Grid Design for Sketchbook Cover

The 3rd/4th grade class used a grid format to design their sketchbook cover.  I am loving using grids in my personal artwork.  I am doing a series of grid mixed media paintings which you can see here, here and here, and oh yeah here too.  

To prepare for this lesson, I drew a 1 inch square grid on a piece of 8.5" x 11" piece of paper.  Then, I photocopied it for the class.  Here's a trick.. if you cut down construction paper to an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper, it can go in the bypass tray of a copy machine.  It took me several years of teaching to figure that out!  

Then, the students found the letters of their name in magazines and put them on the grid.  Then, they added designs and other magazine clippings to the rest of the grid.  There were a few kids who were resistant to the magazine letter thing, so I let them draw their name with markers.  I think it's important to let the kids branch off if they have a strong desire and vision to do something else. 

I find it easier to be creative when there is a set structure already in place.  That's probably why I'm drawn to the grid format.

Isn't this the cutest koala EVER!?

Sketchbook Covers for Kids

It has been a busy 2 weeks and a rough transition back to school.  The actual "school" part has been just fine.  The problems have been with coordinating my schedule and "life balance."  I will talk about that more at the end of this post, but first I will show you some pretty pictures.

We have been making sketchbook covers from donated file tab dividers.  My sister-in-law works in medical records and they were transferring everything over to digital, so they did not need all these file tab dividers anymore.  Of course, as an art teacher, I will take the free donations!  So I have lots and lots of boxes of these great cardstock papers.  They are two hole punched already and each have a colored tab with something printed on them (like "allergy" or "inpatient admissions").  I showed the kids how they could either just leave the tab on or they could snip it off with scissors.  It is fun to see the kids get excited and say, "OOH I got a pink allergy tab!  What does yours say?"  Some of the kids were collecting the snipped off tabs.  Anyways... so my plan is to use these sheets as our sketchbooks.  They are thick enough to take paint pretty well.  Since they are already hole punched, we are going to collect our drawings in envelopes and then bind them with rings at the end.

Here are some of the cover assignments I gave:

Kindergarten Color Collage:
Find shades of one color in a magazine, cut out and glue to make a collage.

 

 

Second Grade Circle Prints
Use cylindrical objects (like a toilet paper tube or souffle cup), dip in black paint and stamp on paper.  Let dry, then color in with markers. Thank you, Katie Morris for sharing this idea!

 

Look at the thumbprints added to this picture.  Creative!

More sketchbook covers to come soon.

So back to the "life-work balance thing".  The first week back was hard because my almost-3-year-old did not want to go back to daycare and did not want to go to sleep at night.  She would rather spend all day playing with ME, of course!  One day, she tells me, "I don't want to go to Mary's house because she has alligators there.  The alligators bite me!"  When we get to daycare, I ask her to show me the alligators.  She brings out these two stuffed alligator baby toys and gets all excited.  I think she's just trying to make me feel guilty.  I tell her, "Momma's going to school," and she says, "I want to go to school with YOU."   Then, this week, she has been sick most of the week, not going to bed well, waking up coughing several times a night and so forth.  Last night I got about 3 hours of sleep, which makes it very difficult to get ready in the morning.  It's like having a newborn all over again!   She appears to be getting better, so hopefully I will be able to sleep a bit tonight.

How's YOUR year starting?  I hope you are having a good transition.

Art Camp Sketchbook

aww thanks...

Aww I feel so special. ReArtingDotNet Blog like my journal page enough to put it on their Mosaic Monday post.  Mine is the first one with the apples and orange background.  Lots of pretty pictures....

Sketchbook Pages

Sketchbook Pages

These are two pages I made while "taking" the online Strathmore Visual Journaling Course.  Pam Carriker led us through the process of using photocopies of some of our old collages, cutting them up and adding layers of gesso and paint prints.  The top one uses portions of old collages and the bottom page does not.  With the bottom page, I started by painting circular shapes with watercolor paints.  I did some writing with white pens and smears of chalk pastels.  The black lines are made with a thin Sharpie paint pen.

I am reading this book called "Circle of Simplicity" which is above more simple, mindful living and trying to back away from the lure of consumption.  It is a fascinating book which really has started to resonate with me as I have become more and more disgusted by consumer culture/advertising/tv.  I am lured into things (such as fun cameras), but on the other hand it seems every time I turn around I read about someone buying something else they don't need (like on facebook).  We are obsessed with our gadgets, tvs, computers, buying more and using more.  Anyways, this book is about trying to break away from that.  Not totally denying consumer culture or pop culture, but trying to really think more deeply about everything we buy and use and how we spend our time.  So the words on the collage above are inspired from that book and e.e. cummings.  "Today is the sun's birthday!"  I love that line..  it's about embracing the day and the life.  HE is all around us.  above and below and all around. 

Crusade #47

Another challenge I recently discovered is Michelle Ward's street team crusade.  There is a new technique every month and then you post your results.  This month the challenge is "It's a Wrap".  You are supposed to incorporate wrapping paper, tags or cards into your artwork.  This is some Christmas wrapping paper, combined with my own drawing and painting.

Overall, for an experiment I am fine with how they turned out.  I would like to have been able to glue down the wrapping paper without it wrinkling.  Plus, the wrapping paper on the bottom two are kind of cutesy, but that's all we had left!  :)   On the first one, I tried to replicate the swirly patterns from the wrapping paper using watercolor.

Sketchbook Pages

"highly prized" drawings for the Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Pages

This last one will have text added to it later probably.

Sketchbook Page

watercolor sketchbook page

Sketchbook Pages

I'm following along with the Strathmore Visual Journaling Workshops and here a few of the pages I created so far.  The first workshop is about taking copies of your previous artwork and cutting them up and reusing them on your journal pages.  There are blank spaces left because I think she will be talking about writing and doodling next.

Sketchbook Challenge

I'm following the Sketchbook Challenge blog, as well as a couple online Strathmore Journaling Workshops.  The theme of January for the Sketchbook Challenge is "Highly Prized".  What is most prized to you?  To me, I started drawing scenes from around my home, which is the most prized thing in my life.  Just sitting on the couch, petting my dog, watching my baby girl play on the floor is the most enjoyable part of my day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and just another doodle

Here is Daria (age 14 months) scribbling in my sketchbook.  She LOVES to color!

Bohemian Shadows: zendoodling

When I taught middle school art, one of the sketchbook assignments I had the kids complete was a page of doodling. They looked very much these. Bohemian Shadows blog gives a nice tutorial for this type of doodling. There are also books and workshops with the name "Zentangles" (not by Bohemian Shadows).. they coined the name which is basically just a glorified name for doodling. Anyways.... I think this year I will print out some examples for my elementary students for them to work on when they are finished with a main project. It would be cool for them to make these as an ongoing project.. maybe a book of sorts or a large fold-out artwork?

Bohemian Shadows: zendoodling