Friday, June 29, 2012

"Old Glory" of the last day of Session II


Another session ended this week. And because Independence Day is coming up, we continued with Jasper Johns as inspiration! His 1958 work "Three Flags" serves as a perfect opportunity to use Old Glory for our art creations and give it a fun spin with collage and watercolor. Technically, that makes this project "Mixed Media". That means more than one material is used to create the artwork. In this case, collage (paper and other pieces put together), watercolor, and whatever the artist wanted for the last flag.

The large flag was put together with collage. 

This collage large flag portion complete with Alexander's hands!




The middle flag was made with watercolor methods (whether just watercolor paint, or with watercolor pencils as well).



This Watercolor Middle Flag uses the Seran Wrap (Plastic Wrap) technique!
The small flag (last flag) could be made any way the artist chose (providing I had the materials). For example, I used watercolor and pen and ink with my small third flag. Mikelle used markers and a little bit of collage. Her collage portion is where she glued the white stars on. Most of the kids used some sort of watercolor technique with their third flag, but enough to make it look a little different from their second.



Mikelle's "Three Flags"
My "Three Flags"
There were other projects to complete, however. For example, the beginners that finished their Uncle Sam Collage and simple flag collage the lesson previous to this one, created a fun collage "re-creating" Lady Liberty.



And because Mikelle's assignment was to work with them as I made my rounds and came around to help, she got into the abstract style with watercolors, once they finished their Lady Liberties.

And here is the Picasso-inspired Gallery of the completed "Three Musicians"! I would be the first to watch these bands perform! They look like a fun bunch!I love this project!



Until next session....

Thursday, June 28, 2012

...From the Mother of All "Things"

Our X-Man (Thing 3) 18 Months. Along with some "bling" he swiped from Thing 1
Have no fear, little fish,'
Said the Cat in the Hat.
'These Things are
good Things."
And he gave them a pat.

...From "The Cat in the Hat"
 
Months ago (seven, actually), when Chris was in Orlando on business, he stopped at Universal Studios and picked up some Seuss gear for the kids. I've been trying to get a particular picture of AleXander for awhile, but he or the camera (or both) wouldn't cooperate. Well, it finally happened earlier this week. 

Now we can add this to  these from 2008:

Thing 1 and Thing 2 October 2008 Ages 8 and 4 1/2+


 


Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Plates in the Air (AKA: Monday's Art Project!)


Flag Collage (for one of the Beginner Students) Complete
Wow...it's so easy to get behind when you are juggling so many plates in the air! Between Alexander and Christian having fevers over the weekend along with keeping up with the art projects and the kids (healthy or not) in general, it's easy to forget some things. 

Therefore, this will be more of a "gallery" post of the awesome work my art prodigies made on Monday! 

I decided my two young beginner students will just do a simple flag collage (instead of the more complex Jasper Johns "three flags" project that the others will do) and they finished already! Therefore, after that, I had them do an Uncle Sam collage (like last year's projects at this time).
Another Beautiful Completed Tree Collage/Watercolor
Three Musicians In Progress
Three Musicians in Progress
Three Musicians In Progress

Three Musicians Complete - Check out the Flute!

Three Musicians Complete. Check out the Drummer's Chest. Hilarious!
Three Musicians Complete - Way Cool! Electric Guitar with the amp and plug!
Three Musicians Complete - Such Detail! Amazing!
Flag Collage in Progress
Uncle Sam Collage Complete!


Flag Collage In Progress
Flag Collage Complete

Jasper Johns Inspired "Three Flags" Project In Progress

Uncle Sam Collage in Progress




















Sunday, June 24, 2012

Patriotic Preview and X-man's Milestone!

"The End" of Alexander's First 18 Months  6/22/12





Someone turned 18 months on Thursday, 6/22/12.  Usually I take a little tush picture on their first birthday, but Alexander's first birthday was first spent on a plane. Then at Grammy's house in Idaho. Then at a birthday pizza dinner. Then back at Grammy's. Then in the car on the way to Wyoming. Suffice it to say, I forgot to get the traditional first birthday tush shot that the other two received. What's worse is I FORGOT I didn't get the tush shot until a couple of months later. So we now have the Alexander 18-Month Tush Shot to celebrate "The End" of his first 18 months.

Loves to put things on his head! 6/25/12
He is a silly one. Loves to dance. Loves to put things on his head. Here is link to his dancing just earlier this week. We can't get enough of him. His laugh is infectious. His personality is so sharp and he notices everything. I can't imagine life without him. Even if we still do get less sleep. Yes, for an 18 month old, he's not following the sleeping "rules". We're still in the kind of sleep patterns of younger babies. But he's cute, so those are the kinds of antics he gets away with!

Patriotic Preview
Moving on to art, tomorrow we'll work on and some will finish the "Three Musicians" project. Next, we look at Jasper Johns.  He is an American artist, who at the time of this entry is still with us and is 82 years old. In 1958, he completed "Three Flags". This is what we're using as inspiration for our project this week. 

However, we're taking what we've learned in this session and combining it.  The first flag (big flag) will be in the form of collage. The one after that (medium flag) will be in watercolor. Watercolor techniques are encouraged as are usage of watercolor pencils and/or watercolor crayons. The small flag is to be done with whatever style or technique the student chooses.

Here is Mikelle's project. She chose marker and pen for her top layer flag. And those back wavy lines on the small flag? Those are courtesy of our X-man.

The steps include making sure you have the right paper for three sizes. Below is a standard piece of white 9x18 construction paper, watercolor paper that is about 9x12 (give or take) and the small piece can be watercolor paper as well. If the artist knows they won't be using watercolor techniques, a standard piece of drawing or construction paper is okay.

Since the first and second flags will be covered up, keep that in mind when working on those steps. Don't put a lot of work into areas that won't be seen. Some overlapping into the "no view" zone is fine, but keep the detail in the areas that will be seen.  A blurry example of my collage below:



For the "medium flag" with watercolor, I'm doing the "plastic wrap technique".  I'll show it to the students and they can use it if there is enough time for the technique to work. That technique requires extra "down time". 

After you put in your color (combinations of colors are encouraged, so since it's the blue portion of the flag, I used lights and dark blues and little blue/violets) , apply an amount of plastic wrap (saran wrap) to the area, and then put a heavy book on top of it. 


 After a couple hours (but if you have all night, that's the ideal time to ensure enough time has passed), take the book off and pull off the plastic wrap.

Since my camera (our Plan B camera) isn't showing it very well, here is an example of how the saran wrap technique looks after you peel it off:


I think I'll use some of my pen and ink doodle techniques for my third and small flag. It isn't finished yet, so we'll see how it turns out! 

As for my two young "beginner" students. I think the above project will be better received if I keep the collage to a simple "one flag" project like I did for my students at this time last year.

American Flag Collage - 8 Year Old Student July 2011

Awesome art to be created this week! I can't wait!