I approached this material a little differently. I told my students to get dirty! (See the pics below) I started with showing them some charcoal sticks, ribbing them on my fingers to shows how easy it was to get messy, then smearing and smudging it on papers. Showed them how to make different lines: thick, … Continue reading My First Graders get into making Messy Charcoal Flowers
Grade One Student Portraits – A La Modigliani
It started with a question: How do I dispel the fear some of my students have at making art? Well, I could lecture them about all the innovators and show them dozens of paintings by folks like Picasso, Klee, Modigliani, Park, ect... OR, I could some excellent YouTube resources and let them see the joy … Continue reading Grade One Student Portraits – A La Modigliani
Self-Portrait Project – Sixteen (Part b) – Embracing What Works For Me
When working on paper I love putting down the basic colours with dry pastels and leaving the dust on the surface. I find that gives texture and movement to the composition. It has to do with the colours blending and giving the work a better feel. I'd never done it on a vertical surfacmwhere the … Continue reading Self-Portrait Project – Sixteen (Part b) – Embracing What Works For Me
The Creature’s Sorrow
Using a handmade marking brush: The handle is a cut branch off of a beach tree with red thread and jute twine. The brush part is made of steel wool. I must admit that I chose this material partly because I wanted to see what would happen when it rusted... how would that affect the … Continue reading The Creature’s Sorrow
There’s An Evil Spirit In That Wind
Using a handmade marking brush: The handle is cut from a cedar branch with jute twine. The brush fibres are nylon bundling rope salvaged from the hardware store. The India ink surprisingly soaked into the fibres and dripped onto the paper... The fibres got more straight with the ink soaked into them and this allowed … Continue reading There’s An Evil Spirit In That Wind
Surprise Is In The Eyes
Using a handmade marking brush: The handle is made from a cedar branch, jute twine, and coloured embroidery thread. The brush is a reclaimed piece of bamboo fabrics cut from some old jockey shorts. I just knew that this material would soak up tons of ink and I could and probably should have worked on … Continue reading Surprise Is In The Eyes
Running With The Wind
Using a handmade marking brush: The handle is made from a lilac tree branch, jute twine, and red embroidery thread. The brush is the foil isolation taken from the inside of an electrical extension cord. I carefully unwrapped the foil from the wires and cut them. Again I wasn't sure how the foil would hold … Continue reading Running With The Wind
Maelstrom On My Mind
Using a handmade marking brush: The handle is from cutting off of my lilac tree and jute twine, The brush is spectacular (IMO). I used small twigs from a shrub growing under the lilac tree. I had no idea if they would hold any ink to mark with, but they did. As I was making … Continue reading Maelstrom On My Mind
In The Spider’s Grasp
Using a handmade marking brush: The handle is a little over 60cm long, made from a maple branch cutting and bound in coloured treads and jute twine. The brush is also jute twine. Being one of the first brushes I tried for this project, I wanted to stay simple and see how circular movements could … Continue reading In The Spider’s Grasp
Give Me a Minute to Brush my Hair
Using a handmade marking brush: The handle is a bamboo stick and jute twine. The brush end is from the metal spring binding on an old notebook. I had no idea how much ink would stay on this material and I was surprised that it pooled as much as it did. It left wonderful blobs … Continue reading Give Me a Minute to Brush my Hair
