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This artist wanted a horizontal format
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Some chose to omit the panda and keep it simple with the cherry blossom tree
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This artist (9) turned Stillwater into a female
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A BIG thanks to Erica from
Art Project Girl for her post about the
magical book,
"Zen Shorts" by John J. Muth. Also thanks to Anna at
Imagine, Explore, Create for her idea of using chalk pastel background for the straw blown ink cherry blossom trees. I thought the results were wonderful.
After Erica's recommendation, I purchased a used but flawless hardback copy from Amazon. The three stories the Giant Panda, Stillwater tells his three neighbor children have roots in Zen Buddhist literature that have been passed along for centuries. Muth's beautiful watercolor illustrations have earned him a Caldecot Honor. This book really is a gem.
The children first used chalk pastel (blending with their fingers) to create their sky. They then painted a moon in white acrylic. Some watered down black tempera was dropped along the side of their page and blown with a straw to create branches for their cherry blossoms. Once dry, they dipped a pencil eraser in white and red to create blossoms. On a separate paper we drew a simple panda that was colored with markers and colored pencils and cut out and glued to their background. I will do a revised version of this project with my Children's Book Art camp in a few weeks.