Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Winter Resist

Photobucket

This is a fun resist project using oil pastels and watercolors. We used cool colors and the white of the paper and pastels to create snowy winterscapes. First use white oil pastel to make tree branches and snow. Go in with blue pastels to create cedars and other lines. When applying watercolors, the oil pastels will resist and show through. Add salt on top of water colors to create a fun effect! For extra snow, grab a toothbrush and white tempera paint for snowy splatter!

You will need:
-8x10 50 lb water color paper
-oil pastels
-watercolors and brushes
-salt (optional)
-white tempera paint & toothbrush

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

New Projects

Along with Christmas bells and noisy malls, I can hear the sound of brushstrokes and busy children. Over all that, I hear the constant stream of creative buzz going through my head. I have several projects in the works right now. Here is the latest.

Photobucket

I know you are thinking, what is with the picture of a guitar? Well, I am honored and thrilled to be asked with 2 other OKC artists to paint a western theme guitar for an exhibit at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. The exhibit is titled: The Guitar: Art, Artists and Artisans. It runs Feb 12, 2010 - May 09, 2010. It is going to be outstanding and 3 lucky people will be the proud owners of the local artisan guitars at the end of the exhibit. During the run of the exhibit children will be able to play the guitars and have their picture taken. I hope you will bring your children to take a look! I will be taking mine!

The guitar painting process should be interesting. I am a bit nervous. I don't want to mess it up! :) I am going to sand the guitar and begin painting right away. I will be sure to take photos of the progress!

If you haven't seen the Museum's Winter and Spring Class Schedule, you should take a look! Classes are filling quickly even though I think this is the most offerings they have had since I have been there. It's a big issue! If you have local little ones I hope to see you in the toddler and pre-k classes.

I am also happy to say I will be working with the Metropolitan Library System this summer doing a summer teen art program. We are going to do artist trading cards and I will let you know more when the schedule comes out.

Busy, busy! I have several new projects for children that I will post soon! Have a Creative Day!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Winter Collage

Photobucket

Yesterday at Drop-in-Art we created a winter wonderland in a mixed media collage project. I am the artist for December and we are doing fun things at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Dec. 12-ornament making (this is another artist, it's my little guy's birthday!)
Dec 19th- Matisse cut out Christmas Cards
Dec 26th-Kandinsky Paintings

Yesterday I encouraged children to think about what it looks like outside in winter. What colors made them think of cold weather, do trees have leaves, etc. We talked about background, foreground, and perspective.

Photobucket

I had two tables set up. One table was the collage table. The children cut and glued their background using bright non fade art paper and scrapbook papers. I showed them they could not only cut paper, but tear paper as well.

Photobucket

After they filled their page they took their piece to the painting table. Here I had black acrylic (the tempera was too transparent) with a variety of brushes for them to paint tree silhouettes in the foreground.

We dried our papers with a hair dryer (this was to help prevent smearing when we move to white paint) and then moved to the splatter station. Here I had white tempera paints set out with toothbrushes and more paintbrushes. This was the magical snowy part. We had a lot of fun and I hope you will too!

You will need:
-14x11 tagboard (heavy paper)
-paper for collage
-scissors
-glue stick
-black acrylic paint
-brushes
-white tempera paint
-toothbrushes
-hairdryer with adult assistance

A few of the child pieces

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket