Flags, Story Time, and more!

The second day of art camp went much more smoothly than the first, as the kids were feeling a bit more comfortable with each other.  After the morning exercise of "What Amazing Thing Did You See?' they all got busy working on some construction paper, making flags that we would later attach to bamboo poles for them to parade around with.

This was one side of my flag.

Morning class working hard on their amazing flags!

The kids all had a lot of fun, running around and checking out each others drawings while talking about their big plans for their flags.  The kids used a combination of tissue paper, markers, and crayons.  Some made flowers, some made trees, one girl made a big butterfly in the middle of her flag and wrote " I love bugs and insects!" on it.  We talked about different types of trees, and what makes an insect an insect.

  After the big art process, we picked a side of the paper and just plastered it with glue, where they laid the bamboo and wrapped the paper around it. Then, while the group had snack time, I set up a surprise for them in the front room.  I laid out all my art, pinning some to the wall and propping it up at other parts, and prepared them all for Story Time~ (For this next part, I did this for both classes.)

 As many of you know, I wrote a fairy tale for my friend for her birthday, and I used the story to teach a lesson to the kids.  I set up all the art against the wall, and had the kids come in in front of it and take a seat.  After reading the story, I asked the kids if they had any questions.  All of them thought the drawings were prints, modified versions of my art, so I took down one of the images that had a white wall on it and let them touch the paper, explaining to them that this was the original art, and the process used.  I told them about wet on wet technique, layering with watercolors and markers, and talked about how the variety of papers out there for different art methods.  I asked them who kept a sketch book, and a few raised their hands.  I pulled out the sketch book that I had used for this process, showing them how the entire story started from doodles, the different art themes I went through as I tried to figure out what style I wanted to use for this particular story, and how I created a whole world for these characters; designing even the pajamas, and pets, and back stories that never even made it into the official book.  For the older group, I showed them the process of thumb nails, talking about how before it ever gets to the final stage, you've (more than likely) already drawn three or four different versions of the image, working out the rough details so that when you get to the final piece, you know exactly how you want it to flow~

The lay out for story time.

Going with that, I explained to them how I based each character off of a flower, and told them about the different meanings attached to each flower and let them guess why I picked it for each specific person.  Then we kind of talked about how, with any talent you want to have, you can have it if you are willing to work at it.  All things take practice.  So drawing every day helps, even if you aren't inspired.  I talked about picking something that you wish you were better at and working on that.  Studying hands, or faces, or trees, and just really taking a look at them.  I explained to them that you CAN make a career and life out of art, and with the older group, talked about the different areas your little "doodles" can be applied.

My art behind a donation can.

For the older group, in the evening, we made God's Eyes, which, and I have no idea where the name came from, but they're the two crossed sticks with the yarn diamond pattern in them.  The kids loved this and made them for the rest of the evening, even wanting to make two big group ones.

My God's Eye.