Summer Art Projects

Posted by Kristina | 0 comments

I sat down at the computer today and wondered: what would come up in a Google search if I simply typed in “homeschool trends in July”. Wow! I got so distracted I almost forgot that I was supposed to still be homeschooling myself! That is definitely one thing I have loved about the whole homeschooling community in general; you don’t have to live next door to each other or even in the same town to become informed, inspired and energized. The web is a wonderful tool for connecting ourselves with fellow, like-minded, gluttons for punishment … I mean homeschoolers! You know you love it!

For us, this summer is going to look a little different than others simply because we spent part of last “break” and the rest of 2008 overseas, as missionaries. The boys started school with the other missionary kids back in late July rather than our usual September. When we had to leave the field, we needed a longer break to reassess and recuperate before starting up our own homeschooling again. It wasn’t a big adjustment for the kids because I was still their teacher overseas and let me tell you, we had a blast turning a regular old classroom into a big homeschooling family environment. The whole class got closer as a result and we look back on our time in Papua New Guinea with much fondness.

Schooling through summer is pretty normal for us, in one way, since we always find a few subjects we simply don’t want to put away. I hope to inspire you, similarly, at least in the area of art.

KinderArt has a myriad of methods to teach art, making it fun and user-friendly. I have incorporated some of their ideas into the lessons I have taught out of my own home (with or without my artist husband) and abroad. In one example, they ask questions about drawings in particular, helping you coax your child into seeing that you do not have to draw something completely realistically before it can be called “art”, nor does one drawing necessarily have to look just like another. There are, however, some rules to learn and follow if you want to create things that please the eye. Pictures of all kinds, whether photographs, sketches, paintings or prints tell stories, help direct us, provide explanations, communicate ideas and bring pleasure.

Look up the definitions of words like: fore shortening, perspective, shading, overlapping, texture, tone, depth and talk about those concepts while looking at a simple picture book or your favourite illustrated book. You will be surprised at how much your child already has processed about these very terms though they may not have a clue what the official title is.

Magazine Art Project. One of my favourite art projects for kids requires old magazines, for tearing, a dollar store canvas if you have one, or simply a heavy piece of cardboard, your choice of size, some white glue (or gel medium if you happen to have some), a brush for applying the glue, some tissue paper, a pencil and paper for a sketch.

1. Have your child tear pieces of tissue paper for their canvasses, colours of their choice. This will become the background colour. If you are using Gel Medium, be sure to supervise. Help your child to place the tissue paper on the canvas, covering with the white glue or Medium, thinking in terms of layering, tone, shading and depth. Layer the tissue more thickly on the outsides of the canvas or cardboard, imitating light/dark.
2. Have your child then choose a rounded object to sketch for the canvas (or cardboard). It should cover approximately two-thirds of the canvas. Keep it simple. Sketch out the outline, then cut it out of the paper. You will be layering your magazine pieces on top of this sketch, collage style.
3. Begin tearing pieces of magazine for the same centre image. Examine the pear example to see style, technique and shading etc.



4. After looking at the pear for a time, choose magazine pictures that have the basic colours you would like your centre object to be. You can see that I chose mainly brown hues, with some lighter colours for highlighting.
5. Once your canvas has been fully coated with tissue and glue (or Medium), including the sides, have your child work on the centre image. Remind your child to work slowly and in small sections so as not to have the Gel Medium or glue come into contact with skin as much as possible. Let your child know that he or she should wash their hands intermittently.
6. I also used some spray inks (Walnut Ink) to give more dimension to the work but that is not necessary. If you do use ink, use the glue brush to help spread the ink, creating more shading and depth. Remove any excess ink with tissue.

Also remind your child to think about the direction of their light source, so the light pieces of magazine colours are on the same side of the light source, and the dark colours are on the opposite side of the light source.

Kristina Campbell is a happily married wife in her eighth year of homeschooling the flybytheseatofyourpants method. So far her two boys seem intelligible and relatively unscathed. She also mentors with Setting Captives Free and in her spare time loves to scrapbook, paint, make linoprints and write novel study guides. In your spare time, you should check out her blog OnFire in PNG.