Today’s Story Time read aloud was “The Rainbow Goblins” by Ul de Rico. This is a stunningly illustrated book that tells the story of the Valley of the Rainbows and the greedy goblins who want to steal all the beautiful colors.
Rainbows are magical and even the scientific explanation for their origin is the stuff of wonder. Light streaming through water molecules at just the right angle to bend light? Amazing. White light that actually carries the spectrum of colors? Incredible. Nature and science really are magic and so is art.
You can watch the read aloud video and see how I created the mini rainbows above at Sea of Visibility on FB.
Rothko was an abstract artist who expressed emotions with color. he also tried to make viewers feel certain emotions only using color.
When I was playing with lipstick, eye shadow and nail polish to blend and combine colors, I was reminded of Mark Rothko’s abstract color paintings. Just trying out different color combinations and blending the different pigments together made me happy. I thought I knew what result I would get but was pleasantly surprised every time.
Here are two great sites to visit to learn more about the artist Mark Rothko and to make your own rainbow experiments.
No paint at home? No problem! You can make dyes and paint at home using vegetable scraps and fruit. In one of my previous videos, Drawing with Glue, I showed you how to use condiments like turmeric, paprika and cinnamon as pigments, today we’ll be using food!
** Be sure to have help from a grownup because there is some boiling water involved**
In today’s video available at these links – on FB and Instagram you’ll see how you can use carrot, beet, lemon and blackberry dyes to make a bubble painting, straw painting and a funky texture painting.
I have included the link to download a wonderful picture tutorial from http://meyamo.com/ that I followed to make these dyes.
I didn’t have any powdered sugar, so I left that out. This gave me a paint that is very close to watercolor and I was able to use the same techniques I use with watercolor paint.
Supplies–
Orange carrots, purple carrot, frozen beets, blackberries and lemon
Watercolor paper – you will need sturdy paper. If you don’t have card stock or watercolor paper, I suggest gluing a few pages of copy paper together or gluing copy paper to a piece of cardboard. This will prevent the paint from soaking into the paper completely.
This is a great use for any older fruits and vegetable scraps you have. You can also use any jars or plastic containers you’ve been saving or have in the recycling pile to store your paint for future paintings.
Finished bubble painting
Finished straw painting.
Texture created with salt on beet paint
The concentration of color depends on how much water is added to the fruit and vegetables. Although the color may be very light at first, it does dry darker and once your first layer of paint is dry you can add more to make your color more vibrant.
Make the straw painting by dropping puddles of paint on the paper with a brush or spoon and blowing the paint around, producing some really abstract designs.
Adding salt to the wet paint will give you an interesting texture. See how the texture changes by adding more or less. Once dry, brush or tap off the salt and see what your texture looks like.
If you don’t have any paintbrushes, you can also use a cotton ball or a make up sponge! This sponge gave me 3 sides to get interesting prints from.
Make up sponge as paintbrush/stamp.
Sponge prints using carrot and beet paint
As you can see, there are many ways to experiment with your natural dyes. What other kind of natural paint has been used throughout history?
Here are some links to more resources about that –
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!
Finished “butterfly wings” symmetry.
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.
Butterfly using a shish kabob stick
Bee using paper and tape
Dragonfly using a straw
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 –
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 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.
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.
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!
Today was the first day of our “Work with what you have” video series! You can visit us @artoutofanything on FB for the full video.
Nail Polish Marbleizing explores science and art concepts by focusing on surface tension and the Japanese art of Suminagashi, with which you can create beautiful designs by using ink and water.
Working with what you have in this case means using nail polish instead of ink.
Here are some fantastic websites that explain it all in more detail:
Geeky Nail Polish – a fun post about nail polish marbleizing for your actual nails with some really good follow up questions and answers from scientists!
Suminagashi.com – all you need to know about this beautiful art form.
Be sure to watch my video @artoutofanything on FB for the how to’s and be sure to follow and post your own versions of nail polish marbleizing. I would love to see what you come up with!
artoutofanything.com 