Pastels

I decided to introduce Hannah to pastel's last week, and wow did she take to them! I like to give my children an opportunity to explore different art mediums without an agenda or project to complete - at least at first. This allows them to have a more relaxing and enjoyable experience - no stress, no expectations.

She's been asking to use these on a daily basis since then.

Pastel's are great when used on a slightly textured paper (we used newsprint - super inexpensive and available at most arts/craft stores, and VERY large). The colors are vibrant, and easily blended and smudged together.

If you want to keep a semi-clean toddler while doing this, give them a play shirt and have a damp towel on hand.

Take Care!

-Lisa

My Love of Vine Charcoal

When I was younger, I was never without this adorable little cow tin you see below. I found this during a trip to Switzerland back in high school.

See! I loved cows back then too!

It wasn't so much the tin, but what I kept inside of it. My vine charcoal, and a kneaded eraser. Oh my, vine charcoal is by far my favorite tool to work with. Everything just looks so good when you draw with it. It's so forgiving, and easily blended. Different amounts of pressure give you different results in color depth. You can go in with a kneaded eraser and add perfect highlights. It really is my favorite.

So it is sad to me, that I have let so many years go by without using it. I thought I had lost this tin box in our last move. When I was digging to the bottom of my portfolio case for pastels, I felt an odd buldge in a side pocket. I reached down in there and pulled out this tin - you would have thought I struck gold - seriously I was that excited. Poor Austin thought something really cool was going on. Nope, sorry buddy, just your goofy mom flipping over some charcoal.

And of course, as soon as I could (hello nap time!), I rushed outside to my favorite spot and started drawing everything I could see.



I'm a little rusty, it's been almost a decade since I picked up a piece of this stuff. But it felt soooo good. Something tells me this won't be the last charcoal post you see here.


Have a great day everyone!

2D Perspective Drawing

Most of my posts so far have been directed toward younger children, so I'm going to try and include at least one project a week for the 12 and older crowd.

The pictures above show a mid point for the object and an almost finished point for the object.

Perspective drawing really is not that complicated once you have a firm grasp of the basics. I think this exercise is one of the best beginner's projects you can do to get the hang of it.

What you need:

Paper

Pencil (I used a charcoal pencil for this example so it would be dark enough to see)

Ruler

1. Using your ruler, draw a straight horizontal line across the paper anywhere above the midpoint. An inch or two above the midpoint is usually a good height. This is your horizon line.

2. Draw your object below the horizon line. I would suggest either a square or a rectangle to keep it simple.

3. Choose an area on your horizon line either to the right or the left of your object and make a dot. An inch or two from the edge of the paper works really well for your first try. This is going to be your starting point for all of your connecting lines.

4. Put your pencil on the dot, and use your ruler to draw a straight line from the dot to one of the top corners of your object. Do the same for the other top corner, and again for either the lower right or left corner depending on where your dot is (ex. if the dot it to the right of the object, connect to the lower right corner).

5. Now, take your ruler and draw a straight horizontal line across the top of your object, but higher than the original line. The edge of this line will be the starting point for your vertical line, make sure it's straight and connect.

6. You should have what appears to be a 2 dimensional object with lines extending out of it (the top photo), just erase those stray marks and you're done!

Please let me know if this tutorial was helpful, or if you think a video clip may have been easier.

If you like what you see here, please forward this to your friends.

Come back tomorrow for another momma craft - we're making cloth napkins from things you probably already have around the house.