Judith and Her Maidservant, Artemisia Gentileschi

10,252. Thinking about Trail of Shadows and how I don’t want it to become another A Lamentation of Swans–one rock around my neck is enough, thank you. I’ve decided to stick with my original tactic. Each time I sit down to write, my goal is to answer this question: “What happens in this chapter?” That’s how I wrote Chapters 1 and 2 of ToS. Now I’m at Chapter 3 and I want to keep moving. No stopping and sobbing in place. Starting August 1, 2 pages a day.

William Godward

The Signal, John William Godward

10,252. Saturday! It’s about time! So glad I don’t have to get up and go anywhere today. Last night I worked on the Trail of Shadows outline, asking myself questions, questions, questions, and today the questions continue. They’re endless. The only thing missing is a bright light and the threat of water torture, but I’m definitely tied to the chair.

Pastel Scratchboards

Here is a project grade 2 did last week.

It comes from this book.

Take a piece of heavy paper like manila tag or cardstock.......... Using pastels color little bits at a time in bright colors.       

Color in the entire page.

Take some black acrylic paint and paint over entire page.

Using a wooden skewer or toothpick scratch in your design.

Here are the finished results from Grade 2.  We were following the book and scratching in a grid design but you can easily do a full picture like the one posted at the beginning.  Thicker lines tend to look better.

Great work Grade 2.  Why don't you give it a try?

30 Bloggers, 30 Days, 30 Crafts

Today I am featured in Skip to my Lou's "30 bloggers, 30 days, 30 crafts". If you get a chance you might want to check out all the amazing bloggers and projects. Lots to keep you busy all summer long.  Keep checking back throughout the month!



Have a great weekend and we will see next week!

Home Depot

Every year I am fortunate to be able to take the kids from one grade to Home Depot for a field trip and workshop.

This year it was Grade One. 


The staff are always terrific especially Rose!

The kids had a fork lift demonstration.

and a cutting demonstartion using the large saws.

They then had a workshop where they were thrilled to "hammer" and create a " bean bag game".

Today we painted our creations at school with acrylic paint.

Gotta love Home Depot!  Thank you so much for giving 44 Grade Ones the "bestest" field trip ever! (and still a freebie)

White Canary

White Canary - Birds of Prey #1 [2010]
Art by Ed Benes

Sunglasses Art Project

I was asked by the teachers at school to come up with an art project to correspond with the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) "Shades of Fun" campagin.

On Thursday all the kids at school will be wearing sunglasses during classes to participate

I made a pattern for a pair of sunglasses.  You can use mine, (Sunglasses Pattern), if you want. I can only fit 1/2 on the page so either cut it on the fold for a full pattern or cut out one side, flip, and then trace the other side.  I then traced this pattern onto posterboard.

Cut out the sunglasses.

I then traced around each lens to make a pattern. 

I cut the lens out slightly smaller than I traced so it would fit on the frame.

They fit in like this.

You then pencil in a drawing showing activities where you would wear your sunglasses.

Add some color with pencil crayons, markers, paint.......

Taking some cellophane wrap...... cut out 2 lens pieces silimar in size to the white ones you cut.

Turn glasses over to the back side and glue the cellophane into place.  UPDATE:  While doing 44 pairs of these I found that tape was more effective...the glue does not stick so well to the cellophane.

Glue the pictures on top of the cellophane.

and that's all there is to it.  Give it a try and be sure to wear your sunglasses on Thursday!

On Saturday I was honored to be featured on "Today's Creative Blog" if you get a chance check it out.

Birds of Prey

Birds of Prey are back! From BoP #1 [2010]. Cover art by Ed Benes.

Wonder Woman

From Wonder Woman #40 (2010) - art by Aaron Lopresti.

Spider-Woman

From X-Men Legacy #236. Art by Greg Land.

Woven Flowers and Butterflies

Sorry I haven't posted a lot lately...been trying to keep up with the kids!

This is a project I recently completed with Grade 1. 

It is a combination of a circle weaving project I first saw on "oodles of Art Projects" here.......

and a butterfly project from "The Artful Parent".

This is my version so let's get started.

We used small recycled paper plates which were cut with 9 notches. Just cut from the rim to where the flat plate begins.  You need an ODD number in order to weave.

Pierce a hole in the center with a knitting needle.

Cut 9 lengthes of yarn....mine were about 6 inches and put one end thru the hole..other thru the notch and tie the 2 ends into a knot on the other side.
Do this for all 9 notches.

Take some yarn in the color you want to weave with. Tie on at the back and then feed thru the hole in the center.

For the kids I used a large plastic needle to help with their weaving.  I tied the other end of the yarn to the needle to stop it from slipping out.

Start weaving around the center going under one of the pieces of yarn tied in the notch and then over the next one.  When it's time to change yarn just tie right onto the end of the last one.

One thing you have to be careful with is to get the kids to keep the weaving quite loose otherwise it starts to pop up in the center instead of fanning out to the edges of the plate.

Here is an example of the yarn bunching up in the center.

Each child was asked to use 3 colors.

When the kids were finished weaving (this took a while) tie the last end of the yarn off by pulling it to the back thru a notch and then knotting it onto one of the other yarn pieces.



The kids then painted the rest of the plate.  We used liquid tempera paint.  Tempera disks did not work so well as there was a coating on the plate that resisted the paint a bit.  Set aside to dry.

I traced a large circle for each child, about 4 inches larger in diameter than the paper plate.

They painted these in various colors and patterns using disk tempera.

Set aside to dry.

Glue the woven plate to the center of the painted circle for your flower.  You could cut petals into the painted circle if you want.

For the butterfly I traced a butterfly shape to heavy paper.

The kids were asked to draw some designs onto the butterfly with white pastel.  Lines, circles, stripes.....



They then painted on top of these designs with disk tempera.

The kids loved this part as their designs "magically" appeared.

After they painted their butterfly we put them into the rack to dry and I gave each of them a coffee filter to paint.

I decided to add the coffee filter to the design to help hold the clothespin in place at the end.

Set aside to dry.

While everything was drying I painted some old fashioned clothespins with black acrylic paint.

I had the kids cut out the butterfly....they picked out a pipe cleaner for the antennae....we put tacky glue on the back in the center and in the front....slide the clothespin in place and then scrunch in the coffee filter.

Let the glue dry and you're done.

Beautiful flowers and butterflies.