Rainy Day Art

Here is the kids latest artwork. We use Atelier Arts for our art program, which I really like. The instruction is all dvd, plus I have a teacher's manual for extra info but I can basically pop in the video and the kids watch and learn. It's cool because the teacher is in an art room teaching other children at varying ages. They can see other examples of art work and I like that they didn't bring in perfect little artists, so my kids can see that art isn't about being perfect. I hang around to pause now and again and to provide encouragement. Joe is really digging it but I can tell art is not Payton's favorite subject. She doesn't think she's good at it, it doesn't look right, blah blah blah. Joe doesn't seem to care about perfection as much, which surprises me because he tends to be the more perfectionist of the two. Just goes to show you can't pre-judge. Anyway it'll be interesting to see if Payton's confidence grows as we do more. We've been hitting a pretty good groove lately in getting things done earlier (schoolwork). So hopefully we'll be able to find the time to squeeze in art a little more frequently. Anyway the assignment was exploring mixed media with the subject being a rainy day. Perfect because it was one. They used a watercolor wash for the back ground and cut out silhouettes for the figures. They were allowed to add detail with marker. The silhouettes were hard because they needed to be free form-just cut away, no drawing things out first. They turned out pretty good, although I can tell that the photo doesn't quite bring out the colors as they are in person.
















This is Payton's. There are two trees, a house and a guy walking carrying an umbrella. It's hard to see but she drew an owl family in the hole of the tree in ink.
















This one is Joe's. I liked how he had the rain drip off the umbrellas. He wasn't sure how he felt about the one tree, he thought it looked more like a cross (which it does) but he decided to use it anyway.
















I decided to get in on the action too. Mine is more of a winter scene/aurora borealis. I showed them how adding salt to the watercolors makes it look like snow or really big raindrops. Those darn free form trees were hard. I had fun, forgot how much I enjoy watercolors. May have to hunt down the old paints and brushes.