{Art Together} Printmaking

The latest issue of Amy's e-zine {Art Together} came out last week & I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy!

This issue is all about Printmaking & I knew as soon as I saw the topic that it would be something Ree would love. Mainly because it includes her favorite way of doing art these days....paint! She was so excited last week when she came into the kitchen and saw all the material laid out on the table.

  

The first activity we did was Found Object Prints. Which is just what it sounds like. Go around the house & find some things that have cool textures. Put paint on them and then stamp them to the paper. 

But it was this activity that really drew her in and kept her attention for quite some time! Scratch foam prints! I had some smaller pieces of craft foam laying around & we each took a pencil and drew a picture on them. Ree found out that she drew just enough to have the picture show up in pencil, but she didn't push down hard enough to have it make the indents in the foam. So when she printed it onto the paper her whole picture didn't show up. I thought she'd be a little upset but nope! She noticed that where she had colored in spots with the pencil came up white on the paper with the paint all around it. Then she took my piece of foam to "study" it to see what I had done different. While she was touching it she noticed that she could feel the lines where I had pressed down. She felt her own & noticed she hadn't done that. So she went over her drawing pressing down harder. Painted it up again and it worked! Problem solving at it's best!

Each time she pulled back the paper she exclaimed "This is so EXCITING."



Here are some of our finished prints.

We really had fun with these activities. And there are still so many more to do!! The most intriguing one that I am excited to try is gelatin prints. Amy gives a wonderful step by step tutorial on how to make the gelatin and then use it as a printmaking tool. And of course there is the featured artist with resources on learning about Hokusai. Many ideas for resource books on printmaking (which Ree reminded me of: "Remember Momma, the last time we did thing with this art book we got lots of library books?") I am spoiled with having Amy here in the same state....any library book she is able to get I am too!

Once again, Amy has taken an art subject that seems intimidating and made it anything but. In her straightforward, approachable way she has come up with activities that are enjoyable for ANY age group. And as always, if you have any questions or need help she is just the click of a mouse away through e-mail or her blog.

She is generously offering one reader here at iHappy a free copy of Printmaking. So if you are interested, just leave me a comment! Comments will be open until Friday when we'll pick a winner!

Congratulations Claudine!! You won the copy! Look for an e-mail from Amy soon!

Make & Listen

I finally sat down to read "cover to cover" so to speak, of Amy's latest e-zine "Line". Ree was watching over my shoulder and decided she thought the snowy day called for some art & was that what I was thinking too?

Turns out I was! I pulled up the different paintings Amy linked to of Piet Mondrian and Ree decided she wanted to focus on Victory Boogie Woogie. She didn't get too far since I decided to write my name out & fill it with lines. I then had to write out her initials since her name is way too long to fit on the index card.

This is just the start of diving into Line. Up next: abstract trees. But of course yesterday was the day Baby V decided she needed to be awake all. day. long. And to be held by Momma or else she was screaming. So we didn't get too much art done but Ree was happy!

As for the listening part, we've been listening to the soundtrack of Frozen. We love it! 

Make & Listen

There's been quite a bit of making around here the past week. Ree's favorite thing to ask these days (aside from can I paint?) is to make a Christmas art. My brain hasn't been too sharp so we've been going the simple route. Printing out ornaments to color, a tree template to decorate, a blank piece of paper to paint. I've also made out our Christmas card list & ordered the cards. Addressing & mailing those will happen in the next few days.

I also have a copy of Amy's new e-zine Line. I've very quickly browsed through it and I LOVE it. She's done amazing work once again and I can't wait to dive into it with Ree. I'm thinking we'll wait until after the New Year. It'll be something fresh to look forward to after the flurry of the Christmas activities & fun. Head over to check it out though as Amy is offering a deal until December 31st: 20% off using the code HOLIDAY.

She has written a post with suggestions on how to use the new issue with another post coming soon with a round-up of other line-related activities. Lots of great stuff to check out!

Linking up with Dawn for Make & Listen Thursday!

These days

The days seem to be flying by all the sudden. My to-do list of things to do before baby keeps growing instead of shrinking. 3rd trimester exhaustion seems to have hit & isn't going away. I can do one out of the house thing a day. Then I can't seem to get anything done once we get home. 

I'm not complaining, just stating facts! I know my body is doing all the growing & nourishing of a sweet little baby and that is the most important thing right now!

I have been chasing the beautiful autumn light around the house. I love the light this time of year! 

Ree has been painting a little bit. Nothing specific. Although in the above picture she had just finished painting her pumpkin. Then wanted to mix colors to see what colors she could make. An easy project...I sat with her at the table knitting & kept squirting out more paint when she needed it. She was always thrilled when she made a different color.

She also has been making flowers as you can see. That's all her. She gets the supplies out, asks me to cut the petals & puts it all together herself. That's a sunflower & a daisy if you couldn't tell. Every so often she'll ask me to look up a picture of a certain flower on-line so she can draw/recreate it. Her imagination & creativity is always so fun to watch. I love listening to the way her mind works.

What have you been up to these past few days?

{Art Together} The E-zine!

When I ask Ree what she'd like to do today, more times then not her response is "do art". I have no background in art, I felt I didn't have any talent in it & got discouraged when trying to "do art" or think up something art for Ree to do. 

Then along came Amy and her blog and her encouragement and I now don't want to run screaming when Ree says she wants to do some art. I've also come to see through Amy & her project ideas, that art isn't the end product. It's the process of getting to the end product that truly counts. I believe this is something that Ree has known all along....she would much rather go to the art supply drawers & pull out different things to make her own creation then have me come up with an idea for her to produce. 

Every so often she'll need a jump start on what to work on though. And I want to also use art time as a teaching time. I was ecstatic when Amy began her series {Art Together} last winter. Each week she'd write a post featuring different Art mediums. Color; textures; color mixing; drawing; etc. I love it! She's made me think of different areas of art that I never would have thought to present to Ree as well as materials that I wouldn't think to have purchased for us to use. (Our first water coloring session way back when was thanks to Amy's encouragement).

The two biggest things I've gotten from Amy is to focus on art as a process, rather then an end product; and that I can do art too even though I don't think I have talent for it. Some of my favorite times are when Ree & I pull out the paints to draw and paint together. Another favorite activity of Ree's came from one of Amy's ideas: color mixing with water & food coloring. 

At the beginning of the month I got an exciting e-mail from Amy. She was in the process of putting together an Art Together E-zine and would Ree & I be interested in a copy to look over and try some activities from and give feedback to? I jumped at the opportunity!!

The first issue of {Art Together} is all about color. 27 pages chock full of project ideas, an artist spotlight, featured art material and many resources to help you dig deeper into Color.

The above pictures are from one of the activities: black outlines, painted color. I put out blank watercolor paper, two sharpies & the watercolors and we went to town. We both drew out shapes with the Sharpies then painted our drawings. Ree wanted to add her personal touch to mine & that was okay too! At one time a blank piece of paper & paints would have made me leave the room thinking I couldn't do this. With Amy's guidance I now enjoy this time of creating with my little one. (And hearing Ree say "Momma you chose beautiful colors! It looks gorgeous!" Helps a lot too!)

The e-zine has so much to offer on Color that I am sure it will keep us busy until the next issue comes out! We already have a stack of books on hold for us at the library from the resources included.

Amy has generously offered to give away one copy of the new E-Zine to one of my readers! To win simply leave a comment. If you want to share how you incorporate art into your teaching/life with little's that would be good too! The giveaway will be open until next Thursday morning when I announce the winner in a post back here!

If you are interested in purchasing a copy Amy is offering a 20% off discount through September 30th, just use the code "Birthday" when checking out (and go wish her a happy birthday on Saturday!!)

Also, make sure you check out the {Art Together} Flickr group. So much inspiration over there as well!

Painting Rocks

A few weeks ago on one of our weekly nightly excursions to the beach I remembered the post Amy wrote at the beginning of summer about summertime art ideas.  One of them was to paint rocks. Since Ree is ALWAYS asking to paint I thought it would be a good idea. So the three of us spent quite a bit of time looking for some good rocks. (Note to self: next time bring a pail). We all would pick some up & examine them to see if they would be good for painting on. Even Ree had her opinion on which would be good & which wouldn't. Although we did have to talk her out of picking the biggest rocks we saw. After all we were about a mile from the car & again...no pail!

After collecting what I thought would be too many, we headed home. I then left the rocks in the trunk and forgot about them until the beginning of this week. One morning I took them out & had Ree rinse them in a bucket of water & place them on the deck to dry. She then, all on her own, decided to flip them over to dry on the other side too when the first side was dry.

I pulled Amy's rock painting post up to show Ree but I guess when you're told to paint rocks, you really don't need a point of reference. She said "Those are pretty. I know what to paint. Lets go." 

We spent quite some time outside painting. There aren't too many pictures because I joined in too. Although was only allowed two rocks to paint! She now has plans to paint the other side. Right now they are still outside as part of her fairy house. 

A very fun, very simple, very free art time that Ree loved & I loved too!!

Make and Listen

There wasn't a yarn along post yesterday as I was STILL working on the baby socks (I finished both pairs last night) and the same granny squares.

My knitting had slowed down a bit because Ree and I have been doing art together. Her new favorite activity is to paint. She uses stickers, markers and pens to draw then wants to paint on it. So I've been joining her!

I thought this would be a good week to finally join Dawn for her weekly "Make & Listen Along".

I got out the watercolor paint at the beginning of the week. She first traced squares on the paper then painted them in and around them. After the paper dried she made another creation on the back. I just can't find it to take a picture of it!

I've been trying to think of other ways to include paint in our art. I visited Amy's {Art Together} Series to get some ideas. While reading her post about Summer Time Art Ideas I saw the link she mentioned about Index Card a Day Challenge. Now that ended yesterday & I re-found it the day before! (I blame the pregnancy sickness when Amy first posted about it. I'd have loved to have participated!)

Anyways, I had a stack of unopened index cards & thought those & paint would work! So Ree and I sat down and made up some. She wants to glue ripped up pieces of paper to her's. We haven't gotten that far as they needed to dry. I already have ideas for more for me to make using other mediums. While we won't participate in the official challenge we'll still have fun!

Dawn talked about making stamps today and Amy....(who I turn to whenever I need Art inspiration!!) has written about making stamps as well, so that's going through my brain. I remember making stamps a LONG time ago. Those would be fun on index cards too!

While we do our art we either listen to a local radio station or just have the windows open to listen to the outside sounds!

{Art Together} Looking Closely

I was very excited when Amy announced a few weeks ago she was going to begin a new series, {Art Together}. 

Ree loves to craft, & draw, & color. Recently she's been asking me to draw with her. I kept saying no because "I don't know how to draw." As I got thinking about it, I probably shouldn't use that phrase with her. I don't want HER to think that she can't do it, or down the road if there is something that she wants to do but doesn't think she's "good enough" at that, she shouldn't do it.

And then Amy posted about her plans & it was like she was in my head telling me that even if I think I can't draw, I CAN still do "art". And what better way to teach Ree how to do it then by doing it with her. We are a week behind Amy's prompts.  

I’ve come to think that the true value in drawing isn’t the image itself, it’s that a drawing practice teaches you to really look at something....the sketch on the paper is only a small part of what you’re doing. The first part of drawing is looking—looking closely.

The above photo is from the Looking Closely prompt. The idea was to sit with a living thing & look at it & draw what you see. We began by talking about the color; what the flower was; Ree noticed that it was in a glass & that it wasn't open all the way yet. Then we got drawing.

Ree decided to draw it in pieces. She drew many petals (and some very good circles too!) Then she drew the stem. The lower picture is her take of the flower "put together". She wanted to put a little color on it but then decided she was done. I tried to draw what I saw. My favorite part was the coloring in! 

For right now we are doing our drawings on printer paper. I plan to put them all together in a binder. At the bottom of each paper I put the date we worked on them & what the prompt was.

I am looking forward to this spring, getting outside with a pencil, paper & a clipboard to sketch what we see. Not only will this help me draw with Ree, but I'm hoping it will help us both look closer at the world around us!

I'm really excited to get to the prompt from this past week, scribbling. Now THAT I'm not afraid to do!