Jam Packed with Jellyfish

Sometimes When I'm scheduled to do a birthday party the guest of honour has very specific requests for the theme of the lesson I must plan; How to Train your Dragon, Lego Friends, Ponies... Other times I get specific but very open requests for a theme. themes that direct me a certain place but allow me a lot of freedom to decide the focus.

My latest birthday falls in to the latter. When asked about the theme she would like the birthday girl just said she wanted something under the sea but not sea stars. A few years ago I devoted a week long summer camp to under the sea themes art lessons so inspiration was not difficult to find. Sometimes to get an idea all I need to do is look in the supply room at Artspace.  Mixed Media Creation parties at Artspace rely heavily on recycled and re-purposed materials for the lessons. The supply room is a treasure chest of saved materials from empty yogurt cups and magazine pages to piles and piles of caps and bottle lids.

I decided to use egg cartons and clear plastic water bottle lids to make a jellyfish garden under the sea. the results were... well I'll just let you look for yourself.

Frosty

Usually around the end of November I start thinking about wintery art lesson themes. No exceptions this year on that. Last winter I found a recipe for making frost paint. It's a hit or miss project that has good results even without the frost succeeding.

I'm cooking up a lesson alternative this morning and when I come back later this afternoon I'll share the results.

after:

Jury is still out on the frost,most of the paintings that were nearly dry at the end of the day had a lovely granulated effect but now frost patterning. The really wet ones have possibilities.

Little Birds

My first two years of art school, loaded with 3D classes. First year had mandatory ceramics and sculpture courses as well as design which included 3D components. I continued with sculpture into my second term and added printmaking to my course list and stayed an extra term at my first school to continue with printmaking and took second year painting. During my two years studying sculpture I worked with plater, paper, and learned how to cast in bronze using the lost wax casting method. In ceramics I learned coil and slab building methods as well as introductory wheel throwing. I remember all the basic lessons and I enjoyed learning them way back when.

In the last ten years I've used some of the skills I learned in those introductory years to create peacock tree ornaments, felt hats and an assortment of other handmade items that I sometimes sell in craft fairs and on line.

As an instructor at Artspace I often get to lead parties and camps that are 3D and sculptural and even though I have a good foundation I struggle a little with the problem solving and in some cases the learning how to teach portion of the prep for those lessons. I often will work and rework a 3D lesson a handful of times so that I have each step of the lesson firmly planted in my mind.

The Pro D lesson I created for Friday was one of those. I did up three sample birds for the lesson and then spent the three hours in the middle of the night that I couldn't get back to sleep after my youngest woke us with the very strong and not to be denied need to have her nose blown; running each step through my head. In the end there were some in class problems (glue stick doesn't work with a watercolour paint application as well as it does with an application of alcohol ink) but the outcome of the two classes were very amazing.

Owls and Fire Flies

This week we focused on monochromatic art in Art Exploration. Using oil pastel and watercolours we brushed orange onto yellow orange oil pastel and turquoise over top of blue oil pastel to create a yarn wall for a small owl to make a new scarf. We read Little Owl's New Scarf to get inspiration.

Little Owl in the wool shop. Oil Pastel, tempera paint
and pre-cut construction paper owl shapes 

Arts Enrichment and Art Sparks have been painting using sponge rollers, pom poms and pencil grips to create an early evening sky with glowing fire flies inspired by The Brightest Star.

Tempera paint on mixed media paper with sequins

I have a Pro-D camp on Friday which is now consuming all my planning time. I want to do something different and have had no luck with my test projects. I have visions of my idea hanging in the windows at Artspace for the holidays.... I do have a backup in case inspiration fails but fingers crossed.

I also have a birthday party to prep for this weekend. A mixed media under the sea themed project is simmering in my head.....

Busy busy busy

5 4 3 2 1...

Heading into the last four lessons of the term and thinking about the reductive lesson I'm teaching to my painting and drawing class. We're on week three of this lesson, and only at the second printing. It's time I think to reign it in and finish it off. We'll be adding any further carvings today and printing with black on top of the first colour.








And a few hours later after the lesson it's done. They look amazing. I'm exhausted and looking forward to a new lesson next week.

Parent's Night Out

Winter Night Portraits

Right About Now

As unbelievable as it sounds, we're already past the middle of November which means December is looming and the end of term is right around the corner. I still have two more lessons focused on reductive printing for my Painting and Drawing students and the lessons I had planned to follow up are still looking good to me. With my preschool and toddler classes I'm wavering, in fact I've already changed my mind for the Art exploration lessons I was going to do this weekend. It's a bit of a running joke between me and the admin where I teach that I'm likely to change my mind a few times before a class starts. As much as we laugh about it and as much time and energy that I spend building a lesson plan I do quite often change my mind' sometimes in the twenty minutes it takes for me to walk to work.

So even though I'm sure I'll change my mind... It's time now to start thinking about Plans for next term. I'm fairly new to creating lesson plans. I don't have a background in education so how I plan lessons and create a lesson plan might not be what is common. I'll share my steps here to give you an idea of how i do things. I'd love to see how others approach planning too.




I use Pinterest heavily to build my lesson plans; not just for inspiration but also for organizing, and giving myself a visual reference of what I'll be teaching each week. On top of continual browsing and adding ideas to dedicated lesson inspiration boards on Pinterest; each term I also build a lesson plan board full of ideas to make my own; and in a few cases to just straight teach. And I don't want to forget that I also keep a board on Pinterest of lessons I have taught. When I get stuck I like to browse through that board to see if there are any techniques or lessons I can adjust or revisit. I have in the past taken ideas straight off of Pinterest and used them in my plans but I rarely leave them untouched, I may use a technique but change the subject of a lesson; or take a subject and try to adjust the techniques used so that each lesson is my own.

For Painting and drawing lessons I cross reference artists or art works; movements and elements of art to reference in the lesson with that Pinterest board.  For my Preschool classes I also look up books to read aloud to the class (combining literacy and art is an ongoing goal for me). Then I start compiling supplies needed for each lesson,  and start writing a description for each lesson that explains the steps, what elements of art I'm teaching and what the learning goals are.

I make a list of what dates I am teaching for each lesson and then use my calendar to figure out what order I'll teach them in and adjust any lessons to suit holidays or seasonal changes. In some cases I'll even try to coincide materials for different classes taught on the same day so that transition to the next class is simpler and clean up isn't too heavy or complicated.

Once I have a good idea of what I plan to teach each week Add my descriptions and supply lists into a word file that I can print for myself and email to the centre where I teach so that any supplies I will need can be stocked or restocked.

In a few cases I will source materials and include them in my invoice. When I make my plans I keep in mind budget restraints as on top of student skill levels and all the other things that  make a difference to the success of a lesson IE: that one time that there was overwhelming refusal by a whole class of toddlers to use strings dipped in black ink for a lesson and the subsequent improvisation that followed; and the adjusting of the plan for a later class to avoid the same problem later that day. 

All of this usually takes me a full day for each class to complete with a 1/2 day to edit and adjust for dates and overlapping classes. It's a lot of work but it's also the part where I get to become excited all over again about the upcoming term.

About Setting up Boundaries

In any given class I am pretty open about what ends up on my young artist's final pieces because, Art. I love their creativity and I normally don't want to put up boundaries or barriers to their creativity because and I'll say it again: Art.

There are times, lessons, techniques, and projects that require boundaries, limitations and rules to be followed. This multi-week lesson is one of those times. While I am completely psyched to see my young students take a technique and subject matter to a completely different place than I could have imagined; I also think that constraining the boundless creativity once in a while is a wonderful way to flex the creative muscle in a different way.

A reduction print using black, white and two other colours was going to be a tricky lesson regardless of the age and skill level of the students in my class. To make things simpler I reigned in the subject on top of the limits to colour application. Instead of a pictorial image I had my students use geometric shapes to create a pattern inside their image frame. They could place them side by side, overlap them or create an image with their shape. I then had them choose two colours to add to their composition leaving some areas white, filling in some areas with black and using the other two colours at their discretion.

All of this was shared at the beginning of the first of the classes  and revisited through out that lesson with explanations of why I had given them these limitations. Of course with out a finished project to demo for them there was a lot of confusion but for the most part they stayed within the restrictions I'd set out. I am a tiny bit humbled at that, these young people are putting faith in me to lead them through this mysterious project. The pressure is on.

 I have a few students who are know for owning boundless creativity and their work is highly detailed; often following their own inspiration as opposed to the subject demoed in a lesson. They use the techniques I set out in the lesson but create a work of art surpassing the lesson. Conveying to these free spirits the importance of working only within the boundaries I'd set up in this lesson was a battle fought on a slight incline that became steeper with each step.

I am currently wrapping my brain around ways to get these ideas across to these two young artists. When fine detail will hinder a project, when an abundance of colour can't be fit within the time frame of the term and will likely become too frustrating; and even worse, boring. As it is I'm already considering reigning in the lesson even more and taking out one of the colours in the design...

This lesson is one where not only am I teaching a technique but I am also learning about how best to teach it. I'm really looking forward to see how they all turn out and on top of that I"m looking forward to the lesson after this one is completed: a straight up painting project.

Party Time

Every once in a while I'm asked to teach for a birthday party at Artspace. These can be huge affairs with ten plus children* excited to be together and rowdy and boisterous full of creative energy. They can also be a calm and gentle oasis (right up until the cake is consumed) full of creative energy. Did you see what I did there? Regardless of how many kids are at an art party that creative energy is there and it's brilliant to be a part of.
*or sometimes even less than ten kids; it's rare but it happens and this weekend was one of those small affairs

Artspace offers a few different options for visual art parties, Clay Creations, Painting and Drawing and Mixed Media Creations. Within those options we as instructors get to tailor create a lesson suited to the birthday honouree. Sometimes it's a specific theme; How to Train Your Dragon, Princesses, ponies... Other times the theme is wonderfully open and non specific; like the birthday I taught last weekend. When I met the VIP on a quick walk through and tour of Artspace a few days after booking her party I had the pleasure of being able to ask her myself what theme she wanted her party to be created around. Without hesitation I was told, "flowers" with a small caveat; there would be boys at the party so maybe they could create blue flowers for boys?'

I never shy away from knocking down gender specific bricks when the opportunity rears it's head. I was quick to exclaim that flowers are not just a girl thing or a boy thing and that I could come up with a project that would suit everyone. And with a little collaboration with the artist/administrator at Artspace I think we did.


 Whenever possible we like to use recycled materials for party projects, these made use of take out food containers (pizza boxes used for transporting sandwiches for my eldest child's hot lunch program) and egg cartons.

Every piece made by the party participants made use of the same materials. All of them look completely different and amazing.

My House Smells Like a Candy Cane : Reduction Printing

Last week I posted about a multi-week printmaking lesson I was starting.

I knew it was going to be challenging but I suppose I didn't quite get the level of challenge this class had the capability of reaching. I am not quite sure that that last sentence actually means what I think it means but I'm going to leave it as is...

I'm teaching myself how to teach this lesson. There are technical challenges for this project that I've been figuring out and problem solving throughout the planning and the execution of the lessons and the challenge of transferring my student's images from paper onto the Styrofoam plates they will be using to print off of is one of the most technical. I've had my brain working overtime to figure out the best process for transferring the images while keeping the integrity of the plates intact. Any indents made to the surface would become white areas on the print and I didn't want my students health to be a factor; on top of that there's the factor of time to consider. This project will take at least three classes to complete.

I want my students to begin the process of creating an image as soon as possible otherwise they'll lose interest. Keeping those things in mind I tested a few image transferring techniques and settled on using peppermint oil to transfer the coloured pencil drawings onto the Styrofoam plates. An extra plus is that with further testing I now know that peppermint oil will transfer oil pastel drawings which offers a solution to the more detail loving student challenges this lesson brings to the table. The nature of this project is not friendly to teeny weeny details big shapes and bold lines work best. providing the intricate artists in the class with oil pastel forces the issue... which means there are more challenges involved....

First colour printing of my demo plate. Next step is to
carve out the ares that will stay yellow and print
the second colour on the plate. 

My living room is minty fresh and the evaporation from rubbing the drawings gently onto the plates has made my hands cold. With that solution in place I'm now considering the other challenges this lesson is providing.

Mono Print Finished Art

While mono printing with this technique is an excellent invitation for parents to collaborate and create art together (without highjacking the work all together) only one of the images here is a true collaborative effort.* The rest of the singles I'm featuring were 100% the work of my young students. For the most part at the Toddler and Preschool age, images will be abstract shapes that kind of look like what the students will tell you they are drawing. Sometimes there are young artists that are very good at drawing what they see. In either case they are amazing.

For this lesson we drew on our printing paper with water resistant crayon or oil pastel, Students could trace the general outline of shapes onto the acetate sheets we used as mono printing plates, then flip that image over and then add colour with water soluble marker to the other side of the acetate.  We flipped the outline over so that the colours added to the image when we printed would match up with the drawing, other wise everything would be opposite.

While the colour was being added we soaked our paper in a water bath so that the images in marker would transfer onto our paper. When we were ready to print we used a squeegee to take away any extra moisture from the paper: The image transfers best when the paper is damp and not shiny wet.

*The group shot also has extra examples of collaborative parent child art. The cupcakes, butterflies and cats are parent participant art. The rest, including the animal face with the pink nose featured above; were all done by the children alone. 

Negative Space Take 2

My Preschool Art's Enrichment class also worked with the idea of negative space and Dots last week.

Here are their finished art.

Monoprinting with Younger Artists

I posted a time lapse the other day in anticipation of the start of a multi class lesson plan.

Here's another in anticipation of introducing or re-introducing as the case may be mono-printing to my preschool and toddler classes.

Circles: Background, Foreground and negative space in a Toddler lesson

Teaching foreground, background and negative space to the under 5 set is a tricky concept.

We used layering and window cuts in this lesson.

We started out with a piece of red construction paper with a taped together pre-cut circle. We drew on the paper with oil pastel and then added yellow paint with sponger and then set it aside to dry. We then brushed water all over our second sheet of white paper and brushed colour and spattered paint using toothbrushes.

Both sheets were left to dry and then I assembled the two pages together, Placing the cut out circle of red paper on top of the white painted paper and a sheet of purple construction paper onto the back of the red paper with the window cut. The display of finished art is giving the entry to Artspace a lovely warm glow that the overcast shorter days is really needing.

I did a variation of this project with my preschool Arts Enrichment Class. I will post about that once I've gotten them all put together.