Thursday, September 22, 2011

Artful Faves

These are a few of my favorite samples I have made recently for
Mrs. O'Leary's art store in Wichita, Ks.  They are made using the Artful Illusions
stamp line and the latest popular lines of paper the store carries. 

Yikes! My head is full of Artful Illusions!

Layers and layers of Graphic 45 Renaissance Faire papers

Fancifully collaged sketchbook cover

A double layered canvas collage
Butterfly Garden paper by Pink Paislee 

Stamped images, papers, tags, embellishments, photos, oh my!
Inspired by a recent sample in Somerset Studio



Monday, September 12, 2011

Somethin's a little fishy 'round here!


This lesson is "an oldie but a goodie" that I have taught since my student teaching.  It came from a School Arts lesson from March 1999.  It is a great way to get 7th graders started on drawing large and successfully with their first major project of the year.  We also start the year with watercolor so that they think we are doing something "artful" right away, not just "boring" drawing, which will come later!

Students begin by drawing two large fish shapes on two 5.5 by 8.5 papers.  We use these fish drawings by Wyland purchased at School Specialty for inspiration. They are just the right size to place in the middle of their papers. Then we "stretch" them to fit the paper.  Each fish then needs at least three sections as part of their details.

We practice four watercolor techniques, using a white crayon for resist.  Students then transfer their favorite fish by tracing the same fish on the back of the original fish.  Laying this over a watercolor page, tracing over the lines, transfers the lead from the fish paper to their good paper. 
The page should be filled with fish.  Students then use a white crayon to trace over their pencil lines.  They choose three colors to use on their fish.  Either one cool and two warm or two cool and one warm.  They must use atleast three of the watercolor techniques on their fish.  The background is either black or a color that has not been used on the fish.  Finally, a splatter technique with a toothbrush is used to overspray the painting with "bubbles" to give it an underwater effect.


This post is written in loving memory of my cooperating teacher Mrs. Denton.  Thanks for the inspiration and the knowing that I could do this.  Know that you are surely missed by your friends and family and the students and staff of TJHS!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Sunflower Love

 This time of year, I am reminded of the awesomeness that is the sunflower!  There are a few sunflower gardens around town that I like to revisit each year. I love it when the sunflowers are behaving so that I can get a few good shots to add to my collection.  Here are just a few of the more colorful sunflower pics to inspire you.








Sunday, September 4, 2011

Summer of the Mermaid

 
This summer has been filled with lots of mermaid art adventures! A new line of rubber stamps from Artful Illusions and tons of mermaidy supplies has inspired many visions from under the sea!



This is a fun tag cardboard book I designed to showcase the new mermaid stamps.

 






This is a mermaid bust by my friend Elaine. 
She generously gifted it to me!


excellence from Elaine

These are pages from a collaborative swap with my Altered Artist Group a few summers ago.  Each member of the group chose a ready made bookform and a theme. The book pages were swapped and due at a predesignated monthly meeting.  My bookform was an 8 by 8 inch scrapbook binder with chipboard pages.  My theme was of course, mermaids!
mermaid by me!

created by Linda

ravishing by Ruth

another from me


wonderfulness by Wendy

Thursday, September 1, 2011

New inspiring bulletin board!


This is my new inspiring bulletin board for the beginning of the new school year.    I found Albert at Michaels for a whopping 5 dollars and thought he just screamed "ART!"  I definitely wanted him to be screaming other things to help me out by repeating some of the expectations for my classroom.  This hangs right outside the artroom door, and hopefully it is glanced at before entering...maybe some of this will actually sink in to those thick middle school skulls!




What do you wish Albert could say?




PS...I guess without realizing it, I was subconsciously
inspired by the late artist Fred Baab while creating this BB. 
(His poster art is plastered all over my art room).  Thanks Fred!