Pet Portraits

Little artists joined me last weekend at the OKCMOA for Pet Portrait fun. We explored the works of George Rodrigue and got busy.

Using Rodrigue as our inspiration allowed the kids to have fun with their works instead of worrying and stressing about making it look exactly like their own pet.

To begin I had the children lightly draw their pet with pencil. We draw BIG and draw the front of our animals. I advised to keep it simple, details could be added later.



Next the students are allowed to choose one color of paint plus black and white (to shade and tint).

They begin filling in their pets and are encouraged to mix the paints to highlight one side and shade the other. Leave any white spots white.



They use a hairdryer to dry their work before outlining the pet with black paint. Now they can also add details.



The work need to be dry again before creating the background.

We broke the background into three parts. The bottom, left and right side. Here is where color comes in. They can use any color except the color of their pet. We use line and pattern to break up the three areas. So much fun.

You will need:
-Student grade watercolor paper
-Tempera paint
-Brushes
-Paint palette
-Wash bowl
-Pencils and erasers
-Hairdryer if you need to speed drying time

Abstract Animals

A class full of eager 3 year olds joined me at the OKCMOA for a fun class about animals. We gathered around and read the book, My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. Not only is the book about colors and feelings, but it is full of animals. We enjoyed calling out the names of all the colors and animals.

After our story I line the kids up to prepare them to visit the galleries. We talk about our Museum manners-using our eyes and not our hands to look at the art, using our walking feet and quiet voices. The children did excellent. In the gallery we visited our 2nd floor collection and we found many animals. In one part of the gallery we sat down to play a game of I Spy. At this time I gave each of the children a chance to "Spy" something. It could be a color, animal or whatever! They really enjoyed this.

Back in the classroom we talked about animals we have at home. We talked about animal faces and what we needed to draw. (head, eyes, ears, body, details etc.) First we started with a black oil pastel to draw the outline of our animal. Then we used other colors to fill in details. To finish we used watercolors minus black and brown. I pull those colors out so they don't get too muddied.

Some children may not follow directions completely and do their own style of animal. I love it when this happens. It's okay to just let them enjoy and experience the materials. While an adult might think or say, that doesn't look like (whatever). I can listen to a child while they are creating and as they talk to themselves they ARE creating in this case, an animal. I watched a child draw big circles and say here is my dogs head. He is in the clouds. There is a rainbow. I believe this is a very important part of creating. Art is about the experience not just the end results so enjoy this special time full of imagination and wonderment with your own children!

You will need:
-student grade watercolor paper
-oil pastels
-watercolors
-brushes
-bowl of water

Here are some of our other creations!