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

Poppy Patterns

This year's Remembrance Day art project is the result of 2 main inspirations,  Project Runway's red palette challenge this week and last week's"Make it Artsy" segment on Rebekah Meier's circle mandalas.

If you haven't checked out "Make it Artsy" it is well worth your time.  I just watch the episode online as it's not carried by KSPS. I watch with my design journal right next to me as the ideas just start to pour out.






MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- basket coffee filters
- liquid tempera or acrylic paint in red, black and white
- glue
- circle shapes for tracing
- scissors
- printmaking materials like cardboard, pencils, skewers, little cups
- white and black pencil crayons
- buttons, beads, and/or poppy seeds, optional
- paper for background

PROCEDURE:

The first step is to paint your coffee filters. I started out using disk tempera but the colour was very dull.  Liquid tempera and acrylic produced nice bright colour.

You need 1 bright red, 1 dark red, and 1 black painted coffee filter for each poppy.  From there you can mix and match.  Mix a tiny bit of black into your red to make the dark red.

If you want a background pattern on your poppy add it before we start cutting.

Here I am using a cup and making circle shapes.  Stay in our limited colour palette of red (light and dark), black, and white.

When the coffee filters are dry you want to cut different ring shapes from them to construct your poppy.

Use circle shapes from around the classroom as templates.

I folded mine for easier cutting.

You can also cut your rings to have a more natural petal shape.

Now you can add more patterns to the parts of your poppy.

Here I use a piece of cardboard to make lines.

Here I added dots using the end of a pencil and a skewer.

I had not cut this one in rings but later I needed to.  It was a lot harder to cut the ring after I put the pattern on.  Note to self : have students cut rings first.

You can use pencil crayon to add details.

Mix and match your ring shapes.

Use the black coffee filter as the base.  Glue your rings on top letting some of the black filter exposed.

You can embellish them with some buttons, poppy seeds, beads, whatever you have on hand.

You can add extra details if needed.

For the background I painted the paper grey with black and white disk tempera.

Glue poppies on background.

That's it.

Hope you give this one a try.

Gail