Feb 19th

This week our warm up included some basic drawing techniques I learned in college. We drew a live model in 30 second increments. We started with basic "get the sketch" on the page, then moved to using a pen (no erasing), and lastly we used our opposite hand (just to get the brain flowing).

Then went back to working on our projects. We still have a few working on the candy collage, and a few that have started to paint their pop cans. Some of us that are starting to get behind in the projects might end up skipping a project in order to keep up. Half of the little artists seem to be forging ahead and a few are falling behind. But I don't want you guys to rush a project just to get it done. If you miss a project that's ok. Just work on the ones that have meaning to you. Better to connect with a project than just  do it to get it done.

Our sketchbook assignment this week is to design a Google "doodle", or a Google search page. They change them quite often and each has a theme. So here are a few examples:

I look forward to seeing what themes you can come up with.

Just as a sneak peek: we will be naming our new groups this week. What do you think we should call them? Last semester the groups were Big Hero 6 & the Fab 5 (both Disney related).

February 12th

Our warm up drawings this week included drawing 2 well known licensed characters. I don't normally allow the use of licensed character but since we are working on painting licensed characters I thought continue with this theme.

Winnie the Pooh

Baymax (From Big Hero 6)

We then moved on to work on our second project, for those students that have completed their portion of the "Candy Collage". I announced to the kids that now that you have designed your character onto a pop can in your sketchbook......lets paint them next. This requires the kids to prep the can by sanding it and painting it white. They then need to design the other 3 sides to complete the full 360 around the can. This is where a good composition can help or hinder the project. Any changes to the design need to be done now before painting. 

Here is my sketchbook design as well as the start of my can. The character figurine is Captain America but it's number 41 where my design is actually number 67.

Captain America (#67)

Captain America (#41)

 Let the sketchbook competition begin....(the students have become very competitive over the bragging rights of winning each week, the candy doesn't even enter the competition anymore...lol)

This week's sketchbook assignments were won by Ashley with her Barf & Belch design from "How to Train Your Dragon", and Emily with her design of Cogsworth from Beauty & The Beast.

Now to get to this week's sketchbook assignment:

The challenge is to create items only using the word of the item. So start out with the basic outline of the item, then fill the whole space with the letters of the item. Then erase the lines between each letter so the word makes up the item. Here are some examples I showed on the board which are not allowed to be used in your sketchbook. So no guitars, wings, tiara, banana, donuts, or cell phones. Let's see how creative you can be!