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.

Basket Weaving using Recycled Containers

I'm always looking for good weaving projects for little hands.  I was going thru the storage room and was overwhelmed with just how many recycled plastic containers I had.  You know the ones from yogurt or sour cream...the ones you hold on to thinking..... "one day I'll need it for a project".

Inspiration strikes and I realized "Hey you could use it as the base for a basket weaving project"........

and that's where it started.





















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- recycled containers
- scissors
- yarn, string, embroidery floss,  and/or fabric strips
- glue
- old book pages, newspaper, maps

Now the problem with recycled containers is they have logos plastered all over them so I decided we would paper mache them over with strips of paper.  I thought about painting them but was worried the paint would get scratched off during the weaving.

I use old books that I get from the discard rack at the library or old maps.  Newspaper also works well.  Cut into little strips and a glue/water mix in a 1 to 1 ratio.  You could also use Mod Podge.

Leave to dry overnight.

Now find out the diameter of your container.  In order to get a woven basket you need an odd number of cuts in your container.  An odd number allows you to cover the basket fully like the one holding the paintbrushes above.  I also used an odd number of cuts on the basket holding the branch with leaves.

The other basket was done with an even # but I had to alternate woven sections.

Using your scissors make cuts down the container.  Now you can make them all the same size, you could make them random sizes or you can make a pattern like one narrow strip and then one wide....lots of possibilities it's up to you.  Just remember to have an odd # if you want the fully woven look.

Select the material you want to weave with and tie it on on one of the sections in the inside.

I put a bit of tape on the section I start with so if I'm making a specific pattern I can keep count of the rows.

Then start weaving in and out of the different sections.  With an odd number of sections on the first pass you will have your yarn/string on every second one and then on the second pass the string will be on the other ones.

On this one I decided to do extra weaving on the narrow strips.....because I had to cut an odd number to get the fully woven look on the first part I need to skip a strip to get the weaving on the narrow part....that means 2 strips look exactly the same side by side but you just have that part in the back...it still looks terrific.

When it's time to switch colors or material just knot the 2 ends together on the inside.

This is great for teaching patterns in Kindergarten and Grade 1.

Continue right up to the rim...the string just settles in nicely below it.  You also could trim the container down if you wanted a smaller basket.

Knot off the end onto one of the strings on the inside and then stuff the end in behind the strings.

The kids found the weaving easy and were planning all sorts of patterns...I have some basket weaving books and we are seeing how we can adapt those patterns...we are also looking at using different containers like a ice cream pail for a larger basket or cutting the top off a milk jug and then weaving that.

Give it a try... and if you're like me you have lots of containers waiting to be woven.






See you next time.

The Figure - A Sculptural Project

In the course of teaching Art at some point you will address the importance of the figure.

Now you can sketch the figure, paint it, pastel it, .....deal with it in a variety of ways but a sculptural project allows kids to really appreciate the way the figure occupies/moves in its space.

I'm always looking for sculptural/3D projects so this is what I came up with.  It is paper mache on a wire armature that is easy enough for the kids to construct and utilizes recyclables.

Now the inspiration for this project is Mario Armengol's "Family of Man" sculptures.  They were first exhibited in Expo '67 and since then have resided in Calgary.  We are lucky to have them.

I grew up with these statues and they have always fascinated me.

Whenever I am downtown I try to spend some time appreciating them, .........their size, they way they occupy their space, their relation to one another, their story.
My kids love them to and are always trying to figure what's going on between the figures.



MATERIALS REQUIRED:
- recycled tuna can
- awl
- wire
- duct tape
- paper towel
- wax paper
- white school glue
- acrylic paint

Before you start your sculpture you may want to discuss the way the figure moves in space.

Discuss different positions the figure may take, you may also want to have the kids sketch out some figures to plan out their sculpture.



Take your tuna can and poke 2 holes thru the bottom with your awl. This needs to be done by an adult.

Now I have a can opener that makes a "safe edge" when it cuts but you can always use some duct tape along the edge to cover the sharp edge.

For this project I used some wire I purchased from Wal mart.  I can't remember the gauge as the label is gone but it is soft enough to bend with your fingers but strong enough to hold the shape.  Take a piece about 18 inches or so. and bend in half.

Feed the 2 ends thru one of the holes.  Twist them together a few times and then bend them flat to the can.

Use a few pieces of duct tape to secure.

This will be underneath your sculpture so you won't see it.

Do the same with a second piece of wire.  It should look like this.

Twist the 2 wires together to form the legs and the torso.

Take a wire that is about 12 inches, bend in half and twist the ends onto the top of your torso.  This will be an arm.

Make a second arm and bend your wire armature into the position you want your figure to take.

For the head make a loop in a wire about 6 inches long and twist into place at the top of the torso.

Add a few pieces of duct tape around the torso to hold it all together.

Take some strips of paper towel and a glue/water mix (1 to1 ratio) and begin covering the armature.

Add additional strips to the areas where you want more shape. Just try to keep the mache tight on the armature.  You don't want it too bulky that might lead to the sculpture collapsing before it can dry.

For the head make a ball of mache and then wind some strips around it to adhere to the wire loop.

I left the wire exposed for the hands as I liked the look of it.

Add some strips to the base to cover the tuna can.

Let dry.  It takes about 2 days.

Paint with acrylic paint. I wanted a metallic look so I first painted the whole thing black.

I then dry brushed on some bronze paint letting some of the black show thru.  I left the face black like it was in shadow.

I also left the base black to contrast with the figure.

That's it.

You could do a whole set similar to the "Family of Man" or have each student select one figure from series and then exhibit them together.


My plan is to do this project with Grade 5 as soon as I have collected enough cans.

See you soon with another art adventure.

Fall Trees Version 2

I was looking at my Fall Trees project and wanted to try a variation.

Bright blue sky with vibrantly colored leaves on the trees...this is what we came up with.


Ryan, age 10, completed this beauty.

We tried white for our tree trunks to look like an aspen or birch but I found it too winter like....( future Jan. project)....so I think we will stick with black.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:
- watercolor or tempera paints
- watercolor paper
- painter's masking tape (optional)
- drinking straws
- kleenex
- cotton swabs or Q Tips
- acrylic or liquid tempera paint in fall colors

I like to tape off my watercolor paper with painter's masking tape to give me a clean white border on my finished project.

It makes for a nice presentation on the bulletin board at school as well.

Draw in a horizon line in pencil.  For more info on horizon lines see my lesson here.

Paint in a sky with watercolor.  You want a nice graded wash so I get the kids to first wet the paper with plain water and then add some color.  You want it darker on top and fading as it reaches the horizon. While the paint is still wet take a scrunched up kleenex and lift out a few clouds.

Paint in the ground on the bottom half of your horizon.
  I tried a sample without a horizon just sky and it seemed the tree needed the extra color around the trunk of the fallen leaves.

Leave to dry.

Mix up some black paint to an inky consistency (you could also use India ink).  Using a paintbrush paint in the beginning of the trunk from the ground.

Using an eyedropper (save the ones from liquid medicine) drop in some paint, make a bead of paint on the paper and then have the kids blow the bead into the rest of the trunk and the branches.

Continue to add paint where a branch is needed and continue blowing until you are happy with your tree.

Leave to dry.

Dab into acrylic or liquid tempera with cotton swabs and add leaves to your trees.

Include some fallen leaves on the ground.

Less tends to be more in this case.  You don't want to overdue and lose the branch detail on your trees.

Here is Jeff's, age 7, version.

I plan on doing these with Grade 2.


Take care and we will be back with more art adventures soon!

UPDATE: Here are the Fall Trees (version 2) that the Grade 2's completed this week in time for Parent/Teacher interviews! Click on to see larger if you wish.  Great job Grade 2!