Mom's Childhood Portrait

I finally finished this portrait of my Mom for her Christmas present. She had brought me a little picture one day that was taken of her (at Lake Michigan I believe) when she was three. It's a super cute picture, little toddler smirk on her face, very nice lighting, great colors. The photo was actually in great condition, not faded or yellowed, so that made it easy to work from. I did also scan it into my computer and enlarged it to work from.

For this painting, I was focusing on mixing the correct colors and not going over and over an area on my canvas a billion times. I did pretty good on this I think, trying to break old, bad habits. I could have payed more attention to colors and warms/cools etc. when I painted the sand, but I got a bit bored with that part. I really enjoyed using bright, clean colors to depict the sunny day at the lake.

I painted my first set of bare feet! They turned out great I think, I was quite happy. (They look better in the real painting). The hand, on the other hand, was all blurred out, so I had a little trouble with that, but it will have to do for now.

I'm still working on my brother's Christmas/birthday present painting, but hopefully that will be up shortly!

Christmas painting

This 6x8 little painting is what I painted for my boyfriend's parents for their Christmas present. He told me that his mom loved orchids, especially purple ones, so that was my subject. I also framed it at the frame shop I work at, and that added a pretty finishing touch.

I had originally painted this with a dark, smooth, boring background. But fortunately I realized that it could be so much better (I've been studying painting and great painters a lot lately) so I re did it with more color and in a more painterly way. It dried a little darker than I wanted, and the picture is not that great, but I am learning. :)

The images look much better if you view them after clicking on them!

I think I am going to start painting lots of small flower paintings... so be looking for more soon!

Baby Doll tomatoes

This pastel portrait was something I did a few weeks ago for my adopted grandma at the frame shop. I spent about five hours and was working from a very old 1"x2" photo (and I didn't even draw the whole photo).  I have pretty good close up vision, but I definitely had to scan the picture into my computer and enlarge it so I didn't go crazy trying to see the details. :) I also had to make the woman look happy and not like the sun was in her eyes like she did when the photo was snapped. That was a fun little challenge. "Grandma" was very happy.

I love doing portraits, and if you or anyone you know would like a portrait done come talk to me! I usually work in pencil, charcoal, pastel and oils (full color and oil wash). 

Bug drawings

Main purpose of the bug drawing project
1. Learn and develop drawing skills
2. Continue working on blending and shading
3. Draw items that the students enjoyed
4. Sources MUST be used for this project or they will not be learning how to draw a tarantula that looks like a tarantula etc.

This project was slightly adapted from an idea I found on an art teacher's blog that I cannot find again so I cannot give credit unfortunately.
Every student drew three insects/spiders/bugs and then cut them out. I helped with the cutting some with my xacto knife. I printed lots of pictures that I will be able to use for other classes down the road, and some of the students brought pictures of their favorite bugs. I taught them about observing what they were drawing and drawing accurately. I did not allow ants to be drawn as three circles with lines coming out of them.... anyone can do that, but we are learning to draw. We also worked with shading and blending with the colored pencils.
The other teacher had them draw a bug jar with some sticks and leaves on a large piece of paper and then paste their bugs on to that piece. I decided to just have them draw a "habitat" for their bugs instead of a bug jar. I provided pictures of leaves and sticks and flowers for this part of the project. The bugs can either be pasted on flat or with the wings etc. popped out  3-D.
We spent at least 3 to 4 hours on this project and by the end I was definitely seeing an improvement in the students drawing ability. Everyone enjoyed this and there was a good balance between me as the instructor telling the students what to draw and the students choosing themselves what butterflies/insects/spiders were their favorites.

They turned out beautifully, but I only have pictures of two because I never remember to bring my camera to class....  Next year I will be better about that.

This was done by one of my stellar 5th graders. I took this picture before he was finished with the background. Some students do try to stop with blank space between the grass and the sky, but I always remind them to think about where their horizon is and make sure that there is no empty space on their page.

This was done by another 5th grader that "draws a movie" every week :) Here the tarantulas and scorpions are having a battle on a basketball court. He could be a comic book artist and writer.

Rhododendrons

This is a painting that I am working on. It is actually moving along pretty quickly, and I am really enjoying painting it. So many pretty pinks!  Oil on canvas, 12x12. I wasn't getting the right pinks with just my alizarin crimson and cad red, but fortunately I happened to have some rose (rose something?) oil paint that was perfect.
I took the photo for this in the spring up at Raven Cliff Falls. It's a very dramatic picture, one of the best I've taken. As soon as it's finished I'll put it up here!

Oil Pastel: Underwater Fish Drawing

I don't remember which blog I was on, but I saw a project using oil pastels on black paper, and this is the project that I morphed that idea into. Oil pastel colors are very bright, and the black paper makes them seem even more vibrant. While this combo is fun/creative/different, I wanted to start doing some projects with more real drawing in them. I found pictures of beautiful tropical fish and had each student draw with pencil the fish that they chose.
Drawing:
I am not getting into sighting/measuring with these young students, but I am helping them draw more and more accurately to the sources that we are using. I point out the angles of the lines, where parts meet up together, the shapes of curves, sizes of different parts in relation to one another etc., and their drawing is improving.  Every student gets a pencil and a big MOO eraser (they are the best!) and I require them to do lots of erasing! When I as the teacher point out parts that look different on their  drawing from what the object really looks like, they usually can see it and fix it and are more happy with the revised outcome.
I made an example drawing for my classes and also did a demo in class. This was very helpful to their success and made them slow down and notice all of the colors in the fish and how they were blended together. I went over blending and shading with the oil pastels and I was so pleased with how well they did on their own drawings!  I mentioned to them that when they were in Kindergarten they took a green crayon and drew a tree, but now they are too old for that. Trees and grass are not just one color of green!  After they finished the fish they added an underwater background.
I forgot to bring my camera to the first school :( There were some incredible pieces! But I got shots of some more amazing pieces at the second school :)
This is the best project I have done so far and the kids were VERY HAPPY with their drawings.

This fish was at a hard angle to draw, but we did it!

All of these drawings were done by first second and third graders :D

Art Teaching Blogging

I have decided to dedicate part of my blog to teaching art. Once I can get the teaching posts on a separate page/tab it will be very easy to separate them from my other fine art posts.... or maybe eventually I'll have to start a second blog site :)

This is my first year teaching art. I've only taught for seven or eight weeks actually. One day a week I teach one high school and two elementary classes, and another day I teach two more elementary classes. These classes are at home school "schools" or "co-ops," so classes meet just once a week. Maybe one day I'll get into teaching at a private school, but I am really liking teaching for home schoolers, and the pay is pretty good :). Also could have something to do with the fact that I was homeschooled all the way through so I understand the system and like it and know where the kids are coming from and know that they need a good art teacher as much as any other student. I like the low stress and my teaching schedule as well.

All that to say...  A couple of weeks ago I was feeling really discouraged and like I was failing and like I really really didn't know what I was doing. I was running out of projects that I had prepared for and I was having trouble preparing enough in time for class. Thankfully, I had a couple of days off of my other job and the house quiet and to myself, so I started scouring teaching art blogs. A lot of the projects I would not use because they are too "crafty" BUT I did find some great projects and I also found many projects and concepts that I got creative with and mixed up and made more art heavy than craft heavy. I do not have a degree in art education, I have a degree in fine art, so I go more heavy on the art than the crafts (this is also what the students and parents want).
I have also come up with many projects on my own and will post them also.
So now it's my turn to start a teaching art blog and hopefully lots of teachers will find it and will find helpful ideas and projects.
Lessons learned so far:
Don't be lazy- it's gonna take a lot of work, especially the first year when you don't have a repertoire of projects and you don't have a clue what you're doing.

Find somewhere quiet where you can think totally on art and get super creative with the projects
Think through everything and how you will teach everything. Be totally prepared well ahead of time.

Know that you will have to set a chunk of time aside once or twice a week to make sure you are prepared.

Don't be too nice to the students, You are in charge!

Try the projects out yourself before hand and bring examples.