One of the reasons I began regular art time alongside my children was so that I’d get a chance to make art, too. Art-making isn’t just for the kids. It’s for us (that means me and you), too, and that’s why I wholly support presenting something you’re interested in as a jumping-off point. That’s the basis for this week’s post; I wanted to do this, so I asked my kids if they wanted to try, too.

Recently, somebody retweeted a link to National Geographic’s Tumblr, Found, which is a “curated collection of photography from the National Geographic archives” (read more here). I fell into this site, drawn both by the historical interest of the photographs as well as their composition. I found my way to an art minor via photography, and the framing of a good photograph is still something that I appreciate very much. Add in that these are actually film photographs…well, I could spend quite a bit of time on this site, and suspect I will.

While browsing, though, I thought this picture of people strolling through a park in Finland could inspire a painting…the contrast between the brightly colored umbrellas and balloons and the grey day with birches drew me in. I wanted to sketch it and try to figure out how I might paint it later on. (I also want to sketch this picture of the Palace of Majaraja’s pond; isn’t it fantastic?) I explained the website to my kids and asked if they’d like to try to draw from a photograph too. They were willing, so we scrolled through the site together. My 8yo chose this challenging photo of Luray Caverns in Virginia, and my 4yo chose this image from Madrid. I printed the photos on our home printer, and we set up the drawing boards, paper, and sketching pencils and got to work.

The drawing boards, by the way, are pieces of hardboard from Home Depot. We originally got them for wet-on-wet watercolor painting, but we often use them to draw on the living room floor. It’s a nice, portable, smooth drawing surface.

My son got a bit lost with his sketch and asked that I not photograph it, but he spent quite a lot of time trying to re-create the forms of the cavern. My daughter drew various elements from her photograph, looking first at the remnant of the old wall, then at the grass, then at the bus.

I tried to decide what to include and what to leave out, and then added some color to try it out. If I paint this (and I really want to try, never mind the list of projects I have backed up in my head), I want to try to abstract the people even more. I want those bright umbrellas and balloons to pop right out of that wintry day.

It’s something to aspire to, because I don’t think my skill level is where it needs to be to do justice to the image in my head. I know some of you who have been checking in to this series are struggling to overcome early art discouragement, or a lack of confidence, or a feeling that you can’t do [insert whatever you think you can’t do here]. So I want to make sure you know: there is so much I feel I could improve on, too;  everybody feels that way. But there is real delight in the process of showing up to try.

Further Resources

These are not resources per se, but rather a couple more examples of parents taking the lead to pursue their own creative interests with kids alongside.

Francesca decided she wanted to do some watercolors of botanical subjects, so she did…which enticed her daughter to try, too: watercoloring with my girl.

In Tuesdays With Maggie, Cameron describes how she and her daughter both created artworks—and she demonstrates their process step-by-step as well.

Share Your Experiences

Flickr’s re-do is making my head hurt, so I’m not linking to them this week! But I’d love if you’d share, in the comments, your own experiences of how following your own interest alongside your children worked for you. Creating a family art habit meant I was able to get some art time in, even when the needs or schedule of the family made it very difficult for me to get that time alone. At times, this has been a life-saver for me. Of course, I try to make sure our art together time is something we’ll all enjoy…but it’s okay to think of our own interests at least as much as we think of the kids’.

Coming Up

Next week’s post will be a round-up of outdoor art activities and ideas that we’ve done in the past, since we’re heading into summer here. It will also be my last weekly post in this series for a while, although I’m sure I’ll be sharing during the summer here and there. Over the summer I’ll be concentrating on writing something a bit more in-depth, the goal being to have that ready by fall. I’ve placed an email announcement sign-up on the sidebar (or you can jump to it directly here). It’s not a regular newsletter at this point, but intended for occasional announcements, to let you know when the things I’m working on are ready to be shared.

So, I did what I do when I want to learn something, and I ordered a book. The book suggested first making a sampler block, and that is such a wise suggestion it seemed obvious once I read it. One of the first things I made after learning to knit was a sampler (from Jacqueline Fee’s Sweater Workshop). Samplers are excellent first steps.

The book is Learning Linocut by Susan Yeates, and the block was divided into six squares. I used each of my five blades in one square each, and then combined them in the final square. The idea is to see what the blades can do. With stamp carving, I’m trying to get a nice smooth line without tearing the carving material. Because lino is firmer, it’s possible to use the blades a little differently, scooping or twisting for different effects and textures.

I also learned it’s hard to take a test print on regular paper; I needed to use actual printmaking paper for a decent print.

I’m looking forward to trying to get better with this art form. It requires a different way of thinking about the final image. I like that it’s a challenge; that means I’ll (hopefully) be able to see my improvement as I keep at it.

The lino print was created at the end of a session which began with textile ink and fabric stamping and then moved into stamping some plain Kraft Moleskine notebooks. I ordered a set of three of these with the intention of decorating the covers myself. On one, I stamped my tree inspired by the Duncan Scarf at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

I then added color with colored pencils.

I am very happy with how this turned out. I’m using this notebook to collect the random quotes and phrases that I enjoy–often for no particular reason than I like the way the words flow.

On a second notebook, I printed my labyrinth stamp.

I then added lettering, because this is intended to be a gratitude notebook.

In the same order as the linocut book, I received Creative Lettering by Jenny Doh. I’d like to get better with my lettering, too.

I wasn’t sure what to do with the third notebook, so I left it for now. When it becomes clear what it should be, I’ll know. Meanwhile, it was good to have some time to work on my own ideas, finally. It makes me feel better able to attend to everybody else’s needs here.

My oldest made a zine to fulfill a class project. I used this as an excuse to finally buy a long-reach stapler. His only supply request was a non-photo blue pencil (because you don’t need to erase your lines after inking; it doesn’t show up on photocopies). I want to make zines too!

I finally finished my Tang in green wool (so perfect for this time of year…um, not!).

It needs a rinse and block, but my utility sink, which I thought would work so nicely for washing handknits, is full, as always, of drying paintbrushes and paint splotches. I won’t wear this for a few months anyway, and perhaps I’ll remember to do a post with modeled shots when I do…

My daughter made me a cardinal sitting in a nest.

This was all her own idea and execution. She asked for my help reaching the red and green card stock and then set to work with scissors and tape, cutting the shapes out herself. (She used the large circle hole punch for the head and feet.) She ran back and forth to check the bird poster hanging on our wall, the one that includes a cardinal. She was detailed about the feet, wasn’t she? That’s one of the bits she double-checked with the poster. This is so authentically a four-year-old’s creation. I adore it.

I also helped my daughter make more goat note cards.

These sets are already claimed and paid for, and we need to make more to fulfill more orders. I’ll talk more about her work in a future post, but for now I’ll say that I’m so pleased she is having success and so grateful to the communities (both online and in real life) that are helping her achieve that success. My daughter never doubted her plan would work, and I’d do well to observe and learn from the confidence of this four-year-old.

Speaking of which, she also made it to the top of the rock wall at her brother’s school fair today.

Climbing to the top.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo that shows the wall in its entirety so you can see how tall it was. It was really, really tall.

At the top.

It was a little hard to look at my last baby dangling from a harness at the top of that thing, but she was so excited to try and so determined to get all the way up; of course I cheered her on. She drew a little bit of a crowd. A rock-climbing gym recently opened nearby (this was their traveling wall), and I don’t think we’ll be able to keep G out of it.

As for the listening portion, my husband was away this week, so while I wove ends into my sweater and tried to embroider (that being the project I haven’t made much progress on), I watched and listened to Merlin. I have four episodes left to go in Season 3. The younger kids finished listening to The Phantom Tollbooth and The Arabian Nights as I read them aloud. And, because we met friends at the zoo this week, we of course listened to Tom Paxton’s Goin’ to the Zoo on the way. This is such a great CD of fun songs. We all like it.

I hope you are in the midst of an enjoyable weekend, with some time to make and listen to whatever makes you happy.

“A drawing is simply a line going for a walk.” –Paul Klee

Recently I treated myself to the Learning to See series of drawing primers. The first exercise I tried was the fourth one in the second book (yes, I pick and choose!), called, simply, “Doodle.” I challenged myself to fill an entire sketchbook page with pencil doodles, and this is what resulted.

My daughter saw what I was doing. Later on, she got her own paper and filled it with pencil doodles.

We decided to spend the next morning sitting on the floor with paper and a selection of colored pencils and markers, doodling. This is as simple as it gets: fill the page with doodles. You can make it more complicated, if you like. I chose a bigger piece of paper and challenged myself to fill it, and tried to pay attention to balancing the shapes, sizes, line, and white vs black.

I decided to keep it black and white, but I could have chosen to go into it with watercolors. I’m also interested in isolating parts of it that seem interesting to me. There are rhythms and patterns that might find their way into a future design. Doodling can bring forth all sorts of ideas to return to later.

My eight-year-old focused on colors for some of his doodles, preselecting markers to use.

In this next doodle, he focused on pattern, thinking of the zebras we saw at the zoo last weekend and the sign which informed him that zebras are camouflaged by their stripes; it’s hard to identify an individual zebra when they’re all together in a group.

He also completed a pencil doodle, which is in the Flickr group.

My four-year-old was a bit overjoyed with the choices of mark-making materials. She wanted to try them all!

The entire drawing session was a relaxing way to spend an hour–which is part of the goal of doing art together, to simply enjoy the time spent.

Further Resources

Books on doodling abound! I have Creative Doodling and Beyond, but truthfully it didn’t click for me on my first try with it. The exercises felt too focused on producing a complete finished work; I became completely inhibited. The Learning to See exercise, however, was wide open. Just get a pen and doodle. I didn’t feel any pressure, so it was easier. If the wide-open “doodle something on a blank page” approach leaves you wondering what to do, try a book that provides specific exercises. Maybe that will speak to you better. I’ve no doubt I’ll go back to the Creative Doodling book at some point.

If you want some visual inspiration, Flickr has many doodling groups. Oodles of Doodles is one that promises to be safe for all ages, so your kids can look, too.

Take it Further

Try doodling in black Sharpie and then choosing areas to wash over with watercolors or fill in with colored markers.

Choose a color palette (as my 8yo did) and limit yourself to it. That adds another design element to balance: not just shape, line, pattern, and size, but color, too.

Cut a 2-inch (or 3-inch, or 1-inch; experiment) square out of a piece of cardboard and use it as a frame to isolate different parts of your doodle. Are there any sections you’d like to try “blowing up” into a larger piece? Would any sections translate well to another medium, such as paint or stamp-carving?

Share Your Work

I’d love to see your work in the Flickr group; or if you have a link to posts describing art-making together, please share in the comments!

Several years ago, blogger Teabird sent us her review copy of the book Give a Goat. I read it to the boys right away, and it now sits on one of our storybook shelves. Periodically my daughter chooses it as part of her bedtime stories. Not too long ago, after hearing it again, she decided she, too, would like to give a goat through Heifer International. We talked about different ways she, at age four, could earn some money, and she began earning quarters every time she helped set the table, fold laundry, or clean the bathroom sink. (Normally I don’t pay for routine helping-out-type chores, but she’s four. Her earning options are limited.) However, a goat costs $120. We brainstormed some more.

Eventually she decided she would like to make note cards with a drawing of a goat on them, so we Googled for images of goats and she picked some for me to print out. Then, she drew some pictures of goats, using her reference images. Finally, she picked out two of her drawings (a mama and a baby, she told me), and together, we turned them into stamps.

Her goats are smiling because they are happy. Of course! Next, she picked out colors of card stock and ink, and we set to work printing.

Here’s a closer look at the mama goat:

And the baby goat:

When the cards were dry, she counted out six envelopes to go with her bundles of six cards, I wrote out a tag to her specifications, she signed the tag, and we bundled the cards and envelopes with pretty ribbon.

She settled on $5 for a package of six cards, and we began by emailing family members. Her next step is to brainstorm other places that might agree to sell them as well. Meanwhile, her dad gave her all his dimes, nickels, and quarters for her Give a Goat bank, and she and her 8yo brother sorted the coins; then he counted, added them up, and let her know she had just over $10 towards her goal.

So much going on with this project. So much!

Materials: Craft foam; scissors; glue (Elmer’s or tacky); sturdy cardboard cut to size slightly smaller than paper; brightly colored construction paper*; block printing ink or tempera paint; brayer; glass or Plexiglas for rolling out ink. *I really like the Tru-Ray paper; it’s smooth and sturdy feeling.

I love printmaking, and I wanted to make sure to incorporate it into the preschool art explorers class I’m leading at our homeschool co-op this session. This activity was inspired by “Playful Prints” in What’s the Big Idea? by Joyce Raimondo, and it’s perfect for this age group, because it also involves cutting, something my preschoolers love to do. (Although I think it would work well for all ages. I enjoyed making a sample!) The steps are simple.

1. Cut out shapes from craft foam. Make sure they’re large enough that they won’t be too difficult to either glue down or ink. That was the only parameter I gave the kids; they cut out whatever shapes they wanted.

2. Glue the shapes down onto the cardboard, making sure to leave some negative space. Don’t overlap the shapes. Again, the kids glued them down whichever way they wanted.

3. When the glue has dried (at least enough so the shapes won’t wiggle on the cardboard during inking), ink up the brayer and apply ink to the foam. Try not to get it on the cardboard.

4. Lay the paper on top and smooth over the back of it to make the print.

That’s it! Depending on the age group, this technique could be used to make patterns, designs, or to depict a simple image or scene…or it could be kept abstract. Choosing brightly colored paper and black ink made for a really vibrant and striking print. This is deceptively simple, with fantastic results.

“I sometimes think there is nothing so delightful as drawing.” –Vincent van Gogh

A better title for this post, perhaps, would be Exploring Drawing Media. It doesn’t matter what you and your kids experiment with, as long as it’s something new to you, and it doesn’t really matter what you sit down to draw, either. The point is to step out of the comfort zone a bit and experiment with drawing with something different, and you really should try to think of it as an experiment. Just as with watercolors, the idea is to mess about with the material and see what it can and can’t do, in a low-pressure situation. The more experimenting that goes on with different materials, the larger the art vocabulary will be. Think about how much easier writing is when you have lots of words at your disposal; in the same way, bringing forth a vision in your head onto paper is much easier if you have a wide variety of methods and materials with which you’re comfortable.

Recently, at the local art supply store, my kids asked if we could bring home this figure model, so this is what we chose to try to draw today.

But again, it doesn’t much matter what you draw; you’re getting the feel for a different material. We set out a variety of charcoal pencils and conte crayons. Stick and vine charcoal will have different effects; stick charcoal is even smudgier and dustier than the pencils. We didn’t discuss shading or blending as a technique; mainly we noticed how the paper smudged if our hands rubbed over it while drawing. There’s certainly lots to explore more deeply when it comes to charcoal…but here, we were just getting comfortable with it to start.

4yo’s figure sketch with charcoal.

Another adjustment is the lack of ability to erase these lines. I’m not a fan of erasing while sketching-as-practice; I think it tends to hyper-focus attention on small parts of the drawing, bringing attention away from the drawing as a whole. It can contribute to perfectionism, which can be crippling. I encourage my kids to just go over a line if they feel it’s in the wrong place…learning to draw is about learning to see relationships of parts, and corrections are part of that process. (And I often like the effect of multiple lines, as in this crab I drew at a nature center a couple of weekends ago.)

8yo’s figure sketches.

Because we were drawing a figure, we talked about proportion and angles as we drew. Drawing real people can be so nerve-wracking! I remember my first college drawing class and how awkward it felt to try to draw a live model. But humans are collections of shapes and angles, and they can be drawn, too. It’s an amazing revelation (and drawing this wooden figure made me wistful for a live figure drawing session; I think I’ll be checking local resources for the summer). It’s been a long while since those figure-drawing sessions in college, and it’s good for me to step out of my comfort zone right alongside my kids. I prefer for us to be exploring together; nobody is the “expert,” which means nobody is lagging behind, either. We’re learning and discovering together, which is so much more relaxing for all of us.

One of my figure sketches, using conte crayon.

“Make a drawing, begin it again, trace it; begin it again and trace it again.” –Edgar Degas

Further Resources

Art Lab for Kids, by Susan Schwake, has several drawing “labs” that involve charcoal, including one that involves lifting off the charcoal with a kneaded eraser.

I recently picked up a copy of Drawing Magazine, and I decided it was well worth the cover price. The issue I bought was a mix of techniques, interviews, and perspectives on drawing…it was interesting not just to me, but to the kids, too. I’m thinking a subscription might be a good investment for us.

Take it Further

We’ve explored these drawing media before here, and then switched it around, using white on black paper, here.

Experiment with figure drawing by getting into a pose for two minutes so your child can draw you. (The resultant quick drawings are known as gesture drawings; you can search Google Images for examples.) Switch, have your child pose, and draw him or her quickly. Don’t worry about details like facial features or fingers, just try to sketch in shapes and angles. Keep it loose!

Share Your Work

Just a reminder, there is a Flickr group, and I’d love to see what open-ended art explorations other people are doing with kids (your own or borrowed)—it doesn’t matter if the photos are of activities inspired by this series of posts or not.

I took a closer picture of them this morning, before I dropped them off.

This is what’s kept me so busy these past couple of weeks, carving, stamping, embroidering, and sewing. But this is just the beginning of my experiment in selling, so I have more work to do. I do plan to sell online at some point, but I’m not quite there yet. In the meantime, if you’re in the Ocean State, you know where to find me–well, my pockets, at least!

May is a busy month here. On Thursday afternoons, all three kids have activities, two of them simultaneously. Something will have to give the week my husband is away. But no matter, because guess what? I volunteered to help coach my daughter’s soccer team. I have no experience with soccer, but the kids are four years old. I can herd. But the really great thing? When I considered volunteering, I was mainly worried about juggling it while I was solo parenting. I never even thought, Can I physically do this?

That is huge. I couldn’t have run around a soccer field for an hour at a time a year ago, or even six months ago. I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease in December of 2011, but I suspect I became infected the previous September. Last January I couldn’t stand up for more than ten minutes without fatigue and extreme pain. Last February I set myself the goal of slowly working up to the 2 1/2 mile neighborhood walk I’d done without a thought the previous fall. As I headed into last spring, physical recovery was slow, but steady, but even just six months ago, I couldn’t sleep without waking from pain. The realization that I now get through most days with nothing more than the usual twinges of an almost-40-year-old body fills me with thankfulness.

New sneakers!

I did buy some new sneakers, since I’ve had my current pair since Idon’tknowwhen and they certainly never had any support to begin with. I wore them today while the younger kids and I walked through the neighborhood, and wore them again to run around a field with a gaggle of four-year-olds, and nothing hurts tonight. I have energy to follow through on ideas–this, too, is amazing. There were months when I’d have a thought of getting up to do something, and next thing I knew, I was waking up from another nap.

It is spring here.

Collecting tadpoles during a nature program.

It is spring, and I am not in pain. It is spring, and the sun is shining, and no matter what else is going on in my life, I am grateful for the sunshine and the ability to coach my daughter’s soccer team and walk without pain with my kids. I am grateful for fiddleheads and purple flowers and tadpoles and birdsong.

Everything looks better in spring.

Books have come up often in the {Art Together} posts and comments, so I decided to pull some of our favorites off my shelf and share them. I ended up with a huge stack. These aren’t meant to represent books someone must have, or a comprehensive list; they’re just books I own and use. Think of them as a jumping-off point—and it will also give you an idea of the types of books that inspire us. I’ve loosely grouped them into categories. Let’s go!

Philosophy-Type Books (with activities too)

Young at Art by Susan Striker: Striker has strong ideas about art-making (see her 10 Cardinal Rules for Teaching Children Creative Art). I’ve broken a couple of these “rules”—take what works for you. Her book is interesting reading to me not only for the ideas she suggests but for the information on developmental progression in art-making.

The Language of Art by Ann Pelo: This book presents inquiry-based provocations in the style of Reggio Emilia educational philosophy. The activities are open-ended, and Pelo includes her own documentation of actual students’ experiences, which is helpful in its own right if you’re trying to document your child’s learning (and not just the finished product). Part One, Studio Investigations, has sections on textures and movement, color, 3-dimensional media, and representational drawing and painting. Part Two, Moving Art from the Studio to the Classroom, gives examples of how to use art-making in long-term project work.

Posts inspired by this book:
Preschool Color-Mixing Activity (II)
Preschool Color-Mixing Activity
Sunflower Study

Beautiful Stuff! Learning With Found Materials, by Cathy Weisman Topal and Lella Gandini: This is another book rooted in Reggio Emilia philosophy, one which explores the use of found materials with a classroom of primarily four-year-olds. In the preface, they explain, “Rather than focusing on the creation of products, this book is based on observation and recording of children’s and teacher’s processes.” Again, this book offers a glimpse into the process and documentation of project work.

Post inspired by this book:
Working With Found Materials

Don’t Move the Muffin Tins, by Bev Bos: After Karen recommended this one in the comments, I discovered it’s out of print, but my library system had a copy. The book itself seems dated, but the ideas do not, and I found myself wondering why we are still struggling so hard to get open-ended, process-oriented art experiences to children when Bev Bos wrote it all so succinctly more than thirty years ago. The subtitle is “a hands-off guide to art for the young child,” and that sums it up. She presents activities, but they are of the sort that involve offering materials and stepping back. Her preface and first chapter, “Getting the Feel of It,” are worthy reads.

Art Project Books (intended for kids)

I’m careful with these. I don’t want crafts; I want open-ended activities that I can modify so all my kids can participate at their own level. We’ve tried activities from all of these, so I include them here.

Art Lab for Kids, by Susan Schwake: I previously reviewed this book here. The book includes techniques organized into projects, but the outcomes aren’t narrowly defined. I used this one with a homeschool co-op class as well; the “labs” I chose were modifiable across a range of ages.

Art Explorers series by Joyce Raimondo: We have What’s the Big Idea, Express Yourself, and Picture This! Raimondo pairs projects with famous artists, using the latter to inspire the former. Again, the projects are suggested, directed techniques that I can modify across the range of my kids’ ages. She includes examples of actual children’s art and they all look different. (That’s a sign of an open-ended project.)

Posts inspired by these books:
O’Keeffe Leaves
Marker + Watercolors
Matisse-Inspired Collage

Art Project/Technique Books (intended for adults, but used by all of us)

Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists, by Carla Sonheim: Another in the “lab” series…it has 52 drawing prompts in it. Flip through it, find something interesting, and…go!

Post inspired by this book:
Watercolor Blot Animals

How to be an Explorer of the World, by Keri Smith: Anything by Keri Smith is worthwhile to spark creativity and thinking about things differently.

How to Make Books and Magic Books and Paper Toys, by Esther K. Smith: I love her books. You’ll find lots of ideas in here to make books or other paper things that can be used in open-ended ways or combined with your art ideas or artwork or words…just fabulous books.

Water Paper Paint, by Heather Smith Jones: As I mentioned in the watercolor post, this book is a useful compilation of information on materials and techniques, with different explorations to try. Someone who is interested in going deeper with watercolor work will also find helpful advice here.

Print Workshop, by Christine Schmidt: I am a big fan of printmaking, and this sparked lots of ideas for me. It’s full of information on materials and techniques. It’s also full of very product-oriented projects, which I ignore. I bought it for the methods. There are many books like this out there—on first glance they appear to be very step-by-step, but I’m thinking this is a publisher demand, because they think most people want to know how to re-create something exactly. If you look close, you can tell which ones are also giving you the skills to use the method to create whatever you want. Those are the sorts of books that come home with me.

Posts inspired by this book:
Carving Stamps
(You Can) Carve a Stamp (tutorial)
Labeling the Studio

In addition to these, we like books that show artwork itself, for discussion and inspiration–art history books, books devoted to a specific artist or style…the library is a great source of these. I’d love if you’d share in the comments–do you have favorite books you use for adult/child art inspiration?