Owls, Owls and More Owls – Part 2

Posted on May 9, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..after printing several owls each child had to choose one for the library wall and another for their chalk pastel tree

From the beginning of this assignment I told the children that they had to have at least two good owls; one for the Forest of Reading wall in front of the library and another one to glue to another piece of art.

I wanted each student to experience using chalk pastels. After a quick lesson on how to blend the colours and how to draw a somewhat realistic branch I gave the children a choice of black or dark blue construction paper. The concept of creating a realistic looking branch was a little foreign to some students and I had to encourage them to look out the window and study the trees outside.

A few students decided to have a family of owls sitting in their tree. One student accidentally glued his owl upside down on the branch and decided to call him an owl bat. I love the variety of owls that were created, from very realistic to very whimsical. Enjoy!

Owls, Owls and More Owls (part 1)

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..a real ‘hoot’ of an art lesson

About a month ago I introduced a print making lesson using styrofoam boards. The grades 2 and 3 classes were introduced to a variety of owls and were instructed to sketch several different styles of owl. Then they had to choose their favourite sketch and transfer the pattern onto the styrofoam plate. Once the design was impressed into the foam the children were given water based markers and they filled in the owl shape with lots of colour.

I showed the students a variety of owl prints that I had done using the same pattern but different colours and different papers. Here are some of my examples:

When the students finished colouring their plates they brought them to me and selected the paper they wanted to print on. I sprayed the paper and wiped off the excess water and then laid the plate on the paper. We used a roller to press the paper down onto the plate and finished off by using our fingers to push on the details like the eyes, beaks and feet to transfer the marker onto the paper.

There was a lot of trial and error but we quickly figured out what worked and what didn’t. Too much water and the colours all ran together, not enough and the print was too faint. A plain solid colour worked better than a busy print but newsprint with text on it was quite effective. The paper that worked best was card stock and water colour paper.

In front of the library I put up a forest of birch trees for our Forest of Reading Book Club and the leaves represent all the books that have been read by the members of the club. I asked each student in my art classes to donate one of their owls to place on the trees.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this lesson. I’ll post that in a day or two.

Kindergarten Winter Owls

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….a two part lesson using pieces of cardboard and their thumbs

Before Christmas I wanted to create a winter scene that used a minimum of paint but would still be fun for the children without making too much mess. I found a great assignment on Kids’ Artists.

The background is a dark blue or purple paper so that it contrasts with the white trees and looks like a night sky. The trees are created by dipping the edge of the cardboard into the white paint and dabbed onto the paper to form the trunk and branches. Then thumbs are dipped into the paint and stamped onto the branches to make the owl bodies. When the paint is dry the details are added with a fine tipped Black sharpie.

The children loved this project and some of them couldn’t stop stamping owls onto their trees.

Having a ‘Hoot’ of a Time

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….drawing owls

I recently signed up for an on-line art class using gelli plates. I did one last summer and I loved it. So when Carla Sonheim offered another class I jumped at the chance to participate again. This class uses some of the prints I’ve done in the past and involves drawing on the actual gelli plate. I, therefore needed a subject to draw that was relatively simple and would work in a print application.

I choice to draw an owl. I’ve always been attracted to owls and wanted to create an owl that is somewhat whimsical yet simple. Here are some of the owls that I played around with tonight.