Wood Houses : Art and Poetry Project

This is a project that I came up with a few months ago.  I used it at Christmas time for the Grade 3's but you can use it anytime.

It's a house that also has a poem incorporated with it.

Mine states:

" My House
Is warm and snug
full of people I love
and a DOOR
to shut out the
world"

(I think I was  a little stressed at the time)

The kids had a great time making them and it was fairly easy to execute.











MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- piece of wood 5 inches high, I used 1 1/2 X 3 1/2 timber ( or 2 by 4's)
- saw
- sandpaper
- acrylic paint
- wax paper
- white paper, colored paper
- pencil crayons, fine sharpies
- tacky glue
- thin cardboard or chipboard
- Mod podge
- a poem printed out in computer text or hand written

PROCEDURE:

Now the timbers I bought were 8' long.  My volunteer carpenter (thanks Mr. B) cut them on an angle in 5" sections.  He cut a 10" piece and then cut into 2.

You get 19 houses for each 8' timber.

I had the kids sand all the edges.  They loved that part.




We wrote their names on the bottom in sharpie.

I then had the kids paint the houses with acrylic paint.  No need to paint the top or bottom.Place each house on a small piece of wax paper.

The kids tended to paint the front first and then we set them upright and turned the wax paper so they could reach all the sides.

Let dry.

Take your cardboard or chipboard and cut out a roof.  We used rectangles that were 4" by 2 1/2".

You want a little overhang at the sides.

 Paint one side of the cardboard.

Let dry.

Now we will work on the windows.

For the Grade 3's I made up a sheet of windows for them.

This way they could do their drawings and then cut out the windows.

The top windows were 1"x1"
- the big front window was 1.5"x1.5"
- we had a back window that was 2" by 2.25"
- and 2 side windows that were 1" X 1.5"

Using pencils, pencil crayons, colored paper and fine sharpies the kids made little scenes in the windows. For the Christmas houses there were a lot of Christmas trees and decorations as well as family members.  Make sure you don't use washable markers as they will smear when you go to Mod podge the house.

Glue windows into place.  Make sure the top windows are about an inch down from the top edge of the wood so you can see them after you attach the roof.  The door was a rectangle cut from a piece of colored paper with a door knob drawn in.

For the roof cut little shingle shapes out of colored paper and glue into place starting with the top row.  Stagger each row so it looks like real shingles.  The kids also drew in some of the shingles with a white gel pen to mix it up a bit.  Attach roof to the house with tacky glue.  You want the back of the roof flush to the back of the house giving you a nice overhang in the front.

Print out or nicely hand write your poem.  Cut out sections and glue into place on the house.  Finally Mod Podge the whole thing for a nice shiny finish.  If  the windows wrinkle a bit don't worry everything will flatten out as the Mod Podge dries.

That's it.  The grade 3's wrote a short sentence starting with "My House at Christmas....."

I can envision a nice Valentine themed house.

See you soon.

In the Style of Rene Magritte #2

So we are still looking at Surrealism in Grade 6.  The students did my usual lesson on Magritte last year in Grade 5 but I thought we would try another.




Here is our version of  "The Large Family" 1963

and this is the original.


This is my favorite painting of Magritte and always leads to wonderful conversation regarding the symbolism.

















MATERIALS REQUIRED:
- 2 sheets wc paper
- green painter's tape
- disk tempera in blue, yellow,orange,white and black
- paintbrushes
- kleenex
- scissors
- white pastel or pencil crayon
- Dove Template 1, Dove Template 2 or create your own
- tacky glue

PROCEDURE:

Take your wc papers and tape down to your art boards with the green painter's tape.

While the paint is still wet use a kleenex to lift off clouds.

Let dry.

On the second board begin painting your background.

Add some blue, orange and yellow.  Leave the top white as well as the bottom.

Add some black now.  At the bottom you want to fill in with black for the water but leave that white horizon line.



Go over your sky colors with a black wash including the white at the top.

At the bottom add a few waves in the water with white tempera or gauche.





Let background dry.

Turn your cloud paper over and sketch out the flying dove.  Now with Grade 6 I will be asking them to create their own Dove.  I have included a template (see materials list)  for those of you who want it.




Cut out your sketch.

Now to make the head look separate from the back wing you may want to use some white pencil crayon or pastel and strategically place a cloudy mist.

Glue into place and let dry with a piece of wax paper put on top of the surface and then a large heavy book placed on top of that.

That's it.  Magritte used his cloud landscape in several other paintings that your students may enjoy recreating or coming up with their own compositions that draw upon his work.








See you soon.

Giveaway Winner and Create With Me

Sorry I meant to do this yesterday.  I had a total of 81 entries for the "Drawing and Rendering THE FIGURE In Black And White And Color" by Doug White.

I used Random.org this time and got.........

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

46

Timestamp: 2012-01-15 15:22:13 UTC

# 46 belongs to PERIWINKLE PAISLEY who wrote:

Jan 11, 2012 04:49 PM

Glad to see you posting again! I could definitely use this book since I started a 'person a day' drawing project!

Thanks everyone for entering!

 I also just wanted to let you know that my son Jeff and I are featured in the current issue of "Create With Me" by Stampington Publications.



It's always a thrill to see your work in print!







See you next week with more art projects (back to work!) and a couple Valentine ideas.

Take care everyone.

Welcome Back and Giveaway

Well I'm back after our amazing trip to the UK visiting London and Bath as well as Stonehenge.  It was very busy as we tried to cram as much sightseeing as possible in and I had absolutely no time for all the sketching and painting I wanted to do.  Here is a picture of St. Paul's which I have painted before.  The early morning sun came out for about 2 minutes and the whole cathedral seemed to glow.

Here is an old sketch I did of the same view.

We have been home for a few days, kids are back in school, and I'm taking a few days to settle back in, clean the studio after the Christmas whirlwind, and plan out the next few months.                                     

I have to show you my favorite purchase from the trip.  London had more scarves, scarf/hood combos, hats and mittens than I have ever seen, this coming from a Canadian where we spend at least 7 months of the year bundled up.  I have never seen these wrist warmers.  Of course we have all seen the fingerless gloves with or without the flap to turn them into full gloves but I always found them too fussy.  These are so simple and my new best friends (especially with -15 this morning).

They are just a knitted rectangle about 10" x 7" that is then sewn into a tube and then a few stitches are added to tack in a 1" pocket for your thumb.  Now how easy is that!  Put them on before your jacket and you are quite snug and your fingers are free.  A great knitting or crocheting project for January.

On to the Giveaway.  "Drawing and Rendering THE FIGURE in Black and White and Color" is a new book by Canadian artist Doug White. I was given the chance to review this book and pass along a giveaway copy by Vantage Press.


First the details:

- soft cover
- 8.5" x 11"
- 130 pages
- suggested retail $24.95 US and $27.95 CAN
- published August 2011



This book is set- up like a student guide from a Master Drawing class.  It contains 43 exercises to work you thru not only the basic mechanics of drawing the figure but also how to develop and refine your style.

Some highlights include:
- excellent use of proportion calculations
- exercise #5 where you practice the elements of the face 20 x each at 3 different angles (this is a serious book not just a casual read)
 - tips on using yourself as a model to practice foreshortening, etc.

- 3 exercises specifically on clothing and fashion drawing
- the Box Method which has you create your own ruler to measure out a box on your page.  You then use this ruler to help you create a composition of the figure contained in this box.  I can already see the practicalities of using this method to teach the kids at school.

Figure drawing is one of those areas in which artists continually have to practice, refine, and repeat. In fact most artists will continue to attend a figure class (where able) throughout their career.  This is a good alternative where you can work through the exercises and then repeat. I plan on working thru all the exercises as increased Figure work is my (as usual)#1 art resolution this year!

So if you are interested in winning your own copy of this book you have 3 ways to enter:

- leave a comment on this post
- email me at thatartistwoman@shaw.ca
- like or comment on this post on my Facebook page

The draw will be on Saturday Jan 14 so you have until Friday 11:59pm to enter.
This draw is open to all Canadian and US residents.

Good luck everyone and hope to see you soon with more art projects from you know, that artist woman....what was her name again?

Happy New Year from London

Well it's officially 2012 in London and I just thought I would show you a few photos from the past few days.

Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace

Some treasures from the British museum.

Wall painting from the tomb of Nebamun.

The Portland Vase.

Head of the horse of Selene from the Parthenon.  Way too many pictures to show you here.

The Painted Chapel in Greenwich.

and for all you Tudor fans the site of the original home of the Tudor palace and birthplace of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Mary I at Greenwich.

Two of the ravens at the Tower of London.

Some graffiti at Beauchamp Tower at the Tower of London site by a prisoner.

And finally the view of the Tower Bridge from the wall at the Tower of London.

That's all for now.  Wishing you a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2012!

 

Merry Christmas Everyone!

So it's been a busy 2 weeks but today is the last day of school.


Here are the Pastel Resist Madonnas Grade 3 made.

Grade 2 did the Family Snowman portraits on canvas.  I can't show you those because of all the last names.  Grade 5 did their own version in clay.  I can show you a couple as the names are harder to read.

Last week the kiln began having thermostat problems....big headache!, but we were able to rescue our projects.  Luckily all the bisque fires had been done. 

Grade 6 ended up painting their Poinsettias with acrylic instead of glazing and I think they turned out great!

Grade 1 made their Angel plates.

I don't have a picture of the Nativity Plates by Kindergarten but they turned out great.  We modified the design a bit, just going with the Baby Jesus in his cradle with lots of stars.  It was easier for them to construct and very successful.

Grade 3 made wooden Christmas houses that are based on a house idea I presented at the last ECEC session.

I'll post the full tutorial for you in January.  Again a big success!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and all the best in the New Year!

I am off across the pond and my next post to you will be from London.  I hope to share some of my photos with you during the holidays.

Take care everyone.