Owls in the style of Paul Klee

It seems every year I do a Fall owl project.

These owls are inspired by Paul Klee.




This one is on hardboard but you could use cardboard.

The wings are made out of corrugated cardboard and the beak is recycled foam.

You can also do a full paper version, this one is in the art journal.


















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- substrate, can be hardboard, masonite, cardboard, canvas or paper
- gesso for priming, optional
- acrylic or tempera paint
- corrugated cardboard
- recycled papers
- glue

PROCEDURE:

If you wish you can prime your substrate with gesso.

Take a piece of recycled paper, this is a large book page, paint with the colour you want for the body.

I also painted a red one for the head.

I painted the corrugated cardboard in shades of brown.  This will be for the wings.

I cut a beak out of recycled foam and painted it yellow.

I painted the background (substrate) in shades of blue.

I try not to let paint go to waste. I'll paint pages in my art journal or plain paper to use in printmaking to use up any excess paint.

This is the orange body paper. I turned it over and sketched out my body shape. Cut it out.

Add dashes of colour to the body.

Cut out some wing shapes from the painted cardboard and add dashes.

To cut out the head I took the red painted paper and turned it over. I traced the head and shoulders of the body on to it.

I turned it upside down and cut a triangle out of the forehead.



I then painted on the dashes.

To make the eyes I cut 2 round circles out of white paper,  I used my circle punch.


I then cut one out of some leftover orange paper.  I cut it in half for the eyelids.

I cut 2 smaller circles out of black paper for the pupils.

Cut a branch out of black paper.

Glue down all the pieces.

Add some shading and details with black and white pencils.

These china markers work on everything.  I buy them by the box at Staples.

That's it.

Gail

Mixed Media Owl

Well I can't spend 2 weeks here at the cabin without making an owl can I!

........ok maybe I'm just a little Owl crazy but when you hear them hooting all night it gets to you.....

I decided to finish the samples I made while at the Fernie workshop. 


I found some great natural items to add to this portrait proving that you don't need to visit the store for supplies just use what's around you.















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- a substrate, which is a fancy word for a base, here I used a framed canvas but you could use a piece of cardboard or a wooden board
- acrylic paint
- spackle
- cardboard
- tissue, cheesecloth, burlap, or anything else you have lying around
- tacky glue, glue gun
- found items
- Mod podge

So like I showed in the Fernie post I textured my canvas using spackle and a number of tools to create designs.

Let the canvas (substrate) dry.  Mine was covered with lots of texture as I was showing all the different possibilities.    I then painted it with acrylic paint.

I then let this base coat dry.

I came in with some more paint and did a dry brush application to pull out the details of the texture.  Basically with a dry brush you want to come in with light paint if the base color is dark or dark paint if the base is light.  Apply lightly with a dry bristle brush,  I keep my old beat up brushes to use for this.

Put aside to dry.

I had a piece of corrugated cardboard from which I cut out the basic shape of my owl.  I applied some gesso or you can use glue and stuck on some tissue and cheesecloth to give it texture.  Again this was my leftover sample so I had a little bit of everything going on.  When dry paint with acrylics.

I found a nice big pine cone on one of my walks so I took some of the scales off starting from the bottom.  I also made sure to pick off the little barb on each scale so they were easier to work with.

They looked feather shaped to me.

 

I then painted them with acrylics to look like owl feathers.

 

I had my husband cut some rounds off a large fallen branch to use for eyes.   I sanded them smooth.

I also lucked out and found this neat beak shaped rock.

 

I then painted them.....didn't want my eyes perfectly matched.....like them a little kooky.

 

Using tacky glue I glued all the pieces in place.

 

I painted a branch on the background for my owl to perch on.

I then glued the owl onto the background with a glue gun.

 

I then sealed the whole thing with Mod podge.

 

Let dry and you have a great mixed media portrait for your wall.

See you next time!

Snowy Owl Ornaments

This little Snowy Owl is one of the crafts for Christmas Craft Day 2010 which is taking place on Friday Dec 17th.


I couldn't resist making an Owl themed ornament so here is the How To:

Owl Assemblage

I know I have my fair share of owl projects on the blog but I couldn't resist another.



This is a recycled assemblage that includes some text.  It was a joint collaboration of by my 3 kids and I love the idea so much I am looking to incorporate it into this year's Art Program.






My kids absolutely love these "Look a Like" books from Joan Steiner.  When we go to the library they repeatedly take these out again and again....even my 13 yr old.

I started this project by having them look at these books to get the creative juices flowing. 

The kids then went on a treasure hunt looking for items in the recycling bin, the junk drawer, & odds and ends from the craft room.

For this owl we used:

- a scrap of shelf liner for the head
-,round corrugated packaging from a cookie tin for the body
-  assorted rings from bottles and a sour cream container (you know those rings you have to break to open) for the eyes and wings
- bread tags for the feet
- a picture hanger for the beak
- 2 acorn caps for the eyes
- some shells, rickrack, and pipe cleaner for the leaves and branches
- some old wood letters (you could cut some from cardboard) and a piece of a drinking straw for the OWL
- some washers for feathers and for the text

We glued all the pieces to a piece of cardboard for our background.  We used tacky glue.

We let it dry and then covered it with a coat of gesso but you could also use white acrylic paint.

When it was dry we experimented a bit with the paint.  At first we just did a brown wash on the owl and then painted the background with a black wash.


The kids were not impressed so we tried again.

This time we added color, for the leaves and branches, the beak, and the feet.  We also made the OWL white as well as around the eyes.


The boys added some details around the eyes with the silver sharpie and then my 13 yr old added the text with some suggestions from Mom of course!

I then covered it with a coat of glossy Mod podge and woohoo it looks 100 X's better.

See you next time.

Owl Projects

The "Guardians of Ga'Hoole" motion picture opens on Friday Sept 24th and my kids are stoked.  Since there is never a shortage of Owl projects at our house I thought I give you some new Owl art projects as well as revisit the old Owls from the past.

First up a pastel resist Owl.  You know me,,,,pastel resist is one of my favs so follow along.


Click on the photo to see larger and more detail.

Provide your young artists with some reference material.   Professional artists use reference photos all the time so inspire your students with books from the library, google images, whatever you can get your hands on.

Have them sketch out their Owls. Some may try to copy a photo exactly but as they gain confidence they'll start to make changes to suit their instinct....it's all a part of the process.

Using light colored pastels (white and yellow) mark out some of the features.  Do some feather detail...some leaf shapes...some veining in the leaves...outline the main components (Owl and tree limbs).  Also mark areas you want to remain white like the head and breast feathers.

It's hard to see on this photo but I have quite a lot marked out.

Start painting with disk tempera.

I wanted to use fall colors to keep with the season.  I start with some yellow around the Owl, sunlight filtering thru the trees on our sleepy friend.

Drop in some more fall colors...maybe a bit of green here and there for the leaves that haven't turned yet.

A good rule of thumb is to put some intense, darker color in at least 2 of the corners..helps to push the focal point and grounds the painting.

Paint the Owl brown.... the pastel will resist the paint highlighting the features you have marked.

Put some dark brown, almost black, color in the tree limbs and add some branches here and there.  You don't necessarily see all the branches or in their entirety as portions are blocked out with leaves.

Add extra color where needed...maybe some veining in the leaves with some contrasting fall colors...a little dark brown on the Owl's wing feathers.  Add the eyes and you're done!

Remember this guy from about 2 years ago you can check out my post for this project here.


I'll have another Owl project on Friday so make sure you stop on by........

See you then.