We Are Expanding

Time For Art Kids is expanding!  Thats right....starting Monday we will be pouring the foundation for our new section.  I am hoping this will give the kids more leg room and not be so tight.  I still plan on keeping the class size the same, that way I can still have personal relationships with all of your wonderful children!  This space is much needed, especially when we have been booked for birthday parties and camps.  Stay tuned and it should be completed within 3-4 weeks!

Wrapping up the session with Oil Pastel Dogs

This has been a great session!  Wow, the times goes by fast.  Session 1 is completely full, but please dont hesitate to call and be put on a waiting list for any spots that may open up or to be placed on the schedule for Session 2.

I really wanted to use chalk pastels for this lesson, however I was nervous because I didnt want the kids to smudge the chalk everywhere and be upset that their work didnt look anything like a dog!  So, I stuck with oil pastels, which still has a tendency to smudge, but its a little bit more controllable than chalk.

We started off with a drawing lesson.  We practiced this twice so they could get the features down.  We started drawing it on white cardstock.  Then they started coloring it in with oil pastels.  I just ASSUMED they were going to use the natural colors of dogs, brown, black, white, etc, but everyone knows what happens when you assume!  So, I have some dogs that are quite unique and really cute to look at.

Here are some of the results.  I tried so hard to photograph every childs work, but with 90 students, I just couldnt!  :)

Comic Books inspired by Pick and Draw

We just finished wrapping up the week with our awesome Comic Books we made.  The lesson was inspired by a simple card game called Pick and Draw.  There is a link on my website that will lead you to more information about Pick and Draw and also an opportunity for you to purchase a deck. 

The game is simple.  There are cards with pictures of faces, mouths, eyes, hair, and noses.  Each student or pairs of students get a card from each category and they are to draw what is on the card.  There are so many varieties to make a character and so each student is so excited to see what the next card holds.

It was interesting to see that my most quietest students came to life, and I have NEVER heard them talk as much in class like they did for the comic book lesson.

The class flew by and by the end we had a comic book full of life and color.  I took a million pictures but it would take me all day and night to load all of them.  So, I compiled the majority of them and created this for you to see. 

Ladies Night Giveaway This Saturday

Most of you are new to Time For Art Kids, but in addition to art classes for kids, we also offer a fabulous ladies night.  I incorporate my ladies night with food, prizes, and just a fun time for a bunch of ladies to get together and do some art.  I will be teaching you a fool proof way to make a wonderful mixed media project for you to treasure or gift away.  Either way, you will have fun and its your chance to unwind and think about yourself!

I will be giving away these 2 amazing pieces of jewelry.  They are made by a dear friend who owns freshmoderngoods.com, you must check out her work.  Everything is very organic looking and a great accent piece to any wardrobe. 

There are limited seats left, so please rsvp if you are interested.  I hope you can join me in the studio!

Monkeying Around

We are just finishing up our Monkey Lesson and the results are so adorable.  For many of the students, bleeding tissue paper was something they never used before.  I taught the students how to apply it to our paper and to let it sit once its wet.  Bleeding tissue paper is NOT like regular tissue paper and if you were to try and wet regular tissue paper, it would just fall apart.  Bleeding tissue paper is very cool and gives a watercolor effect and can make such a range of backgrounds.

Once the tissue paper dried, the kids peeled the paper off to reveal a beautifully colored  backdrop to draw our monkey on.  We used black oil pastel to draw our monkeys and once I finished teaching them the drawing lesson, they were off to draw it themselves on their paper. 

It was a fun lesson and a great one for the younger kids.  They loved the effect of the tissue paper and couldnt wait to peel it off to see what it looked like.  Here are some of the results.

I'll always know who created THIS monkey.  He was

the only one who made teeth.  Very cool Rohan!

Jim Dine "Hearts" Lesson

This week I decided to focus on a famous artist whose name is Jim Dine.  I think its important for children to look at other peoples art and see how art through their eyes.  Jim Dine is a pop artist who takes everyday items and turns them into art, like hearts.  Besides hearts, Jim Dine likes painting bathrobes.  I didnt feel like bathrobes were going to be popular with the kids, so I went with the hearts.

I took one of Jim Dine's Heart paintings and had the kids paint hearts similar to his.  The fun part was that we used our finger, no brushes.  You can tell when its a lesson the kids love, the room is silent!  I showed them how to use white to marbleize the heart and to make sure not to rub too many colors together because it creates mud. 

They all were amazing and every class we went over the hour time limit just because I went a step more and mounted them to the colored paper.  I didnt have time to take as many pictures as I'd like, but here are a few.