Learn how to paint these gorgeous rainbow leaves with this simple watercolor tutorial!
All summer long in the studio, my staff and I have been going live on our studio facebook page with little lessons and art ideas for home. My most recent video is seriously a combination of my favorite things: It’s watercolors. It’s botanicals. It’s loose and gestural. AND it’s rainbow!
If you want to learn a simple watercolor technique to paint leaves (either in rainbow OR in the more traditional green color), definitely check out below.
Here’s another art invitation for sculpture lessons; this one uses WIRE! (The best part?! 100% of the supplies for this wire sculpture project for preschoolers can be purchased at the dollar store.)
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What is an “art invitation”?
Simply put, an invitation is a set of materials offered to the students where there is no end product in mind and no wrong way to explore and use the supplies. I like to think of an invitation as a challenge for the kids and a surprise for me!
Setting up your sculpture invitation
Curb appeal matters for art invitations. They have to be inviting, right? So, clear the table, get out an art tray, fill the pretty containers, and set-up a work station for your artist.
The wire can be any easy-to-bend aluminium wire. Just make sure the thickness of your wire and the hole size of your beads match up. This is the wire we use in the studio. and even pipe cleaners from the dollar store works well too. Cut your wire into pieces about 8-12 inches long; you’ll need 4-8 pieces per kiddo.
Beads
Any beads you have around the house will work as long as they thread on your wire. We use from Discount School Supply. Dollar store work too!
The base of your sculpture can be clay, playdough, salt dough, or even a rock. The clay or playdough is my favorite. This year, Miss Sam offered rocks as a base and it definitely added a new challenge.
In the studio, we usually have a GROUP of young artists working with wire so we all wear safety goggles to protect our eyeballs. Our students love them; these are the ones we have.
Making Your Wire Sculpture with Your Preschoolers
Using the supplies provided, artists can create their sculptures.
I love teaching side-by-side. You may want to model some of these skills:
Looping the wire with both ends stuck to the base
Twisting two pieces of wire together
Coiling the wire around your finger (or a pencil)
Creating recognizable shapes from the wire
Securing a bead to the end of your wire (so the rest of the beads don’t slide off)
Finishing your Wire Sculpture
If your artist wants to keep his/her artwork, I suggest you keep it on paper plate or piece of cardboard until the dough/clay dries.
That said, not all art needs to be kept. Especially process art like this!
It’s perfectly okay to deconstruct your sculpture when you’re done. Put all the beads back in their container, straighten out the wires, and save your clay/dough in an air-tight container. This way, you can offer the same invitation another day!
Have you ever tried wire sculpture with your young artists?
Glue guns for ALL! I love our low-temp hot glue guns that we have in the studio. So I will proudly allow most all ages use them because hot glue guns for kids is a game-changer.
Why? Well, for a couple reasons:
One, because they are an incredible tool for building. Sometimes, hot glue is SERIOUSLY the only thing that’s going to get the job done.
Cardboard Unicorn Craft made with hot glue
And, two, I love them…because they are slightly dangerous.
Risky, slightly dangerous situations provide important learning opportunities AND they create interest and excitement. Accomplishing (conquering!) that dangerous situation builds confidence. Children learn about their own abilities and sensibilities.
In the studio–whether its glue guns or power tools or hot wax for kids–we always review the safety instructions. And, we never make a student use something that he or she is uncomfortable using. But, given the opportunity and the proper guidance, you might be surprised what these young people are capable of!
The biggest complaint we hear from students is that observational drawing is boring. So, to beat the boredom, I’ve put together the ultimate observational drawing idea list for kids.
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The Purpose of Observational Drawing
Observational drawing is an incredibly valuable practice for young artists. It trains our eye and our hands to work together.
Keep in mind, the purpose of observational drawing is the process of drawing. PERIOD. The goal is not to create a winning composition. It’s not to create a beautiful piece of artwork to hang on the wall. Or to draw perfectly. It’s not even necessary to FINISH the drawing.
How do you know if you did it right? Well, if you looked at something and then put a pencil (or pen) to paper to try to replicate it, then you did it right. It’s that simple.
Observational Drawing Tips
Beyond simply doing your best to replicate something on paper, here are my best tips from years of experience in the studio:
Manage your expectations – it’s not always going to be pretty, and that’s okay.
Short 5-10 minute drawing is plenty of time – you don’t have to finish it
Draw something you find interesting to look at
Spend more time looking at the object than you do at your paper/drawing
Draw without an eraser – seriously, try it.
For younger artists, attention to details is the first goal. Don’t worry about scale or perspective yet.
Encourage your artists to change their view point to make their drawings more interesting.
Birds Eye View
A top shop like this one is a really common perspective that we see in contemporary still life photos on social media, especially Instagram.
birds eye view of cupcakes
Low Angle Observations
Getting your eyes low on your subject (1) magnifies the smaller object to look lifesize, and (2) changes the background of your composition.
low-angle view of a chess board
Close-up and close cropped drawings
Draw your object so that it fills the entire page and leaves very little background.
close-up drawing of sushi rolls
Use a Viewfinder to help you draw
A viewfinder is a tool used by artists to help narrow in on a subject. It creates a frame for the artist to see a two-dimensional composition in a three-dimensional world. It’s the same term we use to describe the window on a camera.
In my next post, I’ll show you my favorite viewfinder the best way to use this tool!
Well, what do you think? What am I missing from my “ultimate” observational drawing idea list for kids these days? Let me know in the comments and I’ll get it added!
Practice your watercolor skills with today’s poppies video lesson. Since poppies are one of the the few flowers that I can identify with ease, AND with Memorial Day coming up this weekend, I thought I’d film a demo of how I paint these wildflowers.
If you know me, you know that I love watercolors, and you might even know that flowers are one of my favorite subjects to paint! They are so fun and fresh and doodle-friendly. As some who appreciates the beauty of flowers but knows nothing about gardening or keeping plants alive, I’m usually just make-up my flowers.
In the video lesson, I’m using a set of everyday watercolor paints (nothing fancy) so you should be able to follow along no matter what supplies you have! Bare minimum, you’ll want a red and a green paint! Alright, let’s get on to our Watercolor Poppies Video Lesson:
Painting Lesson Supplies
Watercolor paper
Watercolor paints (pan, tube, or liquid)
Paper towel
Watercolor brush (I’m using a round #6)
Water jar (Or two. I like two)
Watercolor Video Tutorial
If you try this lesson out at home, I’d love to see your work! You can comment below, post it Instagram (and tag me @do_art_better_), or send it via direct message.
Why Poppies?
Every wonder why poppies are the symbol for Memorial Day?
The red remembrance poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem In Flanders Fields. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I; their brilliant red color became a symbol for the blood spilled in the war.
In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields
Hi everyone! Our newest art studio has been open for nine months, and I’m finally getting around to writing about some of our construction projects! First up, I want to show you how we built our own DIY holder for butcher paper. I love this storage and dispensing solution for those big, heavy rolls of butcher paper!
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I know you can purchase s for these paper rolls but they take up floor space and I didn’t want to be moving them around all the time. Couple that with the fact that most storage solutions were pretty expensive, and that naturally led us to creating our own solution.
I’m very pleased that our DIY holder for butcher paper here cost us only about $200.
DIY Supplies:
Wood boards – you will need one board for each roll of paper. We cut our boards to 60″ because are 36″ long. The wood is a common 2×8 (in actual dimensions, it’s 1.5 inches thick and 7.25 inches wide).
[ BTW, ]
Pipes – one full “set” for each roll of paper. We bought all our pipes at the hardware store already cut to the appropriate length and already threaded! See the breakdown below.
Galvanized Pipes (one set per roll of paper)
floor flange, 3/4in (2)
45° elbow, 3/4in (2)
cap, 3/4in (2)
3/4in x 4.5in pipe (4)
1/2in x 48in pipe (1)
1/2in cap (2)
Hardware (one set per roll of paper)
Wall anchors (8)
5″ screws to go into the wall anchors or the wall (8)
washers (8)
1in screws to attach the floor flanges to the board (8)
Putting it together
Step One
We began by cutting, sanding, and lightly staining our boards. You could paint them too if you prefer that look. Personally, I love the raw wood + metal.
Step Two
We measured and drilled pilot holes for all the screws.
We positioned the floor flanges 40″ apart and centered them on the board both vertically and horizontally.
As far as the load-bearing screws that had to hold this sucker to the wall, we decided to use three on each end (outside of the floor flange) and two right in the middle. If you have the option to drill into studs instead of wall anchors, you might want consider positioning screws based on their locations instead! (Our building is metal studs so that is an option for us)
Miss Sam got fancy and sunk our wall screws down into the boards using a large drill bit. Totally not necessary but she is advanced like that 😉
Step Three
Next, we attached pipes to the boards. We began with the floor flanges, and then attached the remaining pipe assembly to the floor flanges.
Step Four
For the final step, we screwed everything to the wall. This was a two person job.
We used a level to position our boards and marked their position with a pencil. Then, we used a small drill bit to drill through our pilot holes in the board and make a mark on the wall where we needed to put the wall anchors.
After pounding in the wall anchors, we returned the board to the marked position and screwed it into place using the giant screws and washers. We only missed the wall anchor a few times! When that happened, we just had to back out the screw and try to re-position the board more accurately. Out of 24 chances, I figure three misses isn’t too shabby! Good thing no one is seeing the wall behind these boards, right?!
Hanging the butcher paper
Once the boards and pipes were up, all we had to do was add the paper. The long 48″ pipe slides right through the center of the roll. We attached the caps on the ends which keep the paper from sliding off the pipe and keep the pipe from shifting out of the cradle.
The paper dispenses easily right from the wall, but its also really handy sometimes to just carry the whole roll (on the pipe) where you need it.
Overall, I couldn’t be more pleased with our DIY solution! This butcher paper holder is JUST what we needed on our walls!
Got questions for me about this project? Leave them in the comments or send me a note on social. I’ll do my best to answer! (Keep in mind…not a contractor or builder…just an artist who will DIY anything…)
The pinch pot is the foundations for many of our clay handbuilding projects in the art studio. So, it’s important to understand how to make a clay pinch pot AND the best way to teach your preschoolers how to do it.
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Pinch pot clay pigeon made by a preschool artist
Video for Teachers and Parents
These are the steps that I take and the words I use to teach my preschool (and even grade school) students how to make a pinch pot:
Best Practices for Preschool Clay Handbuilding
If you’re teaching clay sculpture to young artists, I recommend allowing plenty of time for the kids to freely explore the clay before starting on a project.
Squish it. Roll it. Stick stuff in it. Really enjoy all the sensory benefits from this art material before moving onto any project-based goals. This is probably the biggest teacher tip that I can offer.
More tips:
Teach rolling coils and and shaping pinch pots with play dough first. It’s easier for little fingers to squish and mold.
Have a wash bucket and towels nearby for artists who don’t like the feel of the dried clay on their hands. Give your students the power to wash-up whenever THEY feel like they need to.
Use good stuff. in the studio is from Discount School Supply. It comes in a 25lb block and will last for a good long while. In a pinch (get it?!), I’ll use.
Clay Pinch Pot Project Ideas
Now that you’ve learned how to make a clay pinch pot with your preschoolers, what do you do with those pots?
The possibilities are almost endless!
We have Pinterest board to inspire you. Notice that some of these finished projects are still bowls but others are totally transformed!
Pin pinch pot video and tips for later
Pin this for easy reference later!
Clay Videos Classes from DoArtBetter.com
If you’re looking for clay classes, we’ve got ’em. Check out our video classes for preschool artist, grade school artists, teens, and adults. No kiln needed! All of our clay videos use an air-dry clay.
Today, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite clay art project for preschoolers. We do this project every May. Since May is sculpture month for our students, this clay handbuilding lesson ties into the hilarious story Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Williams.
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Colorful Clay Pigeon with Feathers and Googly Eyes
Preparing for Class
In preparations for our clay art project with our preschoolers, we measure out equal-ish chunks for clay, set them out on a tray, and cover the tray with plastic wrap.
If you don’t want to use acrylic (non-washable) paints with your students, I highly recommend these tempera ones. They cover really well, dry with a glossy finish, and look amazing on clay!
Beginning the Class
After reading the story, we always have journal time. By reflecting in our journals with drawing materials, we could talk about the parts of a pigeon (head, neck, body, eyes, beak, etc). In our discussion, we looked at the illustrations in the book and noted the shape of each of these pigeon body parts.
This type of discussion makes our clay art project easier for preschoolers!
Preschool Clay Sculpture Lesson
Step One: Making the Body
We gave our students ball of class about the size of a golf ball and invited them to squish around and warm it up! This is called conditioning the clay and it makes it easier to work with. We like to give them plenty of time to just PLAY with the materials before we do any kind of demonstrating.
The golf ball sized piece that they have will becoming the pigeon’s body. We teach the kiddos how to make a pinch pot by sticking their thumb into the clay ball (like a popsicle!) and slowly opening up the hole by pinching with their other fingers on that hand.
We’ve created a video to show you the words we use and how to teach young artists this handbuilding technique. You can also check out this blog post for more on pinch pots.
VIDEO: How to make a pinch pot with your preschoolers
Step Two: Making the Head
To make the head, hand out another smaller ball of clay to each student. Like the size of a large marble or a ping-pong ball.
We show the students how to pinch the clay to make eye sockets and a beak shape. We also show them how they can “erase” their face by rolling the ball on the table and returning it to a perfectly round shape.
Step Three: Making the Neck
We twisted pipecleaners together to make the neck. If you have young preschoolers, I would recommend doing this step for them before class. Pre-K-ers can usually accomplish the bending and twisting with a little help.
We use a whole pipe cleaner and bend it in half three times (so it’s 1/6 of it’s original length). Give it a twist each time you bend it so that it stays together.
This ensures that your neck can support the weight of your pigeons head.
Step Four: Googly Eyes and Feathers
Now, it’s time for the fun part! We offer feathers and googly eyes for the kids to bring their pigeons to life! I love having a good selection of different eye balls to choose from.
Some of our Favorite Pigeons
Colorful Clay Pigeon with Feathers and Googly Eyes
Today I’m sharing an exercise to practice color pencils techniques such as blending and burnishing. I find completing these forms to be so relaxing! It’s the type of practice that you can work on just alittle bit each day whenever you need a brain break!
I’m using Prismacolor brand pencils for this color grid.
The finished product makes a great reference tool for colors!
Begin by figuring out the order of your pencils. You can do them in rainbow order, a random assortment, or whatever organization method makes sense to you. For my example, I used my pencils in the order that they came in the box!
Whatever order you choose is, make a note of it so you remember! It doesn’t matter how many colors you have because you’ll start back over at pencil #1 when you reach your last one.
In progress. This is my adult coloring class that we held at the neighborhood brewery!
Starting with pencil #1, lightly color the entire first column from top to bottom.
The key here is to color LIGHTLY. We’re going to be building layers of color and if you start off too heavy, you can’t get the blended effect of the multiple layers.
Once you’ve got one light colored layer done with pencil #1 in column #1, then you’ll move onto to pencil #2 and column #2. Repeat this step until all the columns are filled. (If you have more columns than pencils, simple circle back around to pencil#1)
After all your columns are filled in lightly, you’ll begin the same process with the rows. Lightly color row #1 with pencil #1. Row #2 with pencil #2. And so on.
When you’ve finished your rows, go back to the columns again.
This is an exercise in patience as well! I think, each of my boxes have 10 layers of color!
After enough layers, you’ll see your boxes begin to look glossy (burnished) and that’s when you know you’re do
Not only is it a relaxing coloring exercise, it produces a pretty cool effect, AND it’s a great reference tool for future color mixing!
Have you ever done a color wheel or color reference exercise that you love? I would live to hear about!
Mix together the salt and flour first. Then add the water alittle bit at a time. It might take the full cup and it might not! If you add too much water and it gets sticky, simply add more flour and salt.
Dump the dough onto a flour surface and knead for 3-5 minutes until smooth.
No-Cook Playdough
Ingredients:
1 C flour
1/2 C salt
1 T cream of tartar
1 T vegetable oil
boiling (or really, really hot) water…1/2-3/4 cup
Tip: If you want to add coloring to you playdough, mix it into the hot water.
Directions:
Mix together the dry ingredients and the oil. Then add the boiling water until a dough forms. Mix well.
Once it’s cool enough, turn the dough out onto a flour surface and kneed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Don’t skip this step!
