  At least, they were glad when I finally stopped steaming and snorting and throwing balls of fire at them.

These are the "do it my way or I'll lock you in the basement" pictures.  We used Prismacolor markers instead of oil pastels, because I threw away the oil pastels in a fit of temper last year.  I think it involved oil pastels being ground into the curtains, but I've been pretty successful in blocking out the details.

Anemone was so sufficiently cowed that she followed the instructions down to the color scheme, but JellyMan is bad to the bone and went with a winter palette instead.  They named their pieces "Ull's World No. 1" and "Frey's World."  Actually, Anemone named hers "Fray's World," but I don't count off for spelling in art class, and I'm still just impressed as all get out that they know who Ull and Frey are. 

After they finished these pictures, I went to fix myself a drink (oh, I earned it) and they drew more pictures.  Hey, a series!  Here are two more by JellyMan (Ull's World No. 2 and Ull's Hand):

And here are two more by Anemone (Frey's World No. 2 and Loki's World):

They're still drawing landscapes that take up the entire paper.  They're finishing their drawings, not throwing them away in frustration.  They're quietly chatting and sharing the markers.  It's a freaking miracle.  I know this is small potatoes for those of you with artistic children, but I am just tickled to death that they are enjoying themselves so much.  We'll have to make time for another art lesson this week!  And I am definitely sticking with the "do it my way or I'll lock you in the basement" approach.  I've always been reluctant to use it with anything other than math and Latin because I didn't want to suck the joy out of every subject.  Well, I was a fool.   A fool, I tell you. 

Columbia Museum of Art; Columbia, S.C.

We had planned on going to the zoo today, but it was insanely crowded so we headed over to the art museum to see the Egyptian exhibit. The museum is never crowded on weekdays - it's free to the public on Saturday so that's when everyone goes. Having the museum to ourselves is worth far more than $14 to us. (I still can't get over admission being only $14 for the four of us. What a great deal!)

The museum has one Monet, and The Goobers love it. They just sit down and stare at it. Eventually The Man and I get bored and wander off to look at other things, but when we come back, The Goobers are right where we left them. We let them look as long as they like, because really, that's why we're here.

After the museum we went to see The Spiderwick Chronicles. JellyManwas upset that they deviated from the books, but in my opinion the movie was much better! We went all out and bought vast amounts of popcorn and candy and buckets of Coke. We all feel sick now, but it was worth it.

We also did a little bit of shopping - we hit the yarn store and the art store and the book store and the big box store and bought yarn, books, fancy drawing pens, a video game and sparkly silver Converse slip ons. *Guess who got what.*