Friday, August 14, 2015

Fall art classes now enrolling

The fall session is now posted on the classes page. Be sure to check it out and sign up soon. Classes are very small and fill up quickly. 

It has been a beautiful hot summer in Seattle! Luckily our studio is in the shade and stayed lovely and cool for summer camps and private classes.  Here's a small sampling of what we got up to this summer:



 Acrylic on canvas still life studies...




"Henri Rousseau" inspired oil pastels featuring "Poofy" our pet chicken....




Hydrangeas from the garden, acrylic on canvas




Still life with Chocolate lab...


Charcoal Poofy Portraits ...




garden lilies...



a quick "Kandinsky" warm up...


Oil pastel Sunflowers


Time for self portraits...






Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Painting lessons and summer camps

Summer camps are filling up. Please check the classes and page and sign up soon!


To keep things fun I love to ask the kids what they want to work on.
Here is what one of my 5th grade students has been up to.





Jalen wanted to do a painting in perspective, specifically with a road that vanishes.  We started this painting by first doing a lesson on drawing bird houses in 1 point and 2 point perspective.  This painting to 3 one hour sessions to complete! It is a classic lesson. We decided to leave out the shadows to focus on the trees and the road.  


"Lets do something abstract!" Composition is talked about in every lesson, its especially important when working on a an abstract piece.





 The cherry blossoms were in full bloom! Any excuse to have them in the studio!



Monday, March 30, 2015

Life drawing with chicken

The "Poofy SessionsIts always a popular day when we bring Poofy into the studio to model! 8x10, chalk pastels on black matt board. Students range  in age from 7-10.









Thursday, March 12, 2015

Self Portraits

Love, love, love how the oil pastel self portraits turned out!

 
students are 7-10 years old...
  love the background!




This project takes 2 one hour sessions to complete. During the first session we draw our self portraits in pencil on black paper. The second session is all about oil pastels. The pencil lines are traced over with a black pastel, then the flesh tones are added and blended with a white pastel, followed by the hair and the background. A final black outline is added to give the finished drawing some contrast. 

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Abstract paintings inspired by Kandinsky

Abstraction in the studio this week.  We talked about Wassily Kandinsky and then dove right in!



 







Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Seattle skyline art project



I recently had a request for more detailed instructions on this version of the Seattle skyline project.  I work better under pressure, I have a general idea of what I want to do and usually throw together the master plan together 1/2 an hour before I go into the class! But here's how it comes together.

I gave the canvas a quick coat of blue and white to create the sky and penciled in the Seattle skyline. 


I had some random rectangle shapes precut from the Seattle Times, I used a variety of sizes of text and color. The kids then cut some more shapes using mine as a size reference. They added smaller blocks and triangles on some of tops of the buildings. We used an acrylic gloss medium for glue. Paint a layer just larger than the building, put the building in place and brush again with the medium. Be sure to smooth it with the brush.


The kids filled in paying attention to the pencil outline of the skyline. Overlapping is encouraged to suggest the density of the buildings. The newspaper text will suggest windows and the different shades of the concrete buildings when its finished.


I mixed acrylic gloss medium (any brand, found with acrylic paints) and just a bit of acrylic paint to make very transparent colors. Do not add water, it will make the paint dull. The tinted medium adds another layer and dimension the buildings. The kids drew through the wet paint with the backs of the brushes to make windows on the buildings, or outlines.  I painted Mount Rainer in the background to finish it off. 


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