The Biggest Fridge In the World

Three new students!

2012-02-04T14:05:00.000-08:00

The thing we were trying to learn in this lesson is the relationship of color to objects in the distance. For example, distant mountains appear blue and purple and when they are closer to us you can see the green of the grass or the dried grass field in the foreground.

Another good example of how objects fade into the distance and have more detail in the foreground.

Good job done by a 5 year old! Doesn't his mountain look sooo far away?

8 years old and she has a small sun in the sky too!

I like the clouds in the sky. Looks like a nice day! Purple mountains look great with a golden grassy field.

Now this looks like a windy day and I like the way her grasses turned out in the foreground! Nice tree too.

You did it! I feel like the mountains and hills are very far away!

Another example. It's harder to see, but if you want to practice again, here is something to look at so you can get an idea of the colors to use. Or, pick your own colors! Just remember that colors fade and get more blue or purple in the distance and details get more clear and brighter or darker in the foreground.

Watercolor winter scenes.

2012-01-28T04:08:00.000-08:00

Our focus for this class was to learn a couple of ways to make trees, add snow, and make a gradation of colors in the sky.

Some of the trees were painted using a round brush. Some were painted using a puddle of paint and a straw. Puddle up your paint, if you want to give it a try and then blow as hard as you can through a straw in different directions around the paper.

The snow was added by using white paint and lots of water, then tap your brush against your finger over the painting. Move your hand around the paper and it looks like it is snowing. Or, it could look like stars in the night sky if you use darker colors for the sky.

We used a paper towel to blot out some of the paint in the sky to represent clouds. Here, there are shadows coming from the trees that flow across the snow.

Everyone's painting came out different. The trees, clouds, hills and grasses poking through the snow are all different and beautiful. Go outside and look at some trees and try to draw them as you see them. It's fun!

Hey! haven't I seen you before? Love that tree! You all did a great job. Keep up the good work.

Watercolor Classes

2012-01-28T03:51:00.000-08:00

We began our lesson with some abstract paintings so that we could play with the paint and see what it can do. We puddled up some paint at one end of our paintings and blew through a straw to get the effect you see here.

Then we made Valentine cards and used salt crystals to get a different effect.

Everyone's painting is different. This one looks like jellyfish in the ocean.

Some of the paintings look like alien landscapes.

Great job kids! Keep up the good work and make some more cards. You did so well!!!

Student work

2011-11-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

Pages from one of my students binder. Beautiful work!!

I'm teaching about shading and used this fun lesson from Deep Space Sparkle. The kids did great, I wish I could have gotten pics of all of them. Forgot my camera. But, these two brought their pics back for a photo. Thanks, guys!!

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T13:01:00.000-07:00

We used oil pastels and colored construction paper for this Halloween painting. It was a paint along and I love encouraging the kids to make it their own and experiment. Great job kids!!

I found my Camera!!

2011-10-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad I found my camera and can get back to posting my kids art lessons again. Everyone's painting comes out differently and that is what makes it so interesting and gives each of us new ideas. They did a great job and I am proud of them all. I got the idea for this project from Deep Space Sparkle.

Student art Close Ups!

2011-06-22T13:49:00.000-07:00

The kids learned about layering, modeling, line drawing, mixing, and blending with Oil Pastels. We did this project in the backyard and even though it was very hot, they wanted to keep going until they were finished. Each painting turned out different, because each artist has his or her own style. Good job kids!!

Had our first art lesson with a great group of homeschoolers.

2011-06-21T19:45:00.000-07:00

Nine great kids, oil pastels, 2 hrs later. They did a fantastic job, didn't they? I will post individual closeups of each students artwork as soon as I get them cropped. We enjoyed the class very much and all the kids were a joy to be around.

Pure Contour, Modified Contour, and then Draw!

2010-11-29T12:14:00.001-08:00

On March 9th I posted a photo of a deer. I wanted to do a set of drawings as seen to show the difference between a pure contour, a modified and a sketch.

If you want to improve your drawing skills, it takes a lot of practice, relaxing and letting your skill develop by doing these exercises over and over with various subjects. We did a lot of these exercises in grade school art class. I didn't know then how important they were, but in teaching art classes, these assignments have helped so many of my students get a handle on learning to draw realistically and believably. Ahh, I just noticed, I forgot to finish the tail. Oh well, no one is perfect.

Keep Practicing

2010-11-29T11:55:00.000-08:00

Today I started with writing my name and signature on the right side of the page. Then wrote them again backwards. Then I made two face goblets. One profile of a normal face and one profile of a monster face. Then shaded to give them shape. This is a good exercise for loosening up and getting ready to draw.

Next, I drew a few different positions of my hands. Hands are always close by and make a great subject for drawing, especially since everyone needs practice with them. I was looking back and forth the entire time. The contour drawing of my dog Sparky, below, is drawn entirely without looking at the paper for placement of my pencil. While the cabbage next to Sparky is called a modified contour because you can look at the paper, but, only for placement of the pencil. You can't actually look at the paper while drawing. Contour and Modified Contour drawings are great exercises that we shouldn't neglect. They teach us to see like an artist.

Do a pure contour drawing of any complex object and then do a modified contour drawing of it, then draw it again without worrying about looking at the paper at all and have fun getting lost in the drawing.

Will I blog again? Yes!

2010-08-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

Hi, I am so sorry about the delays in updating my blog. There have been many upheavals in my family this summer (moving, moving again, doctors, art shows etc.) and things are just starting to quiet down. But, you know how that goes....

I'm working on lessons for art at a senior center right now. Hope to get more up on this site again very soon.

If you are drawing inspiration from this blog and have done some artwork of your own, I would love to see it. Have you got any pics to share? This is still a small community and we can encourage each other along the way.

Find a quiet place to draw :)

Lesson#4 Modified Contour Drawing

2010-03-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

Hopefully you have done the contour drawings of the previous post titled Warm Ups! Now do a contour drawing of your hand, the one you aren't drawing with, of course.

Take your time and relax.

Next, you are going to draw your hand again, only this time you can look at your paper for placement of your pencil only, no looking at the paper and pencil while drawing. So, while the pencil is moving, you may only be looking at your hand. But, look at the paper as often as you like to make sure you have the placement of your pencil to your liking.

Wow! My thumb really isn't that fat, but I am happy with my drawing. Send me jpeg's of yours OK?

Warm Ups!

2010-03-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

Warm-ups first! Get a pencil and paper and do a contour drawing of the word THINK that I have on the left side of this blog. First the printed one and then the cursive one. I didn't get it quite right. I think I was going too fast. So, slow down and outline the words with your eyes, taking your time while drawing with your pencil.

These are my contour drawings.
Your contour drawings won't look like mine. No two people draw the same but, that's okay. We each have our own style.

Next, do the same thing with this word. I picked ROTTWEILER because it is a harder word and that is what helps to train our eye. First we did an easy word to understand the exercise and next a more difficult word to really put it into practice.

Okay here is where you can see it starts to look like a jumbled mess. But, I looked at every inch of that word and followed the outline. That is what matters with this exercise.

Drawing Lesson #3

2010-03-11T11:17:00.001-08:00

To learn to see what an artist sees you need to do some contour drawings. A pure contour drawing is when you draw a picture while never taking your eyes off of the subject you are drawing and rarely picking up your pencil while drawing it. For example, I had some sunflowers sitting in a vase and I did this contour drawing in about 15 minutes. Looks like a lot of scribbles. But, that's okay, you are seeing every inch of the subject when you draw this way. It is a close examination and helps train your eye. With a lot of practice you can even get better and make recognizable objects likes this water gun my son like to play with on a hot day.As you can see the lines don't all match up, but it is good practice. You try it now with the deer from yesterdays post and with some items you have laying around your home. Do three pure contour drawings. You can e-mail me anytime with any drawing you have done, or from any of the lessons on this blog. I'd like to see your progress.

Drawing Lesson #2

2010-03-09T17:35:00.000-08:00

Looking at this picture and taking your time, I want you to draw the deer. Just do a simple line drawing, then put it away in a folder for later.

Now draw a person from memory. Imagine mom or dad, or anyone else in your mind and then try to get that image down on paper. No looking at photos though.... If there is something you particularly like (or don't like) about what you have drawn, write that down somewhere on the front or back of your picture. Next, I want you to draw a picture of a person you are looking at. It could be yourself in a mirror if no one is around to help you with this exercise. Again, write down what you like and/or don't like about this picture.

Have you ever seen before and after pictures? Do a few drawings of people and things around your home and keep these drawings in a folder somewhere hidden so that we can check back on them later to see how much you have improved. And I mean much later. But, remember where you hide them so you can find them again.

Drawing Lesson #1

2010-03-08T17:15:00.000-08:00

We are going to begin with the easiest methods I can think of. First, we warm up. Most drawing begins with lines. Your signature is a line drawing and that is where we are going to start. Because, starting with what you have around you is easy and a fast way to see results. So, get some typing paper or binder paper and a #2 pencil and let's get going. First, write your name in cursive 3 times, in three different styles. I wrote a forward slant, a backward slant and no slant.Now try writing you signature in mirror writing. You may need to practice a few times. It took me a few times to be able to hold my mirror writing up to a mirror and then be able to read it. Give it a try.

Why do we do this? There is a shift in our brains function when we do something out of the ordinary, or unexpected. Like mirror writing for example, it makes our brain take a different pathway than usual to get to the end product: our line drawing of our signature. Some people are born with an ability to draw that is amazing and others learn to draw and can be equally as amazing. What it takes is practice, practice, practice and play, play, play!!!

Our next exercise is to draw a profile of someones face. Easy, just think: There is the forehead, then a nose, the lips and chin, and a neckline. Just like in example #1. Say each part as you draw, it doesn't have to be perfect. Then draw a profile in mirror image form ~ facing the first image. As in example #2. After drawing a line connecting the tops of the foreheads and at the bottom of the necks you have a drawing of a goblet.

Here is where a really fun part comes into play. Now I want you to draw a monster face with warts and dents and maybe a hair or two coming out of the chin. Here is my monster profile:

Now you draw the mirror image of this monster profile and add the lines at the top and bottom to make a monster goblet.

Good job! These are warm up exercises that help you to get into the artistic side of your brain. Play with these exercises and send me an image of your monster goblets or anything else you want me to display on the Biggest Fridge In The World. Happy drawing.

2010-03-08T11:11:00.000-08:00

Hey kids,
I have this great wildlife calendar with this frog image that I love. I just got myself a pencil and started with the face of the frog on the right. Then, I just kept going while measuring very carefully where to put the next element. If you go slowly enough and, don't be afraid to erase, you can get there too. I'm going to blog some drawing instructions so that you can see the world around you like any artist might see it. And together we can improve our skills and have fun too.

Click on the blank squares.........

2009-10-08T11:23:00.001-07:00

I have heard from Carolina that the image is not visible on her computer. You could try just clicking on the blank square for a full size view and the page will redirect and you can see the images that way. They are too small of a jpeg. and that is why they aren't showing for some people. So if you send me images, make sure they are a good size. Thanks!

Acrylic Art by Vivian Mueller

2009-06-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

These three untitled images by Vivian Mueller, daughter of Carolina Mueller, are some funky acrylics that she executed herself. I think this shows originality, creativity and self-motivation! Good job Vivian!!!

2009-06-22T10:17:00.000-07:00

The Biggest Fridge In the World is open for business! We are going to hold awesome art challenges, post some art tips and include links to art sites for kids, by kids and for kids at heart.

Hola! The first drawing going up on the Biggest Fridge in the World is a #2 pencil drawing by Cody Harkins, 13. Send me images of your artwork too, so I can display it here. You just need a digital camera or a scanner. This image was scanned and saved to my computer, then, uploaded to this page by me for your viewing pleasure. Come on, you know you want to!

Please spread the word about our first challenge. Find a picture of an animal from a calendar, or an online image from this site, click here> free images, and draw it with a #2 pencil. No fancy equipment needed. Anyone can enter the challenge ~ any age ~ just send your digital image entry to hireart321@gmail.com and I will upload it to TBFW with your name (and age if you'd like).

To practice for this drawing you can get a pencil or a shoe, a mug or a teddy bear even, and put it in front of you on the table and draw exactly what you see. Give it a try. Send me those pics too and I will put them up on the fridge.

Also by Cody