creative jewish mom

Lovely DIY Wrapping Paper From A Painting Exercise!

With gift giving season approaching quickly, now is a great time to make some DIY wrapping paper, and even better, to practice your painting skills in the process! I have at long last set aside some time to follow my dreams of painting, and while the jury is still out regarding whether this is something that I'll truly want to devote my time to, I now have some great looking wrapping paper that is so fun to look at! Painting loosely, which is the direction I'd like to take, since that is the style that speaks to me (fortunately) isn't nearly as easy as it looks, and so practicing on large sheets of butcher paper is the perfect way to loosen up with no pressure. And this year our Chanukkah gifts are going to look amazing, yippee!

And speaking of yippee, my old virtual friend Amanda Evanston (who used to run the blog Aunt Peaches) has graciously gifted me her online painting classes to review, and let me tell you, the first class that I'm working on now "The Secret Garden" is truly amazing. I can't promise you overnight success unless you are an artistic genius, but I can promise you at the very least that you'll see painting in a whole new light. If that means delving in deeper, like me, or deciding to support artists, like Amanda, already creating amazing work, either way the results are well worth the investment. And yes, you can do the class with kids, in fact the techniques are perfect for all ages. No, Amanda won't teach you exactly how to copy gorgeous paintings like hers, that you'll have to work for, so I'm running off to do just that!

I took this quote of of Amanda's site and I just love it:

"A painting teacher once told me, "To introduce someone to the artists that lives inside them is a great honor." - This is a privilege I take very seriously, and I spent years developing a teaching method that is inclusive of students of all ages and skill levels. I would love to have you as a student. 

So thanks Amanda, I'm really hoping to get to know my own inner artist, and time will tell! Now, lets paint some wrapping paper, ready?

Pencil Drawing Exercises To Teach Light, Shadow And Volume

Aren't these pencil drawing exercises that my fourteen year old daughter drew just wonderful? Sometimes one forgets the magic of simply putting pencil to paper, especially if one learns some oh so important lessons in how to actually depict light, shadow and volume! Of course there are those artistic geniuses out there that just naturally understand these kinds of things, but most of us benefit greatly from art lessons, and specifically in this case drawing lessons that give one the tools to really create something special. And yes, we do realize that the fruit look rather mechanical, but that was in fact the point in order to really drive home the power of the technique.

And speaking of techniques, keep reading to take a closer look to see the pencil drawing tricks one can learn, I think I want to do it too......it looks amazing!

Angry Bird Drawing Exercise With Colored Pencils

Drawing with colored pencils can be so much fun, especially if one draws cute little objects, like this collection of plastic angry bird pencil toppers. My daughter did this entirely on her own, only showing it to me after the fact, and I just love what she did. I'm so pleased to see evidence that her drawing skills are moving forward on account of her weekly drawing and painting class! I think she did a great job giving these little guys volume, and the proportions are good too, skills her teacher is certainly working on with her. And the self motivation to practice on her own, well one really can't hope for more than that, big giant phew!

Ready to get your kids drawing, using a subject matter that they will be interested in (rather than a still life of fruit, for example), okay let's get started!

Watercolor Butterflies Painting Lesson

I'm thankful to my fourteen year old daughter who has been doing some watercolor paintings and supplying me with some material that is simple to photograph and share with you! Of course my joy goes way beyond that.....I'm so happy that she is following in my footsteps in the creativity department, yippee! As I write this she is searching the house for some little plastic toys to make some DIY snowglobes, a creative energy surge that I surely recognize and am more than happy to encourage. Ah yes, and more blog material for busy mom who can't seem to find time to photograph all those things she has been crocheting......

Oh, and about this sweet painting, a garden scene with butterflies done with just a simple palette of watercolors. Keep reading for a bit more information about how to make this into an actual art lesson.

Watercolor Still Life Fruit Exercise Is Great For All Ages!

My fourteen year old daughter is once again taking painting lessons, this time with a teacher who learned painting as a trade in Russia, so the lessons are precise and skill oriented, which can be a good thing, though not exactly how art is taught in the USA generally. Nonetheless since we are seeing great results with piano lessons from our teacher who is from the Ukraine, I'm trying to be a bit open minded as far as teaching techniques go! My daughter in any case has and will be exposed to art education on many levels, so the main thing is to just do it, and not worry too much about the process assuming something is being taught!

I'm happy to say, that today, the day after Passover, a day in Israel called "isru chag" which is in effect an extension of the holiday (and occurs for Passover, Shavuot and Succot, on days that are still part of the holiday outside of Israel) my daughter had the desire to paint, and while I was recovering from the holiday by sleeping, she was painting this sweet watercolor still ilfe, using some of the skills that she has been learning recently, and some that she learned from a different teacher a good five years or so ago.

Learn Painting Techniques Using Simple Watercolors

This watercolor painting of fish was done by my fourteen year old daughter who is taking a painting class once again! We've had a hard time finding someone as wonderful as her original teacher but in the end I decided to just pick the best option which at the moment is a teacher who was trained in Russia, so the process is quite a bit different from a teacher trained for example in the USA. Our piano teacher is from the Ukraine, and we are having great success with her, so an art teacher that also teaches with the Russian adherence to the importance of step by step will certainly give my daughter some great skills as a foundation.

This painting was the first one that she did with the new teacher, who starts all students in this way. I think the results are quite lovely, right? Keep reading to see the whole painting!

Teaching Kids About Color Using Oil Paints

If you have noticed the lack of crafts lately here on creative jewish mom, do not jump to the conclusion that we are not crafting, on the contrary we have been delving into the world of drawing and painting (and of course ceramics), and don't have much to show for it just yet. What I would like to share with you is the idea of helping your little and not so little crafters understand color and the power of color!

One really great way to do that is to simply employ the idea of making your own color chart, with paint and a large piece of paper. So simple and yet a great educational tool for anyone interested in painting or even learning how to use color effectively. And for those interested in classic art training (highly recommended) even on a small scale, it is important to become familiar with the names of paints generally used, and of course more specifically the names of the paints that you have. The goal is that paint colors should become as familiar as say ingredients in a recipe, such that when one wants to achieve a particular color, one simply combines the necessary color to achieve the desired result! Sort of like baking, right?

Encouraging Kids To Create Using A Variety Of Materials

We are in the middle of celebrating our 7 day Passover holiday, but wanted to drop by with some food for thought! I love these welcome signs that my eight year old confidently painted, with simple paints, for a recent visitor, and I started thinking about the idea of encouraging kids to create with a variety of materials, even if the results seem simple or not so accomplished. The idea is to always communicate the message that things don't have to be perfect, nor do the results of a creative activity have to be something that we treasure!

The main thing is to build motor skills (and the ability to use a paint brush, which isn't so simple for everyone) and more importantly confidence and a love for the joy of simply creating with our own two hands.

Give it some thought!

Weaving Paper Strips And Making Decorations For Purim

Yesterday at Crafting A Future I welcomed several groups of girls and a group of boys into my home for some more art lessons, and we had a great time! With the 1st , 2nd and 3rd grade girls we made woven elipses from recycled cardboard, and then turned those into fish, (for the month of Adar) butterflies, a clown and even a cute Purim cat.

I love this twist on the classic paper weaving that many of use learned in kindergarten, though was totally new to most of these girls, and some of them struggled to actually get the idea, which made me realize how very badly they need these weekly lessons!

While I generally do not want to help the students too much, the first graders who made these butterflies needed my help in drawing and cutting the wings. I was so happy to see that the butterfly on the right was decorated with doodled shapes that I had shown the girls last week!

 

And look at this sweet little clown, which will look great hanging on this little student's wall, especially since her older sister made an even bigger clown in my class for older girls.

How To Make Woven Paper Strip Animals And Clowns And Learn A Little Bit About Design:

As with my first lesson last week, and hopefully all those that follow, I am not just doing crafts with the kids, I'm also talking to the about color, design, and the whys and hows of art and craft. This week each child started with a blank piece of paper, and I asked them to draw an ellipse on the paper. Then I asked them if anyone knew how we could make a fish from the ellipse shape. They seemed a bit confused, so I asked them to add fins, a tail and  a mouth and eyes to their ellipse to make it into a fish. The idea being that then we would translate our drawings into large fish using the cardboard ellipse that I had prepared for them with pre-cut slits.

I have to be honest, the idea of design and sketching was only really understood 100% by one student, whose fish, seen at the top of the post really is a large version of her sketch!

The kids cut their own strips of paper, and wove the strips through the slits. Then something very interesting happened, which was that most of the girls just couldn't stretch their imagination to make a fish from this shape, even though we had drawn it on paper, so I gave them the option of making anything, and that is how our cat, butterflies, and clown came to be.

And as you can see, those who were able to complete the project went home just as happy as can be! A few students (1st graders) got so wrapped up in writing me notes on their fish drawings and singing and screaming that they forgot the reason why we were having the class and weren't able to finish this project within the alotted time. I'm loving this experience of getting to know all the children's personalities, and I see that with this spirited group its going to take some serious work on my part to make sure that we spend our time creating and not running around and screaming, sigh.

 

 

Painting With Potatoes, Bottlecaps, Sponges & Q-tips

Painting created by a 1st grader, wth a rectangular dense sponge, wine corks, and Q-tips! And no direction from the teacher whatsoever.

Yesterday I started the first of what I hope will be many afternoons spent with an adorable and vivacious group of !st and 2nd graders for some art and craft lessons, for my charitable organization now called Crafting A Future.

First we sat down in a circle and talked about color and combinations of color, and why we paint and draw and craft to begin with. Then we started what I thought was a lesson in stamping and making patterns with paint and a number of different things like potatos, sponges, bottle caps, wine corks and dense sponges.

But then it turned out that these five and six year olds, when given huge sheets of paper and paint and the above mentioned tools couldn't quite stay within the strict guidelines of stamping and started stamping and painting away and some of them made the most gorgeous little paintings combining the techniques I'd shown them and their own creativity.

This amazing clown started with a stamped head made with a plastic cover, and then some details were added with stamped corks, and the painting was done with I'm not sure what, but not with a paint brush, as there were no paint brushes anywhere!

This sweet little clown, shown here in progress was painted entirely with Q tips!

So very adorable, and quite accomplished for a first grader, I do think!

After everyone had finished as much as they could on the giant sheets of paper, I then had them practice the techniques of making patterns with stamping, as I've done with my children recently here, and then we decorated some flat cereal boxes to use as containers for Purim, more on that as that project progresses.

And then, I did somewhat of a novel thing, I gave them all homework and they were pleased as punch! One of them smiled up at me and said that the homework was to remember the class that we'll have every Sunday!