Ambitious April: Art

Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts

Art Lesson: Natural Hand Movement

On Monday we always do a short art lesson. Currently we are learning to draw and sketch with pencils. I found this great website called Drawspace, that provides free lessons you can view online or in PDF. I plan on working our way through the courses.

Natural Hand Movement

photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/15327128@N05/2791785800/sizes/m/in/photostream/

This was a fun lesson, that referenced a sketch from Leonardo da Vinci's Study of an Old Man. (Here is a color page too )

In this lesson we learned to find our natural and most comfortable hand motion.

Here are the boys attempts, their findings are circled.

Artist Study: Claude Monet

Woman with a Parasol: Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875, National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

This term on Ambleside Online the Artist Study is on Claude Monet.

Great Resources for this artist study can be found listed over at Fisher Academy. (Thanks Amy)

Oscar Claude Monet was born in 1840. He was the founder of the French Impressionist movement. The Impressionist style was named after what he titled one of his paintings- Impression, Sunrise.

Impressionist paintings usually include visible brush strokes, natural settings, open composition, light at different times of day, everyday subjects, people in motion and in different positions,and varied angles. Most Impressionist painters painted en plein air, which is a French expression that means "in the open air". They believed that the natural light and fresh air added to this paining style. Other Impressionist painters include; Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, and Mary Cassatt.

Artist Study: Claude Monet

Woman with a Parasol: Madame Monet and Her Son, 1875, National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

This term on Ambleside Online the Artist Study is on Claude Monet.

Great Resources for this artist study can be found listed over at Fisher Academy. (Thanks Amy)

Oscar Claude Monet was born in 1840. He was the founder of the French Impressionist movement. The Impressionist style was named after what he titled one of his paintings- Impression, Sunrise.

Virtual Field-trip: 360 degree Tour of Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel Virtual Tour
This is a 360 degree view of the Sistine Chapel. I think it if created from digital photos and a computer. However they made it-it is amazing! I love the ability to zoom in on the details of the architecture and the paintings. It takes a few minutes to load up, but it WELL worth it. (FYI: There are of course nudes in the paintings on the Sistine Chapel)

Lesson Ideas and activities for the Sistine Chapel:
Michelangelo Art
Family Fresco
Homeschool Art History on Michelangelo

Art-Picture Study

Windows Wallpaper Changer Powertoy

This amazing tech tool comes in very handy when we are learning about a particular artist. I scour the internet for images of prints from that artists and photos or portraits of that artist. I save them to my computer, I usually name the file after the artist. I right mouse click then press Save As. Then I add them to the Powertoy. While we use our computer for that month, works from that artist are rotated on our Wallpaper. Adding instant exposure and recognition. Try it! It's fun!! You will need to have Windows version XP or higher.

Windows Wallpaper Changer Powertoy
or http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/312

"Make your computer desktop more dynamic, interactive, useful, and fun. The Wallpaper Changer PowerToy allows your desktop wallpaper to change automatically. It also lets you choose which images to display. Select the folder of images to display as a slide show and set the display interval to change wallpaper every few minutes, hours, or days. The simple intuitive interface is easily available from the system tray." ~http://www.microsoft.com/

Because you know your feelin' crafty this December

Arts_and_Crafts_book
Originally uploaded by PopKulture

When I was a kid, I was extremely creative. I would cut things up and refashion them into some amazing new creation, much to my mothers dismay. Fortunately for me, my kiddos have inherited this wonderful trait from me: the need to create. Since I'm not a huge fan of large messes, this can be a fine balance to keep, the creativeness and the cleanliness. I love quick easy and not so messy projects to spark our creativity. That is my main criteria for projects: maximum creativity, ease of project, and tidy technique. It's also important to keep in mind your child's skill and developmental level, don't choose complicated projects that aren't age appropriate. It's really not fun for anyone if you are pretty much doing the project for them, it'll just be frustrating for both you and your child.

Christmas is a great time of year for crafts and artwork. Your December arts and craft projects can serve double duty as a gift. Here are a few fun projects I have found that we are working on this month. Enjoy!

Kusudma Sphere (for older kids and parents)- We used white printer paper cut into 2X2 squares to make ornament sized balls. I recommend practicing with a large piece of paper till you get the technique down

Flower wall art using toilet paper rolls (for PreK and up)- Amazingly classy and super easy

Old School Pom Poms (K and up)- I'm thinking about these in red, green, and white as festive ornaments for the tree

Fabric Fortune Cookie- (for teens or parents) This is SOOO cute, I'm thinking add a string and hang it on the tree, instead of a fortune, put a prediction for next year inside."I think 2010 will find me doing more fun arts and craft projects."

Art Journals

This year I am doing Art Journals with my two oldest boys (8 1/2 and 7). Do not think that I am any kind of artist- but I want to encourage creativity for everyone in my home. So I googled "art journals" and found so much inspiration online that I knew this was something we could do. Specifically, I found this website chock full of information. Incidentally, she also posts other Art Projects For Kids ideas (that's the name of her website).

I decided to purchase 3 art journals so that I could participate as well. This has helped my boys "buy-in" immensely. It's also increased the time we spend on the project so that no one (mainly Nate) is done in 2 minutes, leaving me frustrated at the terrible ratio of set up and clean up to time spent on a project. And it's been great fun for me, too.

My goal is to encourage creativity in both materials and subject. So far we've used watercolor paints, oil pastels, markers, crayons, colored pencils and lots of fine point Sharpies. We've been setting up at the kitchen table about once a week, during the little ones' naptime, and I usually have a theme of some sort. They are free to do something completely different but this helps if they can't "think of anything!". Some recent themes have been choosing and copying a creativity quote then decorating the page; a fairy watercolor suggestion from an Usborne art book I have; also, my mom sent the boys some photos from their visit so they scrapbooked a few on one of the pages.

Here's a photo of Trent's art journal page from last week:

For this page, we lightly taped index cards on a blank page (we used a double page spread; you are seeing the right side page). Then we sponge painted the page using our own selection of colors and way of painting. After the paint dried (it didn't take long at all since the sponges helped it go on thinly), we removed the index cards. Then we wrote something about our week in each blank spot. Trent chose to use 2 index cards on each page and then write one thing in each card, drawing a picture to go along with what he wrote about.

I love quotes, so I've been putting a quote on most of my pages:

That's the watercolor fairy painting from the Usborne Big Book of Fairy Things to Make and Do... and also proof that I am NO artist! But I am enjoying this project and trying to just focus on letting my creativity out without worrying about the finished project... something I want to instill in my kids.