Art Lesson: Artists Imagine

So this afternoon Julia and I worked on her second art lesson from our book, Artistic Pursuits. This lesson talked about artists using things they know and that are familiar to them and incorporating their imagination when making a picture. The assignment was to make a painting using water color crayons. This was our first time using water color crayons, and they are really pretty cool. First you draw your picture with a drawing pencil, then color it in using the crayons, and finally use a paint brush and water to let the colors swirl and mix. It was cool watching the pigment become liquified and fill in all the white gaps of her coloring.

So she was to pick something that was familiar to her. Of course that meant that she wanted to do a tabby cat. The book suggested going for a walk around the neighborhood to get some ideas. We were not able to do this since Karely was "napping" in her room. So I suggested that maybe she could think about the park down the street. She thought it was a great idea, but of course, she managed to squeeze that cat in there too! Here are some photos of our art time.

This is how it looked before adding the water with the brush. I am told Karley is on the yellow slide, Julia is on the swing, and the tabby cat is waiting at the bottom of the slide. Not sure why she made the skin color so dark for herself and her sister, but in all fairness there was no good flesh color, her choices were either brown or orange.

Hard at work.....

The finished product! Julia is quite pleased with herself! I am too!