Squirrel Portrait and a new Sharpie Book

Today is my day on the Sharpie Blog Roll in support of a new book by Kathy Barbro,  "Sharpie Art Workshop for Kids".

I'm especially thrilled because I was one of the project contributors.  Kathy has put together an awesome book and it was amazing to be part of it. You can check out her Facebook page to enter the giveaway contest.

I also have this great squirrel mono print that has sharpie details to share with you.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- wax paper
- drawing paper
- construction paper, I like to use black for that chalkboard look
- stapler
- acrylic or liquid tempera paint
- assorted sharpies,  one of my favourite art tools

PROCEDURE:

To make our mono print with have to prep our papers.

We are going to make a paper booklet.

You need a piece of drawing paper, a piece of wax paper, and a piece of construction paper.

Cut them so they are all the same size.  I use a sharpie to mark the size I need on the wax paper.

Line all 3 pieces up and staple them together along one of the short ends.  I use a line of about 5-6 staples.

I'm going to be going back and forth thru the pages so I make a fold to make this easier.

Open up your booklet to the drawing paper.

Make your squirrel drawing.  I find it helpful to provide younger kids with a tail shape to base their drawing off of.

When finished, outline with (you guessed it)...Sharpie.

Fold the wax paper page over top the drawing, you should be able to see it clearly thru the wax paper.

We are going to paint on the wax paper and then transfer this to the construction paper.  It helps to work in a small section at a time and it also helps to have your paint a bit watery.  I use a spray bottle to add a bit of water to my paint.

I'm using black construction paper so I make sure to add white to all my paint colours.  It makes them show up better on the black paper.

Here I'm painting in the tail.  I only work in small sections because I need to transfer my print while the paint is wet.

When I finish painting in the tail I fold the black paper over and give it a bit of a press.

Construction paper works best for these mono prints as it soaks up the paint, other papers like cardstock can slip and smudge.

Slowly pull the construction paper back and the paint will have transferred from the wax paper.

It will be a mirror image.

Continue this process bit by bit until you have made your full print.

You can leave your booklet intact to show the process or remove the wax and drawing papers.

Now you can add the final details.  I used black sharpie, white sharpie, silver sharpie, and brown sharpie.

That's it.

I love this mono print project and I use it a lot at school.  I have another post showing this process only with an eagle here.


Be sure to check out "Sharpie Art Workshop for Kids" by Kathy Barbro and see if you can find my project.

Take care everyone.

Gail

How to Make a Tunnel Book

About a month ago I posted some pictures of tunnel books that two Grade 6 classes made.  I promised the tutorial and here it is.


The tunnel book starts off as a regular accordion book and then halfway it flips up exposing a tunnel to the back page.

 It's a great project to incorporate writing and the visual arts.

The tunnel section can represent a transition in the story, literal or figurative.

With the Grade 6'rs it was part of their novel study.  The had to choose a portion of the book they had read and then incorporate this into a tunnel book.







MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- 1 piece of 11x17 white paper for practice and planning
- rectangular piece of wc or good weight paper, by good weight you want it thicker than printer paper but not 300lb wc, a 90lb would work well here, I use roughly a 12.5 x 19.5 which is a 1/4 sheet of the 90-110lb wc we have on hand
- ruler
- pencil and eraser
- scissors
- watercolors, tempera disk, acrylics, colored pencil, etc. any medium to add color
- fine sharpie
- cardboard
- tacky glue


PROCEDURE:

Now bear with me here.  It really is easy once you get the hang of it.  I just need to break it down into step by step.

Hand out the 11x17 printer paper.  This will be our practice book.  We will also use this as a plan for our good copy.

Fold in half both vertically and horizontally.  I added black lines to show the folds. You do not need to add these.


Lay out flat.

Now fold each side into the middle.

Unfold and you will have 8 sections.

Now this style of accordion book is called a pants book.  I use this term with the kids as it's an easy way for them to remember. 

Starting on one side cut along the horizontal fold line up to the last 2 sections.

When you hold it up it looks like a pair of pants.

With young kids you might want to make a mark at the stopping point to remind them.

Place your pair or pants in front of you so that the seat is on the right (feet would come out on the left if this was a real pair of pants).

Now in book making there are 2 main folds, a mountain and a valley.  Mountains poke up and valleys go down.  Click and the photo for a larger image. I have them marked.

You want both pant legs starting on the left to have a valley fold, then a mountain, and then another valley.

Fold up the top leg accordion style keeping the folds as outlined previously.

You can now take these top pages and flip them down.

In the tunnel book these pages will form the tunnel which sits up.

Incidentally if you wanted to just make an accordion book with no tunnel.  Just flip these pages the other way to the back.  This would give you a nice accordion with single pages and one double in the middle.

For both books you now can fold up the remaining leg of the book keeping those same folds.

Your book should open nicely with 3 pages and then you can flip up the remaining pages and they can sit upright.



Now the tunnel.

Unfold the book.  To create the tunnel you need to cut out 3 windows in the first 3 pages of the top pant leg. 

Ovals are the easiest but once you get the hang of it you can experiment.  The windows do not need to all be the same shape but you want to get smaller as you go making sure you can see thru them all to the final page.

Easiest way to cut the windows is to poke a hole in the center and then cut away.

Now when you stand up that tunnel you should be able to see thru to that back page.

Now that you've done your practice book you might as well use it to plan out what you want to do for your good copy.

When you have your plan make your pants book with your good paper.

Just like before.

The older the student the more elaborate your windows can be.

I also find it best to cut the large window out first.....I can then figure out where I want my second window and then again for the third.

Now add color using whatever medium you wish.  For grade 6 they painted all the backgrounds and then added all the details.  They drew the details onto plain white paper, colored them in with pencil crayon and then cut and pasted onto their painted backgrounds. 

You need to paint the backs of the tunnel pages for a finished look.

You can now add text if you wish.  I printed out my story on the computer and then pasted it on.

I also used a fine sharpie to add some outlines to my paintings.

For the front and back cover you might want to add some weight to your book.

Cardboard covers are a nice touch.

Cut 2 rectangles, the same size as your pages, out of cardboard. (chipboard or corrugated).

Paint the cardboard and then add a title.

Fold up your tunnel book and glue the cardboard cover to the first page.

Now the back cover is glued on.  It should be the back of the 4th page on the bottom leg of the pants.

That's it. My tunnel book is called 'Finding Paradise'.

I know I still have Maui on the brain.....why not give a tunnel book a try!

See you next time.

and the Winner is.....

So it's time to announce the winner of  "Starting Your Career As An Artist" by Angie Wojak and Stacy Miller.

I'd like to thank Allworth Press and Skyhorse Publishing for making this giveaway possible.

I received 26 comments and 23 emails for a total of 49 entries and the winner selected by RANDOM INTEGER is:


Here are your random numbers:

33

Timestamp: 2011-08-27 17:51:21 UTC



That means the lucky entry by time and date is

Calmil2 who wrote:

 Would LOVE a copy!!! I am struggling with so many of those topics right now...Sounds like a great book!!  Harmony  August 24, 2011 1:28pm

If you could contact me at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca with your shipping address and I'll get your winning copy off to you right away.

Thanks everyone for entering and don't despair if you didn't win. I have an upcoming giveaway that is fantastic so stayed tuned.

See you next week with some new art projects in time for "Back to School".

later,