Art Time with My Luvies

I just spent some fun time with my nieces and nephew. When we get together we ALWAYS have Art Time! We worked with acrylics on canvas and cardboard. These cuties painted an owl, Batman, and my face on a flower. Aren't they so creative and fun??

While they worked on their masterpieces, I worked on this little lady. Acrylic and Sharpie on cardboard.

First Friday Art Class for April 2014 - Fashion Graffiti

It's spring and our thoughts have turned to FASHION here at First Friday Art Class. And today we did a project that is all about letting loose and having fun! We were greatly influenced by the work of Ana Strumpf. (As soon as I saw her altered magazine covers I knew it was a project my art girls would totally dig!!)

I'm calling this class FASHION GRAFFITI. And here are the supplies...

You'll need:

Fashion magazine pages - a close up of a face is great, but full body pages work well too

White card stock - used to mount your drawing on

Scissors - if you're doing the cut out method

White pens - I have yet to find a white pen that I really love so if anyone has some suggestions, I'd gladly give some new pens a try. I've had the best luck with the Uniball Signo Broad but even that is pretty unpredictable

Black and colored permanent pens - as you can see in the above picture I have a thing for Sharpies

Other markers, paint, pastels, etc. (optional) - for today we used some scrapbook markers just to get some lighter, less opaque color

There are two methods for this and the image you choose sort of guides you to which method will work best for you. 

1.The first method is to use the full magazine page and design and decorate all over it AND THEN mount it on cardstock to give it some sturdiness. 

That is the method I used here because the background was quite simple and just begging for color and design...

2. The second method involves finding an image you like, cutting it out, mounting it to white cardstock (using a thin layer of glue stick) and then designing on the image and also on the surrounding paper. 

That is the method I used on this piece...(I may go back in and fill the entire background on this one. Still not sure. My daughter keeps saying, "Don't you always tell us 'you have to know when to stop', mom?" :) Great to have my own art advice used against me).

So basically that's it. 

I had several images pulled from Vogue and Lucky magazines on the table when the girls arrived. I had lots for them to choose from and didn't want them getting bogged down looking through a bunch of magazines. (Plus, let's be honest, they're not always appropriate for little eyes). 

The girls chose their image. Decided if they wanted to decorate the whole page or cut it out. And they went to work. I had to encourage a few of them to really let loose. Others dove right in and went for it. 

This is a great "There is No Wrong Answer" project! It's great for sparking creativity and for loosening up. This is also a great project for when you don't know what to draw. Just grab a magazine, open to a page, and decorate the crap out of it. :) 

And here are the girls' pieces...

I didn't get a picture of this one totally finished. She added a lot more to the background and it looked marvelous. The girls loved to see that they could add things to the photos and have them look like they were there all along (in this case the striped sleeve and her necklace).

This artist was more hesitant to dive in. I had to keep encouraging her. She didn't want to ruin Jennifer Lawrence. :) Her finished piece was a bit more subtle than some of the others but beautiful and creative just the same. We found that there was something really wonderful about starting with a black and white image and being able to add wild pops of color. 

 I knew this artist would "get" this project right away. This is so right up her alley. She immediately chose this picture of the singer Lorde and designed and enhanced it amazingly well!

 This artist is one who always dives right in. I love her fearlessness. She went right for those red lips and didn't look back.

 It was fun to see this artist get braver and bolder as she went. She began by just adding some added color to the lips and then she got more and more confident and began to really make this image her own! The little conversation bubble says, "I love fashion!!!" 

 The girls really responded to pictures of people they knew. In this case Hayden Panettiere. I love the streaks in the hair and the crown on her head. All added by this creative artist.

It's a bit hard to see but this artist added a Cruffle to the cheek. That's a fun homage to a former class. She also added the polka dots to the dress, the necklace, and the earring. Wonderful creativity going one here!

At the end of class we had everyone's parents here to pick them up trying to get the girls to put their pens down and get going. We even had one who was quite late for a babysitting job. :) That's a sign of artists being totally in the zone. I love it!!!

See you next month.

First Friday Art Class for March 2014 - Value Tangles

We've done a couple classes in the past focussing on Zentangle patterns and designs. This time we did some new designs but added value to them to give our drawings depth and interest.

I began by having the girls do a simple value scale. For kids this age, I suggest a 5 section scale. I tell them that square 1 is our absolute lightest value so we leave it blank. Then we do square 5. This will be our darkest value. Then we do square 3 which will be a value right in the middle of our lightest light and our darkest dark. Then do square 2 which is a value right between 1 and 3 and square 4 which is a value right between 3 and 5. I think breaking the value scale up this way is the best approach--especially for young artists.

We did another value scale just like the first one and then once it was filled in the girls experimented with their new tool--a blending tortillon. I had them use the tortillon in circular motions and back and forth to get a feel for what they can do with it. We talked about the benefits of this over using your fingers to smudge--it's cleaner and can get into smaller areas. I personally use both a tortillon and my fingers in my work.

We then talked about shading our Zentangles. We aren't going for total photo realism with the light source always in the right place. Our focus is to create depth and try to show which parts are behind and which parts are in front. So basically if something is behind something else, we shade it. We kept it simple.

We then went to work on the rest of our worksheet. (I will put a link to each separate Zentangle below).

We followed our usual pattern where I drew on the white board and they drew along with  me on their individual papers. We had fun combining ink with graphite and exploring all the things you can do with these particular designs.

I don't always show the girls the end results before we begin, but I felt that it was important for them to have a sample to look at for today's drawings because of their complex nature. So before class I completed my own worksheet and had it there on the table for them to look at.

Here are the links to each fun tangle and this is the order we drew them--sort of ranging from simplest to the  most complex:

Globes - a great introduction to shading a round object and drop shadows
Gems - this is definitely one you need to stand back from and then suddenly your drawing really does look like a shiny gem (or a jelly bean as the girls pointed out)
Thumprintz - the shading really makes this design
Stacked Tubes - very simple but with great results, we added handles to a few of our stacks making it look like a giant stack of tea cups. (I personally LOVE this design--great for mindless doodling!!)
ATORM - the is a fun pattern and the full page of it is just gorgeous
W2 - this creates the complex basket weave pattern, once you add the shading this design really pops! (*see note below for a tip for doing this one)
Folds - this is the one the girls seemed to want to do lots more of right as class was ending. I noticed them experimenting with different shapes and ideas.
Puffles - like the Cruffles we did several months ago but with a twist

*W2 can be confusing. I find this to be VERY helpful. Some of the girls did too. Others just used my sample as a way to "get" it and then they went from there. It takes a bit of practice, but once you get it, the look is sooooo cool!!

You want each little square to look like a pinwheel NOT an argyle. Notice in the picture that the top looks like a basket weave and each tiny square has lines coming off like a pinwheel. Where the bottom drawing just looks like squares in a geometric pattern.

The reason I chose each of these particular Zentangles is that they each lend themselves very well to adding value by using our graphite pencils and blending tortillon.

The girls got so excited that they kept having me hold their papers up and away from them so they could really appreciate the depth they were creating. It was so fun to hear them all ewww and ahhhh over each others drawings!!

Pretty impressive, don't you agree?

I had hoped to have time for the girls to do more of these designs on their own on a blank paper, but the worksheet took our whole class time. Which was totally fine--that just meant we spent the whole time drawing together which was really fun! I challenged the girls to practice at home and see how they could adapt and change these designs to make them their own.

See you next month where I'm pretty sure the spring will bring us a fashion inspired class!

First Friday Art Class for February 2014 - Let Them Draw Cake!

This being February and the month of Valentine's Day, I decided we'd draw a bunch of sweet treats and fun food this month.

So our treat had to be sweet and fun too, right? Cake Balls are most certainly sweet and fun... (mine still never look as good as Bakerella's but they sure are tasty!)

We began in our sketchbooks just drawing some basic, fun, cute food. I drew on the white board and the girls drew with me in their sketchbooks. Some of these drawings came from the book Craft-a-Doodle from Jessie Oleson Moore (she is SO fun!) And some of them came from a great youtube video called How To Draw Cute Food.

We had fun adding faces to the food. This definitely adds to the cuteness.

Once we were warmed up we dove in to drawing cakes. This does involve some measuring and angles. But learning this concept can take your drawings to the next level.

One of the girls pointed out that eating cake is the most fun, drawing cake is the second most fun, and actually making a cake is the least fun. :)

Here is our handout for today's class:

We practiced drawing cakes with slices taken out of them and also layered cakes. This method gives your drawing so much depth! The girls were surprised and proud of how well they did.

We then went to our final project...a finished, decorated cake.

Here are the exact steps I did to make the sample (seen at the top of this post):

STEP 1 - Draw your cylinder, drawing very lightly as some of these lines will be erased. We are working on white card stock.

STEP 2 - Take out your slice using the steps shown on the handout. Add a layer of frosting if you'd like.

STEP 3 - Lightly sketch in some decorations.

STEP 4 - Draw your cake in pen. We are using our usual Papremate Flair pen.

STEP 5 - Go over the ink lines again and add some topper decorations off to the side (as we will be cutting everything out). 

STEP 6 - Add color. Here I used Prisma Markers. (The girls used colored pencils in class.)

STEP 7 - Add some extra details with the black pen and then some embellishments with a white pen. I used a uni-ball Signo pen.

STEP 8 - Cut out a cake stand. We did this by folding a piece of colored copy paper in half and drawing a sort of squiggly design and cutting it out. 

STEP 9 - Cut out a platter for your cake using tin foil. This is such a fun touch that adds a bit of playfulness to the piece!

STEP 10 - Cut out your cake and topper decorations. (Sorry no pic of this)

STEP 11 - Mount your parts onto another piece of card stock starting with your cake stand, then platter, then cake, and finally your topper decoration.

STEP 12 - Trim down the page and mount it onto another piece of card stock. Here I mounted mine on black.

The girls got so creative with their cakes! I know I say this every class but I am ALWAYS so impressed with their creativity and personality. Love it!

This artist didn't get all the way finished, but don't you LOVE her design and color scheme? That middle layer made us think of the Queen of Hearts. Gorgeous!

Didn't get a picture of this cake finished, but her decorations are so precious and sweet. I'd love a cake that looked like this!

This creative gal had a whole story about hers...the bride cake topper is looking very put-out because the groom cake topper was flirting with other girls at the wedding. That's the actual bride's hair you see in the top right of the drawing. She's dancing with the actual groom who would NEVER flirt with other girls. :)

Don't you love the look of this one mounted on black paper? Such great contrast! And I absolutely adore her polka dot cake!

This cake looks good enough to eat. We all marveled at the middle layer's beautiful swirl design.

What a sweet time we had today! There is just something so fun about drawing yummy treats! The girls talked about drawing more cakes to put on birthday cards and Valentine cards.

See you next month.

CT-aRt - Zentangle Lettering with the Young Women From My Church

I had a group of girls from church at my house this week learning Zentangle lettering. I taught this class in the same way I did my First Friday Zentangle class. We used the same videos and handouts from Joanne Fink.

These girls (and leaders) did great!! At the beginning of class one of the girls said, "I don't really do art. My sister is an artist, but I can't draw". Of course I told her we don't say "can't" in my art classes--this is a supportive, positive environment. :) This same girl by the end of class was asking if she could take extra notecards home and then said, "I'm going to draw like this ALL the time!" Music to my ears! I love it!

In our church the kids have rings and other things with the letters C T R on them. This reminds them to Choose the Right. So the girls called our class CT-aRt. We started with the basics of Zentangle, then we did Joanne's butterfly, and then we did the letters, focusing on 'C', 'T', and 'R'. And then the girls went from there adding their own creative flair to it.

Here's a few pics of their amazing work... (including the CTR at the top of the post)

Zentanlge is a great art concept to introduce kids to art and lettering. And Joanne's videos are fantastic. She breaks it down into very do-able steps.

What a fun night with these darling girls and their wonderful leaders!!