DragonWing Arts is back and we celebrated Silly Walks Day!

My business, DragonWing Arts, has been touch-and-go.  I don't like dealing with advertising and all the PR, so I guess I don't do it very well.  I had some great repeat students, but this year they were headed to 5th grade, which is in the  middle school, and their parents were worried that with the big change, they'd by too stressed (I know, that totally doesn't make sense; art class should is de-stressing!)  But luckily, I now have three new students and one repeater - all together, a second grader, two third graders, and one fourth grader.  All very sweet kids, it seems!  Look how cute they are!

Their first class was on Thursday, and I explained that it was International Silly Walks Day (courtesy of Monty Python, of course) and that we had to celebrate.  And they were willing participants!  Every time they had to walk somewhere - to wash up, to the bathroom, and so on, they silly-walked all the way!  When their parents picked them up after class, they must have been wondering what the heck was up when they saw their happy kids silly-walking to the cars!

These pictures, below, are for their licenses.  Licenses, you ask??  Well, they are obviously too young for a driver's license, so...  They will each have an Artistic License!  (Or a Creative License.  I'm still trying to decide which name I prefer.  Which do you  think is the better choice?) I've done a version of this before, but it was before I retired, and thus needs a DragonWing Arts update.

The licenses will be the size of a driver's license, laminated, and will have their photo on it.  It will give them permission to use their imaginations and powers of invention to represent things in original ways, and will encourage creative thinking.  I'll be putting them on key chains, if they want.

Meanwhile, we did a warm-up project and started another in our first class.  I run the classes in seasonal sessions of between 6 to 8 classes per session.  Each session's projects revolve around a specific theme.  My winter session is called "Matisse meets the Jungle - Bright Colors & Wild Beasts!"  Ironically, I've discovered that usually the parents haven't mentioned what the theme is at all.  The kids are happy to make absolutely anything!  But we are going to be doing a version of the "Fauve Fauve" project I posted about a few years ago, with some major variations, plus we are going to build papier-mache wild beasts, and much more, depending on time.  The 8 classes will go by really fast!

For our warm-up project, we used animal skin patterns or scales as a loose inspiration, and used a variation on a favorite unusual use of a common material.  You've read about us using pastel chalks on wet paper here.  This time, though, we used black acrylic paint to draw lines, and then used a paintbrush dipped in water to wet sections of the paper one at a time.  We used pastel chalk on the wet sections, to create a paint-like look.  (Thank you to Ginger, who blogs at Paintbrush Rocket, for the inspiration for brushing on the water rather than soaking the paper.)  Next time, we'll cover them with Mod Podge to seal the chalk and give the papers an overall gloss.  

 Remember, the animal skins or scales or fur were just a vague inspiration.  Then we used fauve inspiration for our color choices!  Above left, fish scales; right, snake skin.  Directly below, a combination of snake skin (diamonds), feathers, and spots!  And lastly, more snake skin!

Next week we'll start building our armatures for papier-mache wild beasts.  Who can imagine what they might be???  After all, we'll all have creative license! 

Art teacher on overload

I never stay home from school. As a matter of fact I usually stay in school for hours after almost everyone else has left, sharing a bag of popcorn with the 4th grade teacher down the hall when, if we had better time management skills, we should both be home eating dinner.
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Anyhow. Yesterday I felt crummy all day. By the time I left for home (hours after school was over) I had set out complete sub plans for today. And today I took a rare sick day and now, sitting on the couch watching election returns, I feel a lot better and ready to go back tomorrow. And lucky for me, my former student teacher, who now teaches part-time in another district, was able to sub so I am confident that things went well.
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But back to yesterday. I got an email about the fundraiser project. My worries about the kindergarten ladybug project had become real. The company was rejecting the artwork because it was too "rough" (our tissue collage backgrounds got a little out of hand). These kids had been in school for just a week when they did this project - WHAT WAS I THINKING?!!! Anyhow, I got another email later in the day, and it's only 14 kids that have to re-do their artwork. So now I have to find a way, BY THE END OF THE WEEK, to have these each create a fundraiser-worthy piece of art.
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So here's something else that seems to have gotten away from me in my overloaded state: my 5th grade Artistic Licenses. The images above show both sides. I usually copy these on tagboard, and the kids jazz them up with color and sign them, and then I get them laminated. I have some lanyard hooks and key rings and the kids love to attach them to their backpacks, etc. We talk quite a bit about what it means to have "artistic license" or "creative license". Often I use the license when introducing a still life, to make them understand that sometims they will want to make artistic decisions that are not accurate representations of the still life but may be better compositionally, or show better usage of art elements. The kids are so funny. They'll come to art and most will have licenses in their pockets or hung around their necks, and someone will worry "I forgot to bring my license - will I still be able to change things today?" It's sweet to see them take it so seriously. But at the rate I'm going it will be months before I actually get the license copied, and then there's still the laminating part...
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And then there's the saga of the 6th grade altered books - but that's better left for another night.
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And of course, there's my lastest favorite addiction, the art teacher blogs. Every blog I read links me to someone new, with something interesting to read and learn, and great ideas, and I'm now following so many blogs it's hard to keep up with you all. But I'll try. But sometimes I get frustrated. Re: altered books - yesterday I was reading a blog and I saw a link on the blog sidebar that had an altered book post, but I wasn't feeling well so I didn't read it. Today I cannot find it, don't remember where I saw it. So if you've seen something interesting on altered books in the past couple of days, please let me know where to look! Thanks!