Monday, December 16, 2013

Whimsical Winter Animals


My two Winter Holiday Art Fun classes revisited a couple favorite lessons with these tint and shade rabbits and foxes with watercolor skies. They have a wonderful illustrative quality which would make them perfect to accompany a short story or a poem. Both groups followed direct line drawing lessons to create their rabbits and foxes and shaded them with chalk pastels. Animals were cut out and glued to winter backgrounds.
Artwork by children 5 - 10


Notice Andie's addition of a very fancy pair of earrings

 Sweet fox by a sweet girl - Jenna, 5

I love how Ian chose to use every color offered,
creating a gorgeous watercolor sky

22 comments:

  1. I love the clear colors in the watercolor skies. Kids used careful constraint no avoid any "muddiness", Also, the touches of snow on the branches make it seem like new-fallen snow. Cool!!

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  2. These are so sweet and I do love the illustrative quality!

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    1. I agree with Hope!! Fantastic work....book-worthy!

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  3. Another great project, bet the kids loved creating. Doogal

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  4. I love that these are also so different and so very attractive. What an inspiring project!
    Thank you for sharing.

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  5. Thanks very much for your nice comments!

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    1. I too am a SCAD Graduate, I went for Historic Preservation of Architecture, and now I am a k-8 Art teacher at two small rural schools I love this project and might use something like it in Feb. Thanks for posting, I am need to work on my . Blog I have stalled out . UGH

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    2. Great to hear from another SCAD alumni!Two schools is impressive; heck one is. I don't blog nearly as much as I used to - something I'm working on. ;) Thanks for leaving a comment and best of luck Jason!

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  6. Wondering if possibly this could not be created using foam shapes for the animals & whatever else the children might like to do. This would then open it up for those that are younger than the probable age limited group. Could also use other things besides a paintbrush to create a very soft effect like cotton balls. I too have a BA but it is half art and half gerontology and now i work with children.

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  7. Absolutely! I love the idea of switching out elements to fit different ages, needs, goals ect.. I encourage you to use any ideas as a springboard and tweak the project to fit your needs. (Love the idea of using cotton balls!) Thanks for the comment and best of luck!

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  8. Mary, I found your site through Pinterest and love this idea. Love your students' work and your directions as well. I just starting doing art with kids 6-9 yrs old, with different attention to details :-) Questions about this specific project: do you tell them step by step what they need to do with the background, give them only specific colors or let them go about it themselves and pick their own color an style? Also how did you do the trees -- cut out black paper or drawn by black crayons/chalks? Thanks again .. will definitely follow your blog for ideas :-)

    -grace

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    1. With the tints and shades project with rabbits I offered a few acrylic paint choices for the kids (purple, blue and green) I had white and black already on their palettes and just added their choice of color. With the fox project, I put a variety of colors in small amounts in each students palette but told them they didn't have to use them all. They might just want to use cool colors or warm sunset colors. You could also just limit the colors you offer to cut down on waste. The trees in both projects were painted with black acrylic paint. I gave a few directions on the white board to help the kids get started.

      Hope this helps Grace! :)

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  9. Bardzo podoba mi się ten projekt. Muszę wypróbować ze swoimi dziećmi

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  10. Wow, those pictures are so cute! Love them! Winter seems to be over here in Berlin, but I think next year I'll do that topic, too! :-)

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  11. Wonderful project! Do you cut out the rabbits for the younger kids?

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    1. Thanks, yes I do. But I also teach small after school classes, rather than hundreds of students. :)

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  12. Wondering , did you read a particular story with this project?

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    1. No story. But I think this pieces definitely lend themselves to a short story by the artists.

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  13. These are so cute and creative! I would love to see if my 3rd graders would be interested in doing this project. Is it possible to send a list of materials used? And directions for the children?

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    1. The fox backgrounds were done with watercolor skies and acrylic trees. The rabbit backgrounds were painted entirely with acrylics. Animals were drawn in pencil and then traced in Sharpie and chalk pastels were used to add color. These were cut out and glued to the backgrounds. Snow was created with white acrylic by either flicking their brush or using the opposite end of the paint brush dipped in paint to create falling snow. I hope this helps. :)

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  14. Hi! Love these animals. I would like to do this with my son's class. I'm a parent Art Volunteer. Can you tell me - do you have a tutorial for the fox & rabbits?

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I appreciate your comments and feedback!