My 4th grader had a fun assignment for school. She needed to draw animals that had adapted to their environment. Her creative dad misinterpreted this obvious science project as a freestyle art assignment based on creativity. Oh how confused her science teacher must have been to see her father's twisted view of evolution...
Schlubber?
Our girl's end of year grade school project. To create and sell a "product" to her classmates. Natalie wanted to make "Schlubber" which, as she puts it, "Is a cross between flubber and slime."
What is the story? It can be stretched and formed a little. It can't be eaten. Its not playdough or silly putty.
We spent an evening talking and sketching ideas. One idea was give Shlubber "personity". Maybe it (he/she) had a face and a bit of a story?
Shlubber needed to be saved. Trapped somehow in this plastic bag hoping to be saved, to be loved....
Sketching out Ideas ....
Sketching ideas or the lack of... always leads to something...if nothing else, happy accidents
homework
Just a quick sketch while the boy was busy with math homework. Done in Magna studio on my tablet. l am considering a new Surface pro or Ipad Pro. Took the Ipad out for a test drive with its new pencil. It was nice but without Manga studio to test I was a little skeptical. Surface pro seemed better to me as the pencil had more of a textured drag or resistance on the screen. The apple felt like drawing on slick glass instead of paper.
This Topic is no good...
Visiting my brother in MN for Christmas. (We had a great time!) My nephew told me about his high school art project. Create an image around the theme of "human reflex" meaning reflexes like sneezing, kicking, blinking and coughing. this topic. But at times a topic, no matter how broad, can seem confining. There were comments about this being a difficult or limiting topic. I see this with my kids also.
I think some of the biggest issues with creativity come thinking to literal. Art can teach abstract thinking that allows a loose interpretation of a task. This may open up a new way to approach a problem. Maybe a new way to define a question or task.
What Is a Cough?
What feeling do you want your viewer to experience?
-Your image can be literal or symbolic...
-You can use different Materials or different Styles....
-Lastly your choice of Composition should work with your previous decisions
Ideation Thought Starters....Thumbnails
Who is coughing and what type of cough.....
Does it need to be a human? or an object? or show the Environment that you cough in?
Maybe create a stylized expression of a cough....or just the an abstracted graphic representation.....
Materials and Color adds limitless possibilities to this equation
Pirate Day Oct.20
I almost have the final sketch/coloring books complete for Art Parent. I have been reformatting and changing a few of the final sketches but I think it is almost done. I have a projector on order for the day so I am hoping for a sketch video to go along with the handouts. I have a few rooms to visit, so it should be a fairly busy day. I hope the kids are up for it. Here is a taste of a few of the pages, almost complete....
Art Parent last 5th grade visit
Went to visit the third grade and fifth grade classrooms. We drew cars, pickle cars, rocket cars, ketchup cars and future cars! I did feel challenged presenting because the students just wanting to ask questions constantly. My kids mentioned that I talked a little to much, more drawing please. I was happy using the computer and a projector in third grade class. It worked out pretty good. This was the last visit of the year and probably the last one for my oldest son who's in fifth grade. I'm going to miss this.
School Plan
Some poster prep for this years Art Parent ....
Each month has a theme ...I need to work out each session....wish me luck ....this is for 2nd grade and kindergarten classes....:)
Hiking
Here one of 6 postcards for kids to send home to parents. A fun project for Ethan's school...Check out the rest on the Wonderkids Postcard Page
School postcards
Here are a few postcards created for Ethan's last week of classes. They have a camping theme week. Talking about hiking and animals and fun stuff. Each day the kids write a postcard home for the parents. These may be a little to stylized but I had fun with them anyway... not cartoon like..I hope the kids like them....we shall see.
Cowboy
This is a post card I made for Ethan's class...they are doing a weeks worth of camp activities. One day is "Cowboy" day and this is intended to be the postcard they write home on. I used a standard fill bush in grays first. Then an overlay layer for color tone and multiply for darks...I posterized the image in photoshop and it gave me a watercolor effect I really like....
I have 5 more to follow ....I hope the kids like them...I will set up a page under school projects...
I learned a lot on these from a painting stand point ....hope you like
Leprechaun Trap
...how to trap a Leprechaun...
First we started with some sketches and rough ideas...which led to a boxy cardboard model...
Next we used foam-core for the local craft store, very easy to cut and glue into nice clean shapes. We sketched and used Photoshop to create our stone walls and interior. Lastly we pasted the printed graphics onto the foam-core...
And the final effort looked like this...and we did sort of catch a Leprechaun! We made the outside look like a little Irish Pub. The top half of the structure falls down to cover the door.
The inside ....the jelly beans are the bait. When he goes to take the glued down beans the center pole rotates and sets the trigger....down comes the top of the pub and blocks the door!!!
We even made a model in Alias....to explain the above....
Very fun project...we caught the lep's hat but the rest of him got away!
School Room
Here is one of the early sketches...very rough outline
Here are a few posters done for my son's first grade class. They explain the principles of Comprehension, Accuracy, Vocabulary, and Fluency. These are terms used in the CAFE reading system being taught this year. It was a fun project and got me back into a little illustration. The image of a girl in the Fluency poster is a sketch of Ethan's sister Natalie. I hope she will be in the same room as him and the posters will still be in use.
The final poster in bookmark format..
This is what the old posters looked like...
Here is one of the new ones...
