"Teach Kids Cartooning"

Just a reminder.... you won't want to miss this if you live in the Monterey Bay area!! This Saturday, November 21 from 2pm to 5pm, at Palace Art & Office Supply in Capitola, California: "Teach Kids Cartooning" with professional cartoonist Bridgett Spicer! Click on the picture below for all the details:

And be sure to visit "Squid Row", Bridgett's daily web comic at www.squidrowcomics.com.

"Teach Kids Cartooning" and "Teach Kids Color Mixing"!

I'm excited to offer a "double-header" this weekend, and I'm not talking about baseball! This is a "double-header" of "Teach Kids Art" workshops for teachers, including a special Cartooning Workshop with guest artist, Bridgett Spicer! Bridgett is the creator of the daily web comic, Squid Row. Watch the videos below to see what makes her "tick"!



Bridgett's "Teach Kids Cartooning" workshop (this Saturday, November 21, 2pm to 5pm, at Palace Art & Office Supply in Capitola, California), will cover what you need to know to successfully teach cartooning to kids from Kindergarten through 6th grade and beyond!

Kids love to draw cartoons and Bridgett's tips and techniques will have them drawing better than they ever imagined possible! From the simplest cartoons made from alphabet letters, to drawing expressions, showing movement, and even creating graphic novels, Bridgett will take you through the steps to teach cartooning to your students, whatever their age or ability level.

Bridgett's teaching style is both is engaging and entertaining... you won't believe how much fun she can pack into one 3 hour workshop! Even if you don't live in the area, this workshop is worth traveling to.... you won't want to miss it!!!

And if you really want to make a day of it, that morning I'll be teaching a workshop called "Teach Kids Color Mixing" from 9am to noon. You'll learn the basics of color theory so you can feel confident teaching it to your students! We'll use tempera paint in primary colors plus black and white, to mix secondary and tertiary colors, as well as tints and shades. The paintings of famous artists Wassily Kandinsky and Wayne Thiebaud will inspire two fun painting projects, and you'll even get to make your own color wheel!

You can reserve a seat at one or both of these great workshops by calling Palace Art & Office Supply at 831-464-2700. (If you can't make it to the workshops, you can still purchase the pdf's for just $5 per workshop.... for the pdf's from "Teach Kids Cartooning", contact Bridgett Spicer. For the pdf's from "Teach Kids Color Mixing", contact me!)

"Teach Kids Printmaking" Workshop for Teachers

Okay, I know this is short notice (unless you happen to live in the area), but I just wanted to give our "locals" a heads-up about the teacher workshop I'm offering tomorrow....

"Teach Kids Printmaking" will be happening this Saturday, November 14, 9am to noon, at Palace Art & Office Supply in Capitola, California. Learn lots of practical ways to bring simple printmaking ideas into your classroom. We'll be using "Scratch Foam", "Foamies" sheets, and even aluminum foil to make cards, tags, labels, gift wrap, and illustrations for books. These supplies are safe and fun, even for the lower grades, and they're also very affordable. You'll be able to use these project ideas right away with the holidays coming up!

At each of my workshops, you leave with unique samples that you've created yourself, complete lesson plans and a Certificate of Completion for your Professional Development hours. Click here for details about this "Teach Kids Art" workshop and others coming up, as well as other classes and free demos.... Call 831-464-2700 to reserve your seat!

If you can't make it to the workshop, but would like copies of the lesson plans we'll be using, you can email me and purchase the pdf's from this workshop for just $5 through Paypal.

Butterfly Season!

Fall is "butterfly season" for us who live on the California Central Coast! This is the time when over 100,000 Monarch butterflies migrate to our State Monarch Preserve from the valley regions west of the Rockies, making their temporary home here until spring. On sunny, warm days, they fly out of the eucalyptus trees where they cluster, to the delight of onlookers.... it is quite a sight to behold! Our Kindergarten classes take a field trip to see these magnificent Monarchs each fall, so we decided to paint our own beautiful butterflies in honor of this special event!

Although our focus is on learning about Monarchs, I like to give Kinders the freedom to create either a Monarch or a colorful butterfly of their own design (most choose the latter). I put up lots of visual references for inspiration, pointing out the symmetry of both color and shape in each butterfly.

1. First, fold a 9x12 paper in half (I use heavy weight construction paper) and place it with the fold on the right. (If you're teaching a large group, it helps to be consistent with your own demo and sample, and the orientation of the paper the students have in front of them.... so choose which side the fold will be on and keep it consistent!) Explain that you will be drawing half of a butterfly on the fold, in order to make it "symmetrical", or "the same on both sides".

2. With a black oil pastel, make a small half circle, about half way down on the fold. This will be the butterfly's head. Be sure to press hard to make it nice and dark.

3. Next, draw half of the body below the head.

4. Now add the wings by drawing a diagonal line from where the head meets the body, up to the corner, then a vertical line most of the way down the side and a horizontal line straight back across to the body. Add a curved line from any point on your horizontal line down to the lower corner and curving back up to the body. (This may sound like a lot for K's, but if you explain it as they watch you do it, it will make sense to them!)

5. Then add a design with just a few simple shapes on the wings. Don't forget to add an antenna!

6. Next, open up your paper and fold it back over on top of your drawing and rub really hard with your hand or the back of a spoon. Your design will magically appear on the other side!

7. Your transferred design will be very faint, so now go back over it with your oil pastel , pressing hard to make your lines dark.

8. Finally, paint your butterfly with watercolors. Decide if your butterfly will be in the grass or the sky and make sure you use colors that will make your butterfly stand out from its background! Remember to keep your colors symmetrical from wing to wing and use enough water so that your colors look transparent.

The most challenging part of this lesson is getting students to draw on the fold. I've even tried taping the paper down so they can't turn it! (If they draw on the loose edge instead of the fold, they will end up with two halves of a butterfly instead of one whole one!) I've also tried having the paper open when they draw their half butterfly, but most of them got so excited about their drawing that they kept going and drew both sides - which then made it not symmetrical! Your best bet will be to have a small ratio of adults to children (yay! for parent volunteers) and lots of extra paper, just in case!!

I always love how given the same set of instructions, each butterfly comes out different and unique.... the mark of a good art lesson!!

Teacher Workshop: "Teach Kids Multicultural Art"

Teach your students about other cultures through their Art! This Saturday (November 7th, 9am to noon), I'll be teaching another workshop just for teachers, "Teach Kids Multicultural Art". If you're a teacher on the California Central Coast, don't miss this chance to spend a lively morning with other teachers, learning tips and techniques for teaching Aboriginal Dot Painting, Mexican Bark Painting, and Chinese Brush Painting at Palace Art & Office Supply in Capitola. You'll leave with three unique samples that you've created yourself, complete lesson plans and a Certificate of Completion for your Professional Development hours. Click here for details about this workshop and others coming up, as well as some fabulous free demos.... Call 831-464-2700 to reserve your seat!

Watercolor Fish

These are your basic crayon resist fish, but with a new twist.... students painted the fish separately from the background, then we glued them on top after everything was dry. The result is a background that looks continuous. Try sprinkling some salt on your background before it dries for an interesting, "watery" effect! I like to put up lots of visual references for students to look at for inspiration.... calendar pages work well for this. (Ask parents to donate their old calendars at the end of the year!)

1. First, paint your background on a piece of 9x12 heavy weight construction paper or watercolor paper. Use colors that you might see in the ocean.... blues, greens, turquoise, purple, etc. Use lots of water and pigment, so your colors are bright!
2. Quickly, before your paint has a chance to dry (while it still has a "sheen" to it), sprinkle some salt on your painting (we used rock salt this time and it seemed to work even better than normal salt). Set your painting aside to dry overnight.
3. Now, use a pencil to draw a large fish in the center of another piece of the same size paper . Don't worry about drawing a fish that looks exactly like one of the examples, but just combine different bodies, fins, tails, etc. to make your drawing "fish-ish". Add some fun patterns and details.
4. Then, trace over your pencil lines with a black crayon, pressing hard.
5. Finally, use watercolors to paint your fish. Make it bright and colorful!
6. Let both paintings dry overnight. Then, the next day you can brush the salt off of your background painting. (For the salt to take full effect, it really is important to let your painting dry overnight, so be patient!)
7. Cut out your fish (or have an adult help you) and glue it onto the background. ("Yes! Paste" is the very best thing to use for this project, as it will dry flat and permanent and won't peel up or pop off like glue sticks will!)

These delightful paintings were done by my some of my first graders, for our KidsKreations fundraiser project. This is a great project for re-printing onto products because of the high success rate (everyone was happy with their painting), the bright colors and the charming, child-like designs. I can't wait to see how adorable they look printed on cutting boards, note cards, coffee mugs, and more!!

Paper Sculpture Inspired by Alexander Calder

This wonderful sculpture was created at my last Teacher Workshop.... I don't know who to give credit to, so if this is yours, please let me know!

Alexander Calder (1898-1976) was an American artist who was born into a family of artists and sculptors and became one of the 20th century’s most influential modern artists. He is also known for inventing the mobile and the "stabile", his name for a fixed sculpture with similar design elements to a mobile.

Try this form of “additive sculpture” to experiment with abstract designs! Calder often created his sculptures in solid red or black, so use paper in those colors to create your own Calder-inspired sculptures. (Younger students will enjoy using a variety of colors together to design the playground of their dreams!) Use the techniques below to create 3 dimensional sculptural effects with paper:

• Cutting - single or multiple cuts
• Folding - (check out what you can do simply by folding... http://www.graficaobscura.com/fold/page001.html)
• Curling - use long, thin strips of paper to make spirals and reverse spirals
• Rolling - make cones and tubes
• Bending - change direction without creasing the paper
• Scoring - lightly run scissors across the edge of a ruler to just barely break the surface of the paper for a crisp fold (a paperclip may also be used on lightweight paper), a great way to make folds along a curve
• Layering - glue smaller pieces of paper onto increasingly larger pieces (like a mola)
• Slicing & Joining - cut a slit into wider piece and slide narrower piece into it
• Twisting - hold one end of the paper with your right hand and one with your left hand and twist a little or a lot
• Crumpling - scrunch paper in both hands
• Stuffing - crumple paper and wrap with a second layer of paper
• Crimping - use a special “crimping tool” to make small, uniform waves or folds, similar to corrugated cardboard

For this project, I use a 10"x10" square of foam core board for the base, heavyweight construction paper, scissors, and YES! Paste. A craft stick, or popsicle stick, works great for spreading the YES! Paste. (If you use a glue stick instead, it won't hold as well before it dries, so you'll need to help it out by taping or paper clipping your glued pieces until the glue has dried completely.)