WELCOME BACK TO ART IS AWESOME!

Week 3

John James Audubon

Even as a child, John James Audobon was fascinated with birds.  His father encouraged his interest by pointing out the elegent movement of the birds and the beauty and softness of their feathers.

At the age of 18 he moved to an area in New York that he considered "paradise" because of the hunting and fishing that were so close by.  He studied his surroundings carefully.  He spent much time roaming and painting in the woods.   He attempted to paint one page everyday.

He put together a collection of his paintings in a book called "Birds of America".  It contains drawings of slightly more than 700 North American birds.  He also did a book on mammels later in his life.

He mostly worked with watercolors but also added colored chalk and pastels.

You can read more about John James Audubon at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Audubon

Your Audubon art project

Materials:

Catch a bug, butterfly or something else you'd like to draw

Put it in a clear jar with some foil over the top.  Punch air holes in the top with a toothpick or something small

Paper

Colored pencils, crayons, markers, or paint

Pencil

Project:

Observe the critter closely.  Notice colors, shapes, and details.

Draw the critter on paper using the whole page.  Add as much detail as you can

Use your crayons, colored pencils, markers, or paint to add color to your drawing.

When you are done observing the critter, you can let it go close to where you caught it.

Audubon liked to give his drawings a name and record the date.  Name your drawing and add the date and any other details you want to remember.  

Here are some Audubon art projects from the Young at Art team:

"Rainbow Centipede"   Kellan, Age 4

"Mystery Bug"     Emmett, Age 6

"Firelight"    Levi, Age 9

"Widow Bite"   Paden, Age 7

This is the perfect time of year to go bug hunting!!

Please send us images of your drawings, we would love to see them!
Join us next week for more art education and fun projects!

Bonus Points for Parents:

"As kids manipulate a paintbrush, their fine motor skills improve. By counting pieces and colors, they learn the basics of math. When children experiment with materials, they dabble in science. Most important perhaps, when kids feel good while they are creating, art helps boost self-confidence. And children who feel able to experiment and to make mistakes feel free to invent new ways of thinking, which extends well beyond the craft room."   parents.com

youngatart2015@gmail.com

young-at-art.com

facebook.com/youngatart2015

instagram.com/weareyoungatart
etsy.com/shop/weareyoungatart

WELCOME BACK TO

ART IS AWESOME!!!

We hope you enjoyed last weeks project with Norman Rockwell and now you are ready for a really fun assignment in week 2!

Artist:  WAYNE THIEBAUD

Imagine your very favorite treat.  Could you paint a picture of it?

Wayne Thiebaud is an artist best-known for his paintings of colorful yummy food.

He worked as a commercial artist in advertising and for a short time he was a cartoonist for Walt Disney Studios.   He also painted landscapes but is most well known for his paintings of pies, cakes, pastries, toys, and machines. 

This style of art is known as Pop Art and was very popular in the 1960's, but Thiebaud considered himself "just an old fashioned painter."

Thiebaud also taught in colleges and universities in California.  

His work inspired other artists to look at common objects in new ways.

Project materials:

paper

pencil

watercolor paints and brush

choice of food extracts or flavorings like vanilla, peppermint, or almond

choice of flavored powder mixes like jello or koolaid

sprinkles

Project:

On a sheet of paper, draw your favorite treat.  Draw it large enough to fill most of the paper.  Keep the shapes simple

Fill several different containers with water for painting.  Put a different flavoring or mix into each container.  Add a drop of vanilla to one, a drop of mint to the next a spoonful of jello to another and so on.  Enjoy the smells!  What treats do they remind you of?

Use watercolors mixed with the scented waters to paint your drawing. But DON"T DRINK! :)

After the painting is finished and completely dry, glue on sprinkles to decorate

Here are some projects by members of our Young at Art team

Levi - Age 9

"Cookie Yummy" - Kellan - Age4

Emmett - Age 6

"Together Forever" - Miles - Age 10

"Gumballs and a donut" - Paden - Age 7

Aubrey - Age 12

We hope you have fun with this project!  

Besides your favorite treat, look around at other objects

and find other things you can draw and paint.  Notice shapes and 

notice colors.

We would love to see your projects!!

Bonus Points for Parents:

Encouraging kids to do art projects helps them practice problem-solving skills and critical-thinking skills.  They discover that there can be more than one right answer and multiple points of view.

Good job parents!!

See you next week!

youngatart2015@gmail.com

young-at-art.com

instagram.com/weareyoungatart

Facebook.com/youngatart2015

etsy.com/shops/weareyoungatart

Thanks for joining us for our very first week of Art is Awesome!!

This week we are learning about an artist named 

NORMAN ROCKWELL

one of the most beloved American artists.

Norman's grandfather was an English artist, Thomas Hill, who specialized in very  detailed animal drawings.  Norman's father liked to copy illustrations from magazines, and would pull up a chair for Norman to do it with him.  As a boy, Norman was very thin and awkward.  His pigeon-toed feet caused him to wear corrective shoes at the age of ten, and glasses at twelve--giving him the nickname "Moony".  Poor at sports, he found he could entertain his friends through his art.  When he was just five years old, other boys played with store-bought ships to have naval battles.  Since he couldn't afford them, Norman cut some of his own out of cardboard and painted them.  They became so popular, other boys asked him to make some for them!

He had his first paying assignment by the time he was sixteen.  By the age of nineteen he was the art director for Boy's Life magazine.  His first cover of Saturday Evening Post appeared in 1916, when he was just twenty-two.  He got the job with the help of his roommate who was already doing cartoons for the magazine.  Over the next forty years he did 321 covers for the magazine.  You can see more of his work at

www.nrm.org

PROJECT:

Design and draw your own magazine cover.  Your magazine can be about anything that interests you:  art, sports, cooking, animals, etc.

Your magazine cover should have:

Title of the magazine

Featured artwork or photo

Titles of a story or feature

Date

MATERIALS:

Any kind of paper

Crayons or colored pencils (you can even paint it if you want!)

Here are some magazine covers created by three members of our 

Young at Art team!

 Aubrey, age 12

 Levi, age 9

Emmett, age 6

We hope you enjoy learning about Norman Rockwell and we would love to see the magazine cover you create!  Email us a photo, we'd love to post it on our 

Facebook page!

BONUS POINT FOR PARENTS:

The New York Center for Arts Education lists many benefits for giving children opportunities to create art.  Just a few benefits are:

Your child learns to think creatively with an open mind

Your child learns to observe and describe, analyze and interpret

Your child practices problem-solving skills and critical thinking skills

Not bad!! 

Watch for more benefits next week!

Please feel free to forward

youngatart2015@gmail.com

young-at-art.com

instagram.com/weareyoungatart

facebook.com/youngatart2015

etsy.com/shop/weareyoungatart