Drawing with Shapes!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hi everyone!

Today’s story time read aloud is about a little frog that would rather be any other animal than who he is. It takes a crafty wolf to remind him why we should be happy to be who we are.
I love this book because the illustrator gave the characters so much personality. It’s also a very important message for everyone.

You can see the video read aloud @Art Out of Anything on FB.

Looking at the illustrations in this book reminds me of how easy it is to learn how to draw animals, or just about anything, by breaking the object down into simple shapes.

In the slideshow above you can see how I used circles, squares, rectangles and triangles to draw some of the animals found in the story.

If you look at the world around you, you will notice that geometry is everywhere!

Here’s a link to a more detailed explanation and drawing practice – Art Tutor Blog

Try this free downloadable template that uses triangles and circles, to get started on your own animal drawing – Shapes drawing template

Connect the groups of dots and see what animal you get. Can you guess what animal it is?I did leave out one shape, see if you can tell which shape fits to complete the drawing.

There’s a new art project video every Tuesday and Thursday @artoutofanything on FB and Instagram and a new Story Time every Saturday.

Thanks so much for visiting today and keep creating!

Patty

Storytime and Paper Puppets

Today at Sea of Visibility on FB I posted my first Story Time Art Project; The 3 Little Pigs Build Their Dream House. Click on the link – https://www.facebook.com/seaofvisibility/ to watch.

And of course, you can also see it at Art Out of Anything on FB.

Fairy Tales, we all know how they begin – Once Upon a Time, and we know how they end – They lived happily ever after…
But did you know that everything in between can change? We’ve all seen many different versions of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty etc.

Creating their own versions of well known stories helps kiddos develop comprehension, vocabulary and writing skills. Critical thinking skills are also engaged as they analyze text and re imagine a different path for the characters and maybe even a whole new plot!

Today I will show you just one way you can make your own paper puppets to inspire your version of a favorite fairy tale.

Project Materials – Our motto “work with what you have” is a perfect guide to finding supplies and materials that you can re purpose for art making.

Card stock – any sturdy paper will do including construction paper or my favorite cereal boxes.
Popsicle sticks – you can also use straws or even pencils
Tape and/ or glue
Decorative Paper – I used scrapbook paper but you can also use pictures cut out of magazines, old books or you can draw your own.
Colored pencils – any drawing tool to add color and designs if you want to.
Scissors

Project Steps – These are my characters; Chip, Skip, Clyde and Leonard E. Wolf. I drew my characters but you can use any of the above mentioned materials to create your own. Prince? Princess? Dragon?

Once I drew my characters and colored them in, I carefully cut them out and glued them onto Popsicle sticks, you can also use tape to attach them.

In my story, I needed 3 houses, each one a little sturdier than the other. After drawing and cutting out my houses, I used recycled materials I had around the house to finish my puppets. For the “straw” house I glued on fabric scraps, yarn and straws. I also added a little glitter on the roof to make it sparkly. The house of “sticks” was a tree house made with straws, toothpicks and broken Popsicle sticks. Finally, the brick house was made using some sticky vinyl and broken DVD’s. I got lucky having the sticky vinyl around but could have used colored glitter instead. Please be careful when cutting up DVD’s or CD’s as they tend to like to crack in interesting ways – definitely a grown up activity! Once done I attached astick Popsicle again to each.

The Setting for my version of this story was an enchanted forest. I was very lucky to have a really good selection of scrapbook paper that I cut into the shapes of trees and a half moon to complete my background. If you don’t have the perfect paper lying around, then you can draw or use clip art or coloring book pages to complete your backdrop. I have added some resource links at the bottom to get you started!

Finally, Leonard E. Wolfe’s new home. Again, I used scrapbook paper and sticky vinyl. Here’s a picture of his tower with the light shining through the windows. Colored tissue paper is perfect for stained glass windows. You can even paint or color white tissue paper to create the effect of stained glass!

Now YOU are ready to make your own paper puppets and create your own story!

Here are some links for templates and coloring pages you can use for inspiration –

Fairy Tale Printable story coloring pages

Here are free printable templates of the characters in my story. I would love to see your version!

Chip Skip Clyde Leonard E. Wolfe

“Straw” House House of “sticks” Stained Glass House Wolfe’s Dream House

If you’re having a hard time getting your story started, here’s a great place that provides all kinds of fun and interesting writing prompts for inspiration – Writing Prompts for Kids

Thank you soooo much for visiting and I hope to see what you come up with! You can post your creations at Art Out of Anything on FB and Instagram. Be sure to follow us for complete videos and more projects!

We are proud to collaborate with Sea of Visibility, a community collective that seeks to support and encourage expression through the arts.
As a member and collaborator, I am thrilled to be a part of creating engagement and providing support through the arts, especially at a time when we all understand how important the arts are to our physical and mental well-being..
Be sure to visit and like Sea of Visibility on FB for our weekly programming schedule.

Keep creating,

Patty

Transparent, Translucent, Opaque. Making Paper!

Handmade paper using tissue paper scraps and Mod Podge.

Hello everyone, it’s a stormy day here in NY and perfect for making some home made paper.

There are a few different ways to make your own paper using recycled materials, most of them involve making paper pulp and lengthy drying times. Although this version is not as versatile as conventional paper making techniques, it is a lot quicker and can be done with a few simple ingredients.

Our new paper will also help us to explore the properties of transparency (see-through), translucency (partially see-through) and opaqueness (not at all see-through).

Supplies – plastic baggie ( I prefer the gallon size), white glue or decoupage glue (like Mod Podge), brushes, water, container, paper scraps. Paper scraps can include tissue paper, newspaper, magazines, paper towels, parchment paper (used for baking), gift wrap paper, tracing paper. Any paper that is on the thin side will work. Copy paper, construction paper and the like will probably not give you the same results, although I always encourage experimentation with materials! Knowing what doesn’t work is just as important as knowing what does.

STEPS –

cut the plastic baggie so you have 2 flat pieces of plastic. You will use one piece for now.
tear paper into strips and/or smaller pieces.

Glue method –

add some water to white glue in a container. The mix should look like thin pancake mix. If it’s too thick, it will take too long to dry.
Use the brush to “paint” glue mixture onto the plastic baggie. I do this in sections instead of covering the whole piece. This way the glue doesn’t dry out quickly.
lay down a layer of paper scraps on top of glue and “paint” another coat of glue on top of the first layer of paper. Place paper scraps on top of each other in different directions to make them bond to each other better. Think of a fabric weave, how the crossing threads bind the fabric together.
continue layering paper and coating with glue in between until you have at least 3 layers of paper and glue.
give the entire surface one last coat of glue mixture and set aside to dry.

Once dry, peel new paper off plastic baggie carefully. The glue method took a few hours to dry and produced a matte (not shiny), textured surface of new paper.

Opaque paper — Opaque and translucent new paper using newspaper, tissue paper and white glue.

Decoupage Glue Method –

follow the same steps as above, but do not dilute the decoupage glue.
this method dries much quicker (30-45 minutes) and produces a glossy (shiny), smooth surface.

Stained Glass paper — Translucent paper using tissue paper scraps and decoupage glue.

What can I do with my new paper?

Your new paper can be used to draw on, as collage materials for another project, as a window decoration even as wrapping paper!

Be sure to visit Art Out of Anything on FB for today’s complete video with step by step demos and more ideas to extend this project.

Here are some links to explore –

Free Stained Glass Patterns– print out these templates and trace onto the plastic sheets with a permanent marker to make a design with your paper scraps. Once dry, you can trace over the design with the marker again to make a stained glass window effect.

Art Vocabulary for Kids – did you know art has it’s own vocabulary?

Making Paper at Home – here’s a more traditional paper making technique you can try at home.

Don’t forget to check out Art Out of Anything on FB for the complete video of this project and follow us on Instagram @artoutofanything for more activities and resources!

Thanks for visiting, stay safe and keep creating!

Patty

“I prefer living in color” David Hockney

You CAN make art out of literally anything! Painting on aluminum foil creates texture and a visually stimulating palette. Just remember to add a little dish washing liquid to your tempera paint to help it stick to the shiny surface.

Color Bricks

This week my little ones used Puncinello aka Honeycomb ribbon, to begin creating texture for their “bricks”.

This is what happens when you stumble into the huge roles of metallic ribbon on the floor of your classroom closet! My PreK classes have begun their Building unit, so what to do in art class? Make bricks of course.

Here they are using Bingo markers to create a textured pattern on poster board, using the holes in the ribbon. The challenge was not to bang the markers (usually their favorite part) but instead to apply the color as evenly as possible and combine colors without ending up with a shade of PreK Rainbow mud. If you are an early childhood teacher, you are familiar with this color 🙂

Once dry, I will remove the taped on ribbon and cut the decorated poster board into brick shapes which they can then use to create their 2D houses. I love the melange of colors they were able to put together. Thirty-six 4 year olds did a great job, can’t wait to see what kinds of houses they come up with.

Musical accompaniment – Parachute Express playlist on Spotify. Ended class with a singalong to “When I Build My House”.