Halloween Art History – Haring Cats

Halloween is the perfect holiday for learning about art history.

Our first artist is Keith Haring. When we focus on art history, we explore an artist or art movements. When looking at artists, we learn more about their style, technique and the subjects of their work. We also learn about how the artist fits into a community, a movement or how their art captures a moment in history. Learn more about Keith Haring’s work at haring.com.

Click on the link to visit our You Tube channel for the full process video and instructions

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHT78BqPvr9I0Fh1H9aLHUQ?view_as=subscriber

In the video, to make our Haring Cats, we used geometric shapes, a bold black outline and bright colors, PLUS we learned a classic technique to enlarge our drawings!

I have also added some student work in the pictures below. As you can see, you can use all sorts of different silhouettes to complete your cats.

I’ll be back with more Halloween Art History during the month of October.

If you have been enjoying the videos and posts, follow us on FB, Instagram or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Please also consider contributing to supporting FREE arts programming by buying me a coffee at – https://www.buymeacoffee.com/pattemade.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of the process and some student work too!
Thanks for watching and keep creating!

Patty

STUDENT WORK – USING DIFFERENT CAT SILHOUETTES

STUDENT WORK IN PROGRESS ENLARGED FROM TINY REFERENCE PHOTOS

Shape Collage!

Hello! today’s project is super simple but can be expanded and transformed into anything you like! Collage is an art technique that almost everyone has used at some point. It lends itself to so many possibilities and can be created with just about any materials you have on hand.

As always you can see the full video project at Art Out of Anything on Facebook and Instagram. Brand new project videos on Tuesday and Thursday every week.

For today’s project I chose the following supplies –

Paper – all kinds to tear up like magazines, construction paper, tissue paper, copy paper etc.
Glue stick
Pencil and/or marker
Scissor
Paper to draw my shape on and as the canvas for your collage

STEPS –

Choose shape you would like to fill. I chose a heart but also drew a silhouette of a cat. You can also use coloring book pages or print out coloring pages or line drawings and use those as your shape guide.
Tear the collage paper into small pieces to fit your shape. Optional – you can also cut your paper into pieces with scissors. Tearing is also a really good fine motor skill to practice.
Start gluing your pieces to the inside of your shape as if you were coloring. You can overlap pieces or place them next to each other. You can also leave space in between pieces. Try all different ways to fill in your shape.

Once completed, add one coat of glue to the entire surface of your collage to glue down any loose edges. Here is my completed heart shape collage which I glued onto a page from a magazine, cut around it, then glued onto another full magazine page to make a border. The red page was a perfume ad so the heart smells pretty too!

Of course you can also come up with your own theme for a collage! Here are some examples of collages my students made that describe their favorite place –

You can also make a collage using only shades of the same color, only faces and more. Challenge yourself to create a collage landscape using only pictures, like they did in the examples above of their favorite place. What picture do you think they used to represent the sand? Hint – it’s an advertisement for flooring.

Picasso and Braque were the first to use collage they way we recognize it, in their work. Here’s a link to a fantastic article, with photos of amazing collage work by famous artists My Modern Met – Collage Art

This is a digital shape collage maker that uses your own photos – Shape Collage download

It’s also an app for Android and IPhones.

Collage is an art form that I use in my personal work all the time. I even make collage jewelry with scraps of anything I have on hand –

I hope you find wild and wonderful things to make collages of!

Please contact patty @eljaiekart@gmail.com for remote learning workshops and professional development bookings.

Thanks for visiting and keep creating,

Patty

Spiders, Bugs and Insects! Oh my!

Hello, hello!

Today’s Story Time Read Aloud is Miss Spider’s Wedding by David Kirk. You can see the video read aloud and video tutorial at Art Out of Anything on FB and Instagram.

I love insects. I love reading about them, drawing them and creating mashed up illustrations of insects and other animals! David Kirk’s stunning paintings that illustrate Miss Spider’s Wedding, remind us how beautiful insects are and also how beautiful a little feeling called love is too.

When I decided to make insects for this project, I didn’t have any clay or dough and I thought maybe other people might not have any either. SO, I have made some simple insects using paper, tape, straws, shish kabob sticks, paint and glue. You can also use chopsticks and Q-Tips or pencils.

Below you will find links to sites that show you how to make your own dough at home, learn more about insects and some free downloadable templates for inspiration.

Steps –

Wings – I am sure you have probably seen this classic symmetry activity. It’s the easiest and prettiest way to get pairs of wings for your insect.

fold a piece of paper in half
place paint, directly from bottle or tube, near the center crease of the paper.
add as many colors as you like but make sure you are using small amounts of paint. You don’t want the paint to leak out!
once you have all the paint colors you like, close the paper on the crease so it’s folded again
begin spreading out the paint in between the two halves of the paper.

You can see the paint faintly through the paper and can shape the wings by using your hands and spreading the paint. Open your paper and you have your wings!

In my project, I used an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of copy paper and once dry, was able to cut out 3 pairs of wings.

I also made a “bee” using paper and tape. It’s easy to mold paper into shapes and hold together using tape. You can watch me complete that little bee on the video.

Science Connection – Insects are some of the most interesting species on the planet. Here are some links to learn about the difference between insects, bugs and more –

Bug or Insect? , Facts About Bugs and Insects , Parts of an Insect, 14 of the World’s Wildest Insects

FREE downloadable templates – Beetle , Spider , Ladybug

Play dough and clay recipes – Recipe #1 , Recipe #2 , No cook Recipe #3

Here are some amazing insects that some of my students made using Model Magic, a template and cardboard.

Here’s one of my insect mash-ups – it’s an illustration I did for one of my favorite books, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.

Enjoy making your bugs and insects and I will be back with new art projects next week. Follow us on FB and Instagram for new videos!

Thanks for visiting and keep creating!

Patty

A Monoprint and an extra project!

Hello everyone!

Today we have 2 projects to explore, one that can be used over and over again and one that is unique and one of a kind.

Finger painting is a great activity for kids of all ages and adults too. It provides a wonderful sensory experience and promotes fine motor skills while providing a relaxing, creative activity. It’s not as popular as other art projects unfortunately because it is most definitely super messy. But what if I told you, you could finger paint without turning your hands (and maybe your furniture) into a paint palette? ?

Well you can, with some simple supplies!

No Mess Finger Painting

Supplies –

Plastic baggie (preferably Ziploc although you can tape the top of the baggie to prevent any paint squeezing out).
Paint – acrylic, tempera, washable paint is best. If you have no paint, you can mix up some instant pudding or use one of the recipes listed in the links below to make your own “paint”.
Your hands!
Optional – Q-Tips, end of paintbrush handle or pencil

Steps –

Pour paint into the plastic baggie. If the paint is too thick, mix it with a splash of water before you pour it into the baggie. Paint should not be too thin.
Carefully squeeze out all excess air before sealing bag. Add tape to the top to prevent any leaking.
Once your baggie is ready, you can use your fingers, Q -Tips, or the rounded end of the paintbrush handle or pencil eraser end to create designs.

clean fingerpainting baggie — This activity is great for learning about color mixing.

It’s fun to “paint” by removing, or “erasing” pigment instead of adding pigment, by moving the paint around and creating designs. This activity is also a wonderful way to explore elements of art such as color (primary and secondary colors) and negative space (the space around and between the subject of an image).

It’s super relaxing and fun to watch the colors mix and spread. Plus you can “erase” designs by gently rubbing and moving the paint around. You get a new canvas to create!

Our second project today is a MONOPRINT, a form of printmaking where the design or drawing can only be made once.

Supplies –

Cookie sheet or aluminum tray. I used a pizza tray today in my video, but I usually use disposable aluminum trays in my workshops. As long as your paint is non-toxic and water soluble you can always clean the tray after using.
Paint or a homemade substitute (see link below)
Mark making materials like Q-Tips, combs, fingers, plastic utensils etc.
Paint spreader – you can use a brush, stiff cardboard, paint roller or a brayer (if you have one!)
Paper

Steps –

Spread paint evenly onto the tray with your paint spreader. The paint should be opaque and smooth, a nice thin layer is best.
Use your mark making tools to create a design. Try to work quickly since the paint may begin to dry and that would prevent getting a good print.
Your design will be reversed, so remember that if you are using words.
Once your design is ready, place the paper on top and gently burnish (rub) the surface of the paper to transfer the design from the tray to the paper.
Pull the print – as you’ve seen in our previous videos, gently lift off the paper, starting at the top from the tray.

finished monoprint — Our finished Monoprint. The image will be reversed, so be mindful if you are using words.

As you can see above, some of my paint had started to dry so I ended up with a slightly uneven print. Sort of looks like a woodcut! This can also be called a reverse print because the design is made by the lines where there is no paint.

Here are some links to learn more about the elements of art and ways to make your own paint.

Favorite Homemade Paint Recipes

Elements of Art for grades 6-12

Free printable Elements of Art book for grades PK – 5

Be sure to visit, like and follow us on FB and Instagram for weekly project videos and read aloud story time for all ages. Contact Patty at eljaiekart@gmail.com to learn more about our professional development workshops, now available via Zoom and/or Google Hangouts.

Thanks for visiting and keep creating!

Patty

Collage of Chance

Hello everyone!

Today we will be exploring art and math by creating a collage made entirely by chance. Or was it?

This project is geared toward early childhood classes and young kiddos. It allows them to experiment and explore mathematical theories like probability. Although your little one may be too young to question whether randomness exists, we can certainly introduce them to the idea of making predictions and observing results using glue, yarn and paper!

Supplies –

paper, card stock, cardboard or any other surface you will use to be your canvas.
glue – liquid glue works best.
collage materials – I used different lengths and thicknesses of yarn, thread, rope and tape. You can also use different types of paper. You can even use dental floss!

Steps –

art is messy – make sure you spread newspaper or a plastic garbage bag on your work surface
lay your canvas down and cover with glue. I don’t paint the glue on because I’ve found that the collage materials need a thicker line of glue to adhere to the canvas.
the application of the glue can also be “random” by squeezing the glue bottle and moving your hand around the canvas or squeezing and letting the glue drip where it will .
once your canvas is covered to your liking, start by dropping your collage materials, one by one onto the canvas.
try dropping the yarn or paper close to the canvas, from farther away or even stand on a chair and drop them onto the canvas placed on the floor!

large collage — I used yarn, ribbon, paper strips and even duct tape to make my collage.

The idea is that the collage materials will land where gravity takes them and so the result will be a collage that is determined by chance and not by the purposeful placing of the materials.

Once your collage is dry, you can preserve it by covering it with clear plastic wrap or paint on a coat of watered down white glue.

2 finished collage — I covered my collage with Press ‘N Seal. You can cover the finished piece before the glue dries. Little hands love to pick off the materials before they are dry. Cut a piece a little bigger than the collage overlap and tape edges to the back.

Project Extensions –

can you predict where a piece of yarn or paper will land?
does the placement depend on how thick or thin the material is?
do you see any pattern in how the pieces landed or where they landed on the canvas?
if you use yarn and thread, once dry your collage makes for a great sensory experience too. The glue and yarn make interesting textures!

Art History – Jean (Hans) Arp was an artist that was part of the DADA movement. One of his most famous artworks is; Untitled (Collage with Squares Arranged according to the Laws of Chance).

You can learn more about Hans Arp and his technique here – MOMA Learning

I hope you are enjoying the projects and getting a chance to watch the videos at https://www.facebook.com/artoutofanything/

See you next week, on Tuesday, when we will be learning about Jackson Pollock!

Thanks for visiting and keep creating!

Patty

Drawing with Glue

You can watch the step by step video for this project at Art Out of Anything on FB and Instagram. New projects posted every week on Tuesday and Thursday!

Today’s project is an old favorite, with a new twist. In keeping with our motto of “work with what you have”, drawing with glue just got a little interesting.

Supplies –

white glue
paper – construction paper, card stock, cardboard or all of these
sand
glitter

Sand and glitter will be used as your pigments (colors). No sand? No glitter? You’ve got great powdered pigments right in your kitchen cabinets!

I used the following:

salt
sugar
pepper
condiments like onion powder, paprika, nutmeg, cinnamon, dry mustard, ground or instant coffee etc.

cups with powder pigment 2 — I put my powdered pigments into little plastic shot glasses, but you can use yours straight from the original containers too.

A great addition to this project is to have some music playing and “draw” to the music. Music and art are very good companions. It’s interesting to see how different kinds of music can inspire you and your kiddo to create.

You can start drawing a free hand design by letting the glue flow and drip from the bottle.

If you want to get a steadier line, place the tip of the glue bottle at an angle on the paper and use it like a pencil to draw.

Tap the container to control how much powdered pigment is added to the drawing.

You can use only one color at a a time for each drawing or you can use a variety of colors to get lines that fade into eachother. That’s my favorite technique.

Multi color on white paper

Give the glue a little time to dry so it doesn’t drip when you pour off the extra colors. Remember, the thicker the line the longer it will take to dry.

Once your piece is complete, be sure to save the excess pigment. Now you’ll have what I like to call, the very special Pre K Rainbow color mix that you can use for more projects 🙂

I’ve gotten a little fancy with my paper here and will use my Pre K Rainbow color mix as my pigment.

As you can see, there are so many different ways you can experiment with pigments and one of the most interesting results, is that you end up with a pretty fragrant work of art. See if you can find condiments that work well together in terms of their scents. Nutmeg, cinnamon and sugar might just inspire you to make a glue drawing of cupcakes or a pumpkin pie!

Resources and Project Extension – When I do this project in an Art Out of Anything workshop, I always start by introducing a popular art from from India called Rangoli. Here’s a link to the history of this beautiful art form, the traditional process and free templates to download to try your own – https://www.dltk-kids.com/world/india/mrangoli.htm

Once all of your amazing artwork is completely dry, shake off any excess pigment and if needed, carefully brush off any left over pigment with a soft paintbrush or tissue.

One last thing, no white glue? No problem, glue sticks work just fine too.

glue stick fish 13 — Glue sticks dry much faster than liquid glue so you have to work a little faster, this would be a good time to play some peppy music!

Thanks so much for visiting.

Keep creating,

Patty

Collagraphy and The Scientific Method

Hey all!

Today we are using the scientific method to determine which style of collagraph works best for printing.

A collagraph (sometimes spelled collograph) is a method of printmaking that involves adhering materials to a board or sturdy surface to build up a printing surface.

I decided to use the scientific method to explore different materials and printing pigments.

Observation – I have observed, by doing, that you can make prints (copies) of designs by using many different materials.
Questions – Can I make prints from cardboard, hot glue and foam sheets? Which pigment will make the best print; an ink pad, acrylic paint or lipstick?
Hypothesis – which combination of these materials will give me the most successful print?
Prediction – I think the hot glue will give me the cleanest print while the foam sheet will give me the best print all around. I think the cardboard will not give me a clear print. I also think the lipstick will give me the best color of all.
Test the prediction – I chose collagraphy as the printing technique to test my predication because I can use materials I have on hand.

TEST – you can watch the entire video of the process at https://www.facebook.com/artoutofanything/

Here’s a sneak peek of the process –

I used hot glue to create designs on a piece of cardboard. This does take a little practice as you have to make sure your design is raised and not flat. I also cut up a piece of adhesive backed foam sheet into an abstract design and adhered it to another piece of cardboard and then used cut up cardboard as another design. These will be my 3 printing plates.

Next, I experimented with 3 different pigments in the form of paint, lipstick and an ink pad. The amount of pigment placed on the printing plates is very important; too much and you get a gloppy, messy print, too little and you don’t get a clear print.

Here are the results. Which one do you think made the best print? Which print is clear, complete and clean? Was my hypothesis correct?

I used the ink pad on the cardboard plate

On the left plate I used lipstick. On the right plate I used acrylic paint

In my video, you can see some other techniques I tried while testing out my hypothesis!

You can also find some easy printmaking techniques in keeping with our motto “work with what you have”, at Tinkerlab.

Be sure to visit and follow me @artoutofanything on Instagram and FB.

Here’s the link again for the full length video – Collagraphs and The Scientific Method

Let’s see what other collagraphs you can come up with!

See you on Thursday and keep creating!

Thanks for visiting,

Patty

Math with Mondrian

$Mondrian math supplies$

Hey everyone!

Today I am working on my favorite art/math project! Using Piet Mondrian’s work to understand math is nothing new. His geometric masterpieces lend themselves to learning so many math concepts. Even as I was preparing my samples for today, I came up with a few new variations that I am looking forward to trying once we get back to the classroom!

Supplies – This is a list of only some of the materials I used. You can simplify or expand as you like. The more you experiment, the better!

Paper, scissors, construction paper, ruler, glue, colored pencils, markers, colored sand, paint, Popsicle sticks, cardboard, graph paper etc.

You can create your own version of a Mondrian using paper and pencil, colored pencil, markers etc. You can also make a textured Mondrian by using sand, glitter, pop sticks and cardboard.

Steps – using a straight edge, draw rectangles and squares on your canvas (drawing surface, cardboard). Refer to Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow for inspiration. Here’s a link to some more of his work and about the artist – Mondrian for Kids – Slideshare

Once you have filled your canvas with the composition, choose your colors and add them. As you can see, the artist left white space and always used bold black lines to break up the canvas. Of course, you can be as creative as you like and add different colors too, just not green. Do you know why Mondrian didn’t use the color green?

Math activities – apart from the obvious geometry found in Mondrian’s work, we also see perpendicular lines, straight lines, intersecting and parallel lines. There is definitely one super easy math concept that your Mondrian inspired work can help you learn.

Finding the Area of a square or rectangle–

Supplies – graph paper ( print some out here free printable graph paper online), colored pencils, markers of crayons, ruler or any straight edge.

Steps – draw your Mondrian inspired artwork directly on the graph paper. before you color in your shapes, challenge yourself to find the area by counting the squares up (vertical) and across (horizontal) of the squares and rectangles. You can multiply (area = length x width or width x height) or even count each square in the shape. Here is a fun link to use for practice – Square Area Interactive.

Mondrian has inspired so many math activities and you can see a few of them at the links below, and enjoy some other math activities with artists like Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso!

Math with Mondrian, Calder and more

Here’s a really tough one to challenge yourself! –

Advanced Mondrian Math Puzzles

I’d love to see your Mondrian inspired work and how you extended this activity.

Google Arts and Culture App – Mondrian Composition with Grid #1

The Google Arts and Culture app has so many activities available that it’s impossible to list everything! Their content also changes so be sure to check it out the link quick!!

Be sure to check out the video for this project and post your creations @artoutofanything on FB and Instagram.

See you next week , stay healthy and create!

Patty

DIY – Mural Wall

Happy Tuesday!

Today’s video features a very popular activity in my house – drawing on the wall!

No, I am not advocating drawing on walls BUT there is a way for your little ones to be able to feel a little subversive while keeping your walls clean.

There are also wonderful muralists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring that can inspire you. Excellent, age appropriate resources on these wonderful artists, just for kids, can be found here –

https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Jean-Michel-Basquiat/628054

Radiant Child – youtube

Who is Keith Haring? – Tate Kids

Visit @artoutofanything on FB or Instagram for the complete video how-to.

Here’s what you will need to make your very own “mural” –

Paper – any paper including, but not limited to; construction paper, copy paper, wrapping paper, drawings that have outgrown the fridge, old magazines, paper bags, recycling etc.

Tape – masking tape, scotch tape, first aid tape – you get the idea.

A wall – I used the wall in my studio next to the guest bed (formerly my son’s room), but you can use any wall in your home that is easily accessible.

Things to draw with – the usual suspects will work, but why not try out something new like old lipstick or chalk dipped in water for a new experience?

Using things other than for their intended purpose, allows you and your kiddos to be creative thinkers and explore different approaches to problem solving. These are very important skills that are beneficial to understanding traditional subjects and navigating through life.

Process –

Attach all the paper together with tape so it resembles a quilt. You can make it as long and as wide (high) as you like.
Tape the paper “quilt” to the wall. Experiment with taping it higher on the wall or lower.
Begin your mural! Have you ever noticed how children tend to draw small images, regardless of how big the canvas is? Encourage your child to experiment with scale/size and create larger images. What happens when the paper is high on the wall and they stand to draw as opposed to when the paper is low on the wall and they can sit and draw? What do they enjoy most?

This mural wall can be left up for children to add to whenever they need a break or feel like adding some drawings to it. This is a very popular activity at our summer camp, we usually end up with at least 5 or 6 collaborative murals by the end of the season.

In keeping with out motto – “work with what you have” we have also found a great use for our completed murals. Once the paper is full of your stunning artwork, you can take it down and use it as a tablecloth or drop cloth for more art play. You can also cut it up and frame smaller pieces of it or make cards out of them! Why not experiment with using an old tablecloth or sheet instead of paper?

A brand new mural wall is then only a few minutes and some paper and tape away 🙂

Have fun, stay safe and follow us on FB and Instagram @artoutofanything for more videos and activities.

Keep creating,

Patty