Spring has visited in our art class

 This was by far the most beautiful art class this term. Each child had a glass jar or vase of sorts with a flower in it. They had to draw the jar and the flower. Then they could use coloured pencils to work in the petals or the stem.

 These are the exquisite results.

 Notice the carefully observed details of the leaf and the lip of the jar.

 I just love this Protea!! so real and every little detail accounted for.

 Stalitzia heaven!! what a beautiful representation of this flower.

 Some of these children have been with me for a long time now and are staring to draw shadows on their own, as part of the artwork. Glorious. Shadows are great fun to include in the art work and give weight.

Some more shadow!!

 Some children who drew these pictures are only 8 and 9 years old. One is 5. The hand co-ordination and fine motor skills for some might still be a bit shakey BUT this does not hamper the process of looking and drawing. In the end the results are simple and beautiful.

 Some children who come to me have spacial awerness issues. They might struggle to draw things as if they had thickness and draw the thickness of something as one line. HOWEVER during art I help them to really look and feel the object. They experience it as haveing one side and another and then I help them to represent this on their paper. Art can be instumental in helping children develop in the area of spacial awareness.

Something Fishy!!

 This was a process work of art. It filled up the entire hour and for some children, the hour was not enough. This is ok. The way I work is giving children enough time to work as they need. Some kids are super fast and others are more slow.

 This project was about pattern, design, colour and the art elemnets of hot and cold colours

 Each child had to observe a different fish and draw it in its simpliest shape. Then we traced it and then cut out the tracing and another piece of card together. Each child had one fish and now they could create pattern and design with this one fish.

 They traced their pictures and when the page was full, they could begin adding colour.

 At this point a decision had to be made. would my fish like to be cold coloured fish or warm coloured fish.

 If the fish were cold, then the background was warm and visa versa.

 These are some of the delightful results. Are they simply just not gorgeous!!!!

Contour Drawing - Observational art at its best.

What on earth is going on here?

These are contour drawings using black fine liners. The children have a paper plate pushed down over the pen so that they can not see the paper.

The fun idea here is to just look at the object in front of you and draw. Try not to lift your pen. You might be surprised by the work you create.

The children had a ball with this one. it is quite a fast flowing excercise and the children are very much involved in the process of drawing.

Then we began to paint the small shapes created by the contour drawing itself. The children could choose one colour  from red, blu or yellow. They then had to mix a tint or a tone of that colour.

How many new colours could you make?

This excercise is invaluable in showing children how to look at an object while drawing( and that they also need to look at the paper while drawing). Both are neccessary for a good work of art or for a successful experience at art.

I love the experience the children have when opening up their work once they have finished.

Some find this process painful and really do not like not being able to see their work as they are drawing.

Others settle into this place well. The colour mixing is the second part of this activity. In itself they kids have enormous fun while learning about mixing white and black respectively with the ir chosen colour.

I often try and get the artisits to name their work and date and sign it. What fun!!! This one is called , " Rolling in Blues."Don't you love it".

I just love these works of art. So full of life and movmement.