A Week of Art

Posted on March 19, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….. I didn’t do much else but I did fill up one sketch book and am pretty close to filling a second one

Please don’t think that I filled up two new sketchbooks. My goal is to go back to older books and fill in the empty pages. The first book that I filled up was a small book to begin with and had only 8 pages left in it. On three of those pages I made journal notes.

In my second sketchbook, I’ve done more doodles, line drawings and portrait sketches.

Even though I’m on holidays my mind is never far from my next lesson at school. Before the break I started teaching the children how to make a simple 3D house out of paper. After folding the paper the children were encouraged to draw windows, doors, lights, numbers and any other details they wanted on their house. The last step is to apply watercolour and add more black line detail. While home I decided to finish the front and two sides of my sample.

So that was pretty much my week. Today we’re going to see the travel agent and book our flights to Italy this summer. So exciting!!!!!!!!

Kindergarteners Rock When Painting to Music

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….painting to music is energizing and allows you to be loose and free with your lines and application of paint

Last week’s assignment for the http://www.carlasonheim.com/yearofthespark/ was presented by Lynn Whipple. We were instructed to draw and paint a floral arrangement using a variety of pens, pencils, markers and watercolour paints while listening to music. Here is my finished piece after listening to Astor Piazzola’s El Tango.

I decided to try and re-created this assignment for my kindergarten class. I chose five varied pieces of music and did up a quick sample before heading to the kindergarten class. I had a stuffed rabbit in the library so I did a quick drawing to music and left some of the painting to do later with the children. Here is my finished sample:

In class I reminded the children how colour can affect our moods and that music does the same. I demonstrated how music can affect how you draw and make marks on paper. I told them that they could draw anything that they wanted (there were flowers in the centre of each table) or they could simply make marks and shapes to the music they heard. They were given pencils, coloured pencils, crayons, chalk pastels and markers.

They each chose one tool and when the music started they began drawing. After one minute I changed the music and told them to change their tool. We did this for five different pieces of music. When they were happy with their drawing we added watercolour to the mix. Some of the children saw shapes and animals in their pictures and added colour accordingly. I put on a quieter piece of music for this last part. It was fascinating to watch them. Some children clearly picked up on the concept and moved their brushes to the beat of the music and some actually stopped when there was a pause in the music and continued when the music started again.

There was so much joy in the room. Not one student wanted to stop early and many of them wanted to experiment with the dripping paint. I love these pieces so much that I am going to frame them and put them up in the main foyer of the school. Here is a sizeable sample of work done by four and five year olds.

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I sincerely hope that some of the parents will mat and frame these pieces of art. If any piece of art work is worthy of saving this is it.

A Visiti to the Aquarium Inspires This Art Class

Posted on March 29, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….a watercolour wash, crayon resist, and playing with salt

The kindergarten classes made a trip to the new Ripley’s Aquarium here in Toronto. They researched marine life before going on the trip and I brought library books to the class to use as a reference for their fish drawings.

We started with a crayon line drawing of the fish and surrounding sea plants. I showed the class how to make a wash for the background and while the paint was still wet we sprinkled it with salt to give the water an interesting texture. We also used white crayon to create bubbles in the water and some of the children wrote their names with the this crayon. The last step was to add colour to the fish themselves and the plants. I think they did a wonderful job.

Happy Penguins

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….tell kindergarteners that they can dress up their penguins and they instantly become ‘happy’ penguins

We started our project by painting our background with ribbons of watercolour. The only restriction was ‘no’ black or brown paint. While the paint was drying they drew and then cut out their penguin bodies, eyes, beaks and feet. This pretty much took up the entire first class.

In the second class I showed the class how to draw an ice flow so that it had some dimension and then I instructed the students on how to put everything together. When the penguin was glued into place with all parts intact the students then had the option of making hats, scarves and sweater from some scrapbook paper that I had.

The inspiration for this assignment came from Deep Space Sparkle.

Kindergarten Art – A Joy to Teach

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….so far the biggest surprise at school has been how much I enjoy teaching the little ones art

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about teaching art to Kindergarten children but it has been very rewarding and so far it’s gone pretty smoothly. It really helps having the ECE teacher with me. There are 29 JK and SK students in that class and without her help I think it would be next to impossible to run the class without chaos.

Our first class involved making ‘dots’ or circles for International Dot Day and we learned a little bit about Wassily Kandinsky and how to use watercolours and oil pastels. In our second class we discussed the different types of lines that artists can use and I introduced Primary Colours. On a large piece of paper the children drew 4 or 5 different lines with black pastels and then using only primary colours painted in the spaces created by the lines.

Their teachers and I think they did a fantastic job. I’m also grateful that the two kindergarten teachers have hung the work for all to enjoy.

Crazy Flowers

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..produced by my grade 3s

This time of year I’m always looking for art projects that are easy to learn and quick to finish. Carla Sonnheim has come up with a great tutorial that shows you how to create this fabulous art.http://www.carlasonheim.com/abstracted-flowers/ It incorporates watercolour, gesso, sgraffito and stippling.

The kids loved it. Here are a few examples of this fabulous art projects.

Abstraction Using Watercolour

Posted on March 20, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….lesson 2 with Karina Swensen

Today’s lesson used the same technique as the charcoal drawings but the medium was watercolour, gauche or acrylic paint. I used watercolour and did about 10 samples. It was fun and somewhat challenging. I certainly didn’t like all the pieces that I did but I chose 5 to share with you. I may try a few more because in the next lesson I have to choose one of the designs from the first two lessons and make one large painting from it. Choosing one will be difficult. Do you have a favourite?e

Fantasy Collages

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….grade 5s created these wonderful works of art, inspired by Dali

The assignment was to paint a simple watercolour landscape with a foreground, background and horizon line and then have fun cutting out pictures from magazines and newspapers and create a fantasy piece of art. The goal was to create a piece that told a story and hopefully some writing will accompany each piece of art in the near future.

29 Faces Challenge – Day 7

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….up until today I’ve used photographs for my drawings

Today I created a face from memory. It isn’t of anyone in particular, in fact it has a sort of ‘alien’ quality to it. I used pencil and a watercolour wash.

Art for Remembrance Day

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Mama Cormier

….Picasso’s Doves of Peace drawings were the inspiration for this lesson

Pablo Picasso was very political and didn’t like how the world’s peace initiatives were emerging after after the the second world war. He created The Dove of Peace as an extraordinarily powerful and lasting political symbol for peace, liberation and equality around the globe. Doves also had a highly personal significance for Picasso, going back to childhood memories of his father painting the doves that were kept in the family home. Doves were a frequent presence in Picasso’s homes and studios in Paris and in the south of France. ( adapted from Tate.org.uk)

Back in the spring when I came across The Dove of Peace I decided then and there that I wanted to do a similar theme for this year’s Remembrance Day assembly. I liked the simplicity of the drawings and felt that my students would be up for the challenge.

I didn’t want every student to draw doves so I had them research symbols of peace that could be easily drawn. My only rule was that the picture couldn’t have blood or weapons in it. After working out a rough copy of what they wanted to draw I gave each student a piece of watercolour paper. They were allowed to choose between a small and medium size.

First they drew their symbol with pencil and then went over the lines with crayon. To make the symbol stand out more I showed them how to add a bit of black marker. Then I taught them how to do a simple wash of colour for the their background while leaving the symbol white. This was a difficult concept for some because they wanted to paint everything.

As a final touch the children were allowed to take photographs of each other. The photo had to symbolize friendship and or peace. Some children embraced each other while others shook hands. If they didn’t want a photo taken the other option was to find a magazine picture with the same theme. The pictures were in black and white because we printed them from the computers in the room onto our shared printer which only prints in black.

On Friday, most of the art was finished and ready to be displayed in the gym. Other classes did a similar theme and some of the younger grades changed it up a bit. All in all, everyone did a great job and the space looks wonderful. A big thank you goes out to all the staff and students.