Bad Hair Day

There is no specific artist to focus on with this session, but I hope that a simple starting point will lead to lots of exploration.

You can take this idea in many, many directions. First of all we need to decide if it's bad or "bad" in a Michael Jackson kinda way!

This is where the idea formed. Albert Einstein always seemed to have wonderfully 'wild' hair. Someone decided to combine that with mathematical and geometric patterns to give him a Bad Hair Day.

I liked that, so looked for other ideas... something pretty or whimsical,

or self expressive

Here's how to get started:

You will need
A sketchbook or paper
Scissors and glue
colouring pencils, felt tips, markers or drawing pens
and a face...
Use a photocopy or print of a photograph of yourself, if drawing a self portrait is daunting.
Alternatively use a picture from a magazine or newspaper. It could be someone famous or just a person with an interesting face or expression.
Trim all the real hair off the picture and glue the 'bald' head onto a corner of your page.
Then, give that person some 'bad' hair. Let your imagination run wild.

Extension ideas

Incorporate a dream into the hair
The lyrics from a song or words from a poem
Make the hair entirely from words
Make your hair 'all about me'
Try out some 'alternative' hairstyles or colours for yourself
Fill your hair with your heart's desires/ goals or plans


Here are some of my first experiments

Tiger Tiger!

Henri Rousseau (1844 – 1910) was a French artist did not start painting until he was in his 40’s. Ridiculed during his life, he came to be recognized as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality. He tried to paint in the schooled manner of the traditional artists, but it was the innocence and charm of his work that won him the admiration of many avant-garde artists such as Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso. Rousseau's loving attention to detail that made him an exceptional artist. 

We shall use Rousseau “Surprised, storm in the forest”  and "Equatorial Jungle" as the inspiration for our pictures.

• Henri Rousseau only started painting seriously when he was in in his forties.
• He was a self-taught painter and, as a result, his work is often described as naive or child-like.
• Rousseau became a full-time artist at the age of 49.
• He was an accomplished violin player, and he often supplemented his income by playing as a street musician.
• Although some of Rousseau’s most well-known paintings are of jungle scenes, he never set foot in a jungle. Instead, he took his inspiration from the Jardin des Plantes (botanical gardens) in Paris and illustrations in books.
• Pablo Picasso was an admirer of Henri Rousseau and he held a banquet to honour the artist. Rene Magritte was also impressed by Rousseau’s work.

We are going to focus on a Tiger's head peeping through the jungle foliage. Here are some photos real tigers for inspiration.

You will need

• Pre-painted paper or collage paper in lots of greens
• Sugar paper for the background
• oil pastels or wax crayons
• scissors and glue

First draw your tiger's head with oil pastels onto a coloured background, green or beige work well. Then cut out foliage from collage paper and glue it around the edge of your paper. If you only glue the edges, the leaves will curl and look more realistic.

Here's what we did.

Rooster Portraits!

"Le Coq' by Picasso

Rather than repeating what another HomeEd blogger has already written, here is the link to the blog where the idea came from.

Rumriver Art Centre

There are lots more wonderful art ideas on the blog. Let me know if you fancy any of them for future sessions

Cupcakes!

We are being inspired by the edible looking paintings of Wayne Thiebaud.

Although he is most famous for his paintings of food, he also paints everyday objects, landscapes and people.

Here's an info sheet for your sketchbooks.

Here are a couple of nice YouTube videos about Thiebaud. Here and Here

Activities

Use lots of different coloured paper to make a cupcake collage. Decorate it with all your favourite toppings.

Using chalk pastels on black sugar paper, draw a cup cake. Use a dark and light version of each colour, keeping the light colours all on the same side. This will help to make your cake look 3D and will look like the light is shining on it from one side. Don't forget to add a white or very pale pink highlight to your cherry to make it look shiny.

Easter Ideas

Here are a couple of lovely 'Spring' or Easter art and craft ideas, that are a wee bit too dangerous to do at the library!

Shaving foam marbled eggs.

Yarn Easter Eggs
you'll need to scroll down to find them.

Warm and Cool Colours

Understanding how colours are mixed and the effect they can have on each other is an essential skill for a budding artist.

We talked about 'Primary" colours, those which we cannot make by mixing two other colours. The 'Secondary" colours made by mixing 2 primary colours together and then decided which were 'warm' and which were 'cool'.

We used chalk pastels to make coloured spots of our warm and cool colours, then turned them into creatures. Here is my example. The children were far more creative with their creatures!

The main task was to create an abstract or simple seascape using our warm and cool colours. We used the chalk pastels onto sugar paper and fixed them with a little hairspray.

The Tree of Life, Klimt

In this session we will be looking at the more symbolic and decorative work by Klimt as a contest to the birch trees.

The children will be recreating the tree from The Tree of Life, Stoclet Frieze 1909.

The patterns and decoration from 'The Kiss' and 'Adele Bloch Bauer 1' can form a great inspiration for wax resist work. Use metallic crayons or oil pastels to create the patterns and shapes, then wash over some watercolour or thin poster paint.
or

Make printing blocks from potato in squares, rectangles, circles and triangles. Use metallic paint to create patterns on a coloured background.

Here is the link on Deep Space Sparkle for this lesson.

Birch Trees and Klimt

Although the Klimt paintings are not the original inspiration for this session, I thought it was a great way to introduce his landscapes.

Birch in a Forest 1903

 

Buchenhain 1902

Farmhouse with birch trees 1903

He is most famous for the highly decorative paintings on which he used gold leaf.

For those who missed the session, here is the link to used for the idea. Deep Space Sparkle

Gustav The Giraffe

One of our first sessions was looking at collage and pattern. The inspiration was a picture called Gustav the Giraffe by Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson.

She is an American collage artist. Unlike most collage artists, who 'find' the paper for their work, she creates her own. She uses paint and printing to transform old text, music manuscript and textured paper. These are then layered onto a base painting.
You can see her work here

We drew a giraffe and used coloured paper to make the blotches of the markings. We then added patterns onto each patch.

 The more experienced artists drew the giraffes and using pens patterned the patches making them 'darker' in value near the bottom and paler near the head, like these.

Tottington Library Art Group

Welcome to the place to find out what art sessions will be coming up.

Our next session will be based on Kandinsky and in particular his painting Colour Study- Squares and Concentric Circles (1913)
We will be doing a collage based on this work, so you will need to bring scissors and glue. I have heaps of coloured paper for the children to use.