Z is for Zoom

The idea for this came from a student- lets draw a roller coaster. So we did.                                      Mine is made with Prismacolor penils on sandpaper - the cheap stuff from Home Depot. Though it eats colors like crazy the colors  ZOOM off the page. This piece will be in my upcoming sale at Multnomah Arts Center 

U is for Unexpected

I found this city scene drawing among a pile of unfinished work. It called out for color pencil. I kept it light and layered color with sunset and atmospheric perspective in mind. Then, to experiment with possible background colors I opened it with Photoshop. Just a few contrast and brightness tweaks and some on screen paint touch-ups brought me to this totally unexpected result. I am amazed with the things that can happen with colored pencils.

I is for Inspiration

It starts with an impulse to draw something -

As an art teacher I constantly think about ways to bring new ideas and techniques to my classes. I like to offer my students many alternatives for expressing their ideas. So we work in lots of different mediums and experiment with many different approaches.

The other day, as I was looking for a recipe in my Polish cookbook, I was instantly inspired by the beautiful paper cut patterns that decorate the pages.I had an idea.

In my classes, everybody likes to work with markers, and we have a good collection to work with in both places where I teach, so, instead of cooking, I grabbed my PrismaColor markers and played with the paper pattern ideas.

No matter what my intent, I find that working with markers always result in patterning with lines - before I knew it - I had a page filled with leaves and flowers -

A is for Another

Creativity is intelligence having fun  ― Albert Einstein.

A is for another year, and as always, I am looking forward to both the art and the words that will result.

A is also for Albert, Einstein that is, and the quote (above) that I recently  came across.  Somehow, in just these five words, Albert has managed to say what I have been trying to express through my art, my writing and most of all, through my teaching, throughout my career.

I believe that creative thinking is key to a satisfying life, that being creative frees us to use our brains in wonderful and often unexpected ways, no matter your age. And I know that when I teach and when I work on my art, and when I write about it in  this blog, I am not only learning, but having fun. I hope you will too as you follow this month's journey.

Student Age 10

So, this November I will my focus blog and my posts around this quote. As I have in the six (!) previous years that I have participated in this challenge, I will allow the letters of  the alphabet to direct the theme of each days post. And of course, I will  share images of art that I create, both for myself and as lesson preparation for the variety of classes and students I teach.

I will write about what I  learn as I as I paint and draw, and include tips, insights, recommendations and resources that work for me, and for my students, old and young.  I will also share some of the fabulous work that is created in my classes.

My drawing of apples in a bowl was created for an autumn themed lesson. I chose apples as the subject because they are easy to draw, the shapes are what they are and almost always look great. They remove some of the "oh I can't draw" energy from my senior artists, and let the young ones have fun with something they are familiar with.

I used color pencils (Prismacolor are my favorites) because they are easy for my senior students to handle, and can be layered to create wonderful depth of color for my skilled Young Artists. I chose a variety of reds, greens and yellows and played with curving lines to create the apple shapes. Then I added layer on layer of color until they looked good enough to eat. Fun!

Do you want to participate in the Art Everyday for a Month Challenge. To learn more about it, and sign up to participate, SIGN UP FOR ART EVERY DAY MONTH CHALLENGE

T is for Teaching Today

This is the second snake project I have worked on today. The first was in my senior class - where I actually taught a simplified version of the very LONG project I worked on yesterday.

Clearly, the inspiration of the week is reptilian, in honor of my grandson who is snake mad and turning four this weekend.

Patchistan Snake by Carol

Because of his passion, I have looked at snakes, talked about snakes, played with toy snakes, watched snake videos, read snake books, drawn snakes for him to color, and visited snake stores. It might not be my first choice of subject, but I guess snakes, and their shape and pattern, have gotten under my skin.

Yesterday I spent the day creating a four foot long snake word/drawing as a giant birthday card. I loved the process and I knew the patterning and simple shape would make for a great art project for my afternoon class.

Stanley Snake by Winnie

The results were wonderful (as you can see)  - and fun to do.

So much fun in fact, that as soon as I got home I knew I had to do another snake for myself. This one is smaller than my last, only two feet long.  I drew it with sharpie, colored with Prismacolor markers (I love to work with these), patterned with fine lines and gently tweaked the end result in Photoshop.

Today was one of those days where teacher and student are perfectly blended and rendered in full glorious color.

Thanks

I is for .... I

Initially my idea was to brainstorm possibilities for the letter I, but as I began to think, I pulled a sheet of drawing paper from a pad and wrote a large letter I in the center. Then I began to write the I words that were occurring to me, using the words to create the pattern.

This is not a new approach to drawing for me. I first found this in the work of Paul Klee, and have used this idea with my seniors to create a really beautiful project that told their stories in shapes and color based on their names and the things they value. But this was different.

As soon as I began to work with the shapes created by the words (all begin with I and are related to creativity), I changed course and started to add lines. The lines suggested a scene. I cropped out part of the image and began to add color using Prismacolor markers - thick and thin.

I loved the results, but was still inspired to go further, so I photographed this and brought it into Photoshop to continue playing. This is the result - words into picture. Get the idea?