Archive for the ‘Art School’ Category
Art School | Artful Skeletons
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013
Skeletons and…pasta? Yep! We are back in the kitchen for our art lesson today, with a little science mixed in. I was perusing Pinterest one day, with my 11 year old snooping, I mean watching, over my shoulder when he saw a craft that interested him. I easily forget that my older children like to be crafty just as much as my 6 year old. But all it takes is just a few minutes to turn a regular craft into something more. Before we get knee deep (pun intended) into our skeleton, let’s get some background. (more…)
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Art School | Kandinsky Kids
Monday, January 7th, 2013
We are going to combine music into our art lesson today. It’s pretty exciting, and the outcome is really neat.
Supplies: drawing paper, oil pastels, ruler, pencil, music player (ipod, cd, etc) (more…)
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Art School | Bleaching
Wednesday, December 26th, 2012
Today we are back in the kitchen for our art lesson, but it’s more to do with science than cooking for today’s cool project. We will learn natural ways to lighten color. Lemons, oranges, limes and other citrus fruits have high concentrations of citric acid. Citric acid is used for many things, it’s not only in food, but it can be added to foods for flavoring, it’s used in soaps, detergents, and also used to dye things. We will be using lemon juice as our alternative to bleach. Bleach is a chemical that can remove color or lighten something. But it’s not safe for kids, so we are substituting bleach with good old lemons. (more…)
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Art School | Wire Sculpture
Monday, December 10th, 2012
We’ve explored numerous artists and methods in the past few months, but we haven’t experimented with sculpting yet. I think today is the day! Sculptures are visual art, three dimensional, and can include carving and modeling of almost all materials from wood to ceramics to metal. Today we will explore wire sculpting. This was something new to me and I learned just as much as the kids.
Elizabeth Berrien is a world famous wire sculptor, who is most known for her animal pieces. Her technique is using only her bare hands and wire cutters. Check out the images above and below. Just phenomenal what can be created with hands and a single tool. (more…)
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Art School | State Stamps
Monday, November 26th, 2012
My boys are huge social studies fans, and I can’t wait to explore these lessons in their classes. This lesson can actually be broken up into two parts. Part 1 will be choosing one of the 50 states, gathering information and material on this state. Part 2 will be creating the stamp itself. But for today, we will go through the entire lesson at once. But don’t feel pressured to tackle this in one afternoon, take your time, and you will see that your child absorbs more the longer you spend on it. (more…)
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Art School | Watercolor in the Kitchen
Tuesday, November 6th, 2012
Today we are going to create homemade watercolors using ingredients in our kitchen. We explored the use of kitchen ingredients in art once before when we learned about mosaics. However, this time we are creating our own medium using food coloring.
It’s a fun way to test out techniques and mix colors, and all using things most kitchens have on hand. By the end of the lesson you will have an amazing array of bookmarks to share. You’ll want to start with several strips of watercolor paper that have been cut into pieces that are 2 inches by 6 inches. Using watercolor paper prevents the water from traveling too far, so you have a little more control over where the color goes.
Supplies: watercolor paper cut into strips 2”x 6”, bowls, food coloring, twine, cooling rack, wax paper, ice pick or other pointy utensil (more…)
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Art School | Stained Glass Inspired Watercolor
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012
Today we are going to briefly learn about the life and work of an American artist and designer, Louis Comfort Tiffany. He lived from 1848-1933, and like his last name reveals, he is the son of the founder of Tiffany and Company, which is a very famous company which still has stores open to this day. Born in Pennsylvania, he first was trained in the art of painting, but glassmaking was his true passion.
Did you know that glassmaking was an art of itself? And Tiffany not only made his own glass but he created a unique style of stained glass. Now this was very different than the method of painted glass at the time which had been around for hundreds of years in Europe. This was a new American style of stained glass. Tiffany created stained glass windows in many parts of the United States and also in Canada and Paris. Below is an example of one of his pieces in Baltimore Maryland, called The Holy City. (more…)
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Art School | Urban Landscape
Thursday, October 11th, 2012
We’ve discussed what a collage is in a previous Art School lesson here, but in review it’s an art technique where we glue/assemble different items to create something new. Today we are going to create a cityscape. A cityscape is what we call an urban landscape. When we think of landscape we think of things you would find on land: mountains, hills, rivers, lakes, etc. But a cityscape would be full of things you find in a city, usually buildings or skyscrapers of all different shapes and sizes.
Depending on your child’s age, this would be a good lesson to dig deeper with older children exploring skyscrapers and their history. My 5th grader is a huge skyscraper admirer, every passion project he is assigned will somehow circle back to a famous skyscraper. A skyscraper is a tall building usually designed to be inhabited for office or commercial use. There is no minimum height or maximum height for a building to be called a skyscraper. You will often find elements of steel, concrete and glass in skyscrapers. If you’d like to examine a well-known skyscraper with your child, a few suggestions are: (more…)
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