More Fantasy Birds

The second workshop was extremely successful. I had 10 hardworking girls. After an introduction and discussion of various examples, the children started working and surprised me with their originality!

 

What a rainbow, what a sun. Who can tell what the crow is thinking?

Body language is all! The female peacock surely wonders what her guy is up to!

A clever frame for a pretty blue robin!

A lovely graphic and precise design

Beautiful pastels for a spring feeling

The tree is so special. This student was only 6 and had
no problem in filling the background of her painting



This painting attracted attention on Facebook. It is very expressionistic!

These migrating birds had the most likes on Facebook
 and the work spoke to many viewers

I enjoyed these two days of workshops. I was immediately asked to keep the children on a list to inform them of the dates of the June workshops.

The Fantasy Birds are Up and Away

Today was the start of my March Holiday Art Workshops. It was lovely to meet this group of children ranging from 6 to 16 years. Many of them are home schooled.

 

I believe that one should start with good canvas board, the best acrylic paints, good brushes and a lot of inspiration materials.Our boards are 12" x 12" Pro-Art canvas boards.The paints are mostly Iris Acrylic paint that gives good coverage in a single layer.

The brushes are Prime Art long-handled taklon synthetics in various flat sizes. I also provide angled brushes and love seeing the joy the students experience once they get the hang of the angle brush.

 

There is another workshop on the same theme tomorrow.

Can't wait!

All hand drawn, without using the stencils. The students always surprize me!
And these are such fun little characters!

 

 

The classroom: space to work and space to move around



The students could visit the inspiration table set up in a corner



Youngest in the group, getting right down to it



Happy painting! The tiny containers with little spoons hold the white paint



This is what artists do-  they get up to work from above!



The Iris acrylics give good coverage so that layering was seldom necessary



With the more serious students, symbolism entered the work.
A long tail looks like a reflection of the bird.
 A wise old foreground bird is covered with symbols



How well our tiniest student painted her birds which seem to
tell a story



Another story unfolds under a red hot sun and a branch of leaves



Birds also offer such good forms for designs.
A very effective use of strong colour!

March 2019 Workshop Preparation

I am proud of this venue which was kindly provided by a church across the road from me.

I am having great fun preparing for the Children's Art Workshops which will be held the next two days. My venue is such that I only have to cross a (very busy) street with all the materials. So far there are 3 heavy bags and a bucket to carry. When I was much younger I also had to carry a little blind dog in her basket to class. Thank heavens for backpacks and shoulder straps!

Our theme will be Colourful Fantasy Birds, and I hope to see the children really use all those beautiful opaque acrylics! The first bird theme called "Fly with Me" can be seen on older posts. It as a very enjoyable and successful class.

 

For tomorrow we have books and scrapbooks filled with ideas, and also some completed paintings as inspiration. What I appreciate about children nowadays is that they do not copy the work of others. My classes are very much into individualism! So I am looking forward to see the results.

Besides good canvas and good quality paints, I have also invested in very good soft brushes. The acrylic paint will flow smoothly onto the canvas!

 

I am looking forward to the workshops, and will post photos after the classes!

The smaller children can use these stencils which I cut

from strong cardboard, to get started with their painting,

which will be on 300mm x 300mm canvas board (12" x 12")

These bird stencils can be used by the older students.

For inspiration only. A precious work by Isabel Le Roux

Using prepared stencils will help to prevent "artists' block" When I have workshops,
I must always take into account the fact that students need to go home
with a completed painting, even spray varnished if there is time.

For students who are inclined to prefer a design, I made a quick example. They can
 repeat one stencil all over their 12" x 12" canvas and use a single colour as a background.

I have to anticipate that students 13-16 will have different ideas on how a painting
must look. The smaller stencils can be used after the first layer, the landscape, is dry.

BOTTOM: Paintings of birds by South African artist Gladys Mgudlandlu ( 1917 - 1979)
Source: Bonhams brochure 20 March 2013

 





Classes and Workshops

Information about my children's art classes in Musgrave, Durban, KZN South Africa:

CHILDREN’S ART CLASSES
&

 HOLIDAY WORKSHOPS

Regular classes:

At G14 Garden Grove Retirement Centre

Students 8 – 16 years Fee: R450 per month

 

March Morning Workshop:

27^th or 28^th March from 9:00 – 12:30 in Musgrave Rd

Each student will go home with a completed painting on canvas

Fee: R150 includes canvas and all materials, snack and drink

Contact: Marie Theron

083 681 4401

The Humble Pencil

I usually take students of eight years and older. Because I allow free expression, all the media from pencils to sepia and black pens and all water based colouring media are available at all times. Yet, something strange occurred: the older they are, the more they prefer pencil work. I have nothing against pencil work as it is an excellent way of making them very aware of tonal differences.

 

Out of curiosity though, I turned this into a discussion topic. Why do the older students prefer to work in pencil or sometimes pen only, thus mostly in monotone? I am still getting answers. A strange one was that they were provided with coloured crayons from an early age. I think I can see the budding little artist feeling that not everything in life could be red, blue, green or yellow! All could not be expressed in primary colours! More subdued media make them feel "grown-up"!

 

This is how I teach pencil drawing:

 

1. You work on thick paper that cannot tear too easily.
2. You do not have one pencil only, but a range of B pencils namely B2, B4, B6.
3. Your pencils are sharp so that you can see past the point of the pencil and you make good marks.
4. You start your drawing very softly... assertive kids tend to start with very hard marks, which 9 out of 10 times, they want to rub out again!
5. "Fuzzy" colouring-in with the side of the pencil and rubbing with fingers is only one technique that can be used here and there but not all over the work and cannot be your main technique.
6. I always use some of my own completed works to inspire the class, pointing out the various techniques and variety of pencils used.

This is my own work and one of the examples I
use to demonstrate the multiple uses of pencils.

Another of my pencil sketches. I included
watercolour pencil. I hope I can soon encourage
the class to add some colour to their pencil work

A teacher cannot be more pleased! The marks and
tones in this student's work show an
understanding of pencils. No fuzz and
blending, lots of marks, great shadows!

Knowing that my student was only 9 years
old, made me appreciate the directional
brushstrokes and original slogan!
And that is a perfectly round cork stopper which 
 makes the bottle seem round too.



I am excited about the discovery of their own "mark"! And by showing my work in the beginning of the lesson, we avoided the boring pencil blending which young students often do!

 

Young Artists Expressing Themselves

Introducing my students to journals was one of the best ideas ever. I wonder why I have never thought of it before. There is such pride in working in the journals and in having their drawings together in one place. I must add this: my students' work is not much like the popular craft hobby known as "Journaling"! We rather concentrate on a drawing of the day, and then, afterwards, the work can be embellished with affirmations and even half a page of writing.

 

Over time, the journals quickly became the students' pride and joy. Often they take them home to show parents their progress or to work for hours more at home. I started handing out small moleskine journals too, so that they have pocket drawing books to take on holidays and weekend trips. 

 

This young student of mine wanted to conform, by trying realism and rubbing out, rubbing out, trying to get it realistic and perfect. To my great joy, I could eventually guide her to relax, to forget about realism and about what others were doing, and to do her own "thing", which turned out delightful!  Here are two self-portraits brimming with joy and expressionism:

 

Self-portraits full of personality!

From a formal point of view, I was happy with the

placing of the eyes and other features, and with

the clever use of charcoal for the hair.

 

As her confidence grew, the student would say:

" I like animation!" Well, why not...and I thought drawing a violin from memory like that was quite an achievement!

 

And then came the  discovery of Manga eyes on the Internet!

To Google when they are at home and then draw from

the cell phone is something that I am not going to forbid.

 It is also a handy reference tool when they travel.

 

Let there be eyes! Anime eyes! 

 I now have my two large books of  Manga art by Christopher Hart available for reference in class. The opportunity is there to practice anime if my students are so inclined. It is not easy! I know, I tried and have a full sketch book to show for it! My reasoning is that anything we do in class, portrait, landscape, anime, etc, can in a few years' time become careers for my students.

 

Nothing gives me more joy, than realising that each student is developing in a natural way, doing what he/she does best.

There will always be great diversity and never a row

of identical projects coming out of the workshops!

If they want to do portrait....

If they want to do portrait, let them! I remember when one of my daughters was about sixteen, she loved to draw faces even for her school art portfolio. Brook Shields and the celebrities of the day were drawn so well, really, really good!  As her art teacher I was ordered to discourage the "frivolous habit of drawing celebrities"! This was so ridiculous when we look back today. She is a  talented portrait artist and is invited to prestigious art shows.

One of my students last year wanted to do more portrait work. Her pencil work showed promise, so I made sure that she knew how to use various soft pencils and a lot of tonal variations. This coming year sepia pens, oil and watercolours will be added to her materials and I plan lots of challenges.



A live portrait of a young girl done by a 13yr old . Early beginnings!

And now at 14, there is so much growth!
The model is instantly recognised!

It is great when family members are willing to pose!
Wonderful texture in the hair!

Practicing the freedom of charcoal on blank newspaper

A wonderful selection of portraits by the same student, sometimes doing family members live, and sometimes using a cell phone to find suitable faces and poses. Providing small notebooks means that students can draw on weekends and everywhere they go.

 

The children in my class are so diverse. " I really like cartoon style portraits", said another girl. Like the rest of the class she does exercises in realism, but she also gets the opportunity to go into the fantasy realm. More about that in the next post!

 

Through the Looking Glass

I found this title in a book with the work of William Blake: "The Power of the Imagination", words I often use to inspire my students. They know that they can create works which are totally different from that of anybody else. Dividing their canvas or journal to get the "through the looking-glass" feeling was a great idea!

 

 

This is the first of the "transformation" paintings which
 I want to discuss with you.
How delightful! On the left there is a girl in a
suburban scene. I loved the broken wall.
Is that where you escape to a different world?
I really do not like to work on their nerves,
by trying to analise their vision or
ask "why" questions continiously!

Then the girl passes though the imaginary divide into
a forest filled with foliage, where her outfit is more
adventurous and she now has the curled horn of a faun. I love the serene and contented little face! How well the colours work together! We do not do colour wheels and formal boring lessons, so the yellow/ purple complimentary colours happened spontaneously!
 

 

 

The second painting, part of a journal

is the work of an eight-year old. On the right-hand side of the journal, a tiny girl, drawn in pencil, stands next to a plain tree and contemplates the "normal" scene, which is a watercolour of a green field with distant trees and sky. Some birds were done in

white oil crayon to magically

appear through the paint.

 

On the left side, the same tree shows curly branches which form an eye and an owl.  The total sky turns into a vertical rainbow. Do not miss the little white cloud with a tiny house drifting by!

Imagination is alive and  thriving!

 

Being almost 75, I always have a nap after the art class, as I live on adrenaline while amazing things happen in their journals or on their canvasses! I love what they are doing and specially the great originality my students possess. I think I postpone breathing until afterwards!

 

 

A Beautiful Owl Painting

I was so amazed when I found that my students researched "owls" on the Internet.  I heard questions like "Would they come and live here if we put up owl boxes?" "Are there other sanctuaries where we can see them?" I would be happy to know who handles owls and would be willing to receive a visit from the class.

 

When a subject is so interesting to the children, we carry the theme into a further session. For the acrylic painting class on owls, the journals were put aside. From the moment this girl started her owl, I kept well away. I only mentioned Sap Green as a possible colour to brighten the foliage, and reminded her that the white owl must really stand out in the painting and must not disappear in the busy foliage.

 

This went so well. Just look at the confident
and rhythmic strokes of the foliage!



A truly successful painting for a 14-year old!
Owl is camouflaged, yet well defined.
 

The best test to determine whether
 the tonal values are successful,
 is to look at the subject in black and white.
Yes, it worked a 100% and the detail can be seen!

And so, a confession: this young artist is my
granddaughter, a fifth generation artist in the family.
I hope to surround her with strong young artists continuously. I love the class dynamic and work ethic that we are establishing.