Squirrel Portrait and a new Sharpie Book

Today is my day on the Sharpie Blog Roll in support of a new book by Kathy Barbro,  "Sharpie Art Workshop for Kids".

I'm especially thrilled because I was one of the project contributors.  Kathy has put together an awesome book and it was amazing to be part of it. You can check out her Facebook page to enter the giveaway contest.

I also have this great squirrel mono print that has sharpie details to share with you.

MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- wax paper
- drawing paper
- construction paper, I like to use black for that chalkboard look
- stapler
- acrylic or liquid tempera paint
- assorted sharpies,  one of my favourite art tools

PROCEDURE:

To make our mono print with have to prep our papers.

We are going to make a paper booklet.

You need a piece of drawing paper, a piece of wax paper, and a piece of construction paper.

Cut them so they are all the same size.  I use a sharpie to mark the size I need on the wax paper.

Line all 3 pieces up and staple them together along one of the short ends.  I use a line of about 5-6 staples.

I'm going to be going back and forth thru the pages so I make a fold to make this easier.

Open up your booklet to the drawing paper.

Make your squirrel drawing.  I find it helpful to provide younger kids with a tail shape to base their drawing off of.

When finished, outline with (you guessed it)...Sharpie.

Fold the wax paper page over top the drawing, you should be able to see it clearly thru the wax paper.

We are going to paint on the wax paper and then transfer this to the construction paper.  It helps to work in a small section at a time and it also helps to have your paint a bit watery.  I use a spray bottle to add a bit of water to my paint.

I'm using black construction paper so I make sure to add white to all my paint colours.  It makes them show up better on the black paper.

Here I'm painting in the tail.  I only work in small sections because I need to transfer my print while the paint is wet.

When I finish painting in the tail I fold the black paper over and give it a bit of a press.

Construction paper works best for these mono prints as it soaks up the paint, other papers like cardstock can slip and smudge.

Slowly pull the construction paper back and the paint will have transferred from the wax paper.

It will be a mirror image.

Continue this process bit by bit until you have made your full print.

You can leave your booklet intact to show the process or remove the wax and drawing papers.

Now you can add the final details.  I used black sharpie, white sharpie, silver sharpie, and brown sharpie.

That's it.

I love this mono print project and I use it a lot at school.  I have another post showing this process only with an eagle here.


Be sure to check out "Sharpie Art Workshop for Kids" by Kathy Barbro and see if you can find my project.

Take care everyone.

Gail

Papier Mache Squirrels

I hope everyone here in Canada had a relaxing Thanksgiving weekend.

I made these squirrels 2 weeks ago with a Grade 1 class.

They turned out adorable and the kids were very proud of themselves












MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- paper roll (paper towel centre or toilet roll)
- cardboard
- pipecleaner
- newspaper
- masking tape
- paper towel strips
-white glue and water mixed together in a 1 to 1 ratio
- acrylic or tempera paint in Fall colours
- scraps of felt
- 22 gauge wire
- paper
- feather boa
- glue gun, adult to use only
- googly eyes

PROCEDURE:

Take your paper roll and stuff with a newspaper page.  Squash another page of newspaper into an oval shape. Tape this to one end of the paper tube with masking tape.  I have it angling out to look like a head.

Put a few pieces of masking tape over other end of paper tube to keep newspaper inside.

Cut 2 legs out of cardboard. They are about half as tall as the cardboard tube.  The foot comes out and they are straight on the bottom.


Take your pipe cleaner and make 2 loops at both ends twisting the pipe cleaner onto itself.  It ends up being approximately 7" or 15cm.
For Grade 1, I did this prep ahead of time for them.  Older grades (grade 3 and up) could do this for themselves.

Set up your workspace for papier mache.  We worked on top of a piece of wax paper.


Get your glue and water mixture going and hand out some paper towel strips to everyone.

I learned this great tip from the art of education, I made up a newspaper strip for each child with their name on it.  When they were finished their papier mache they stuck on the strip. Great for keeping track of every one's work.

Dip your strips in the glue mixture and start covering your paper roll armature.

I asked the kids to cross the strips.  We added a belly to the front.

Put on that name strip.

Add a little papier mache to the front of the leg and papier mache those hand loops on the pipe cleaner as well.





Set aside to dry for 2 days.  Most of our paper tube armatures would stand up for drying.  Turn leg and arms over halfway thru the drying time so everything dries out completely.

When the pieces are all dry paint with acrylic or tempera paint in Fall colours.

I made some wired paper for the base of the tail.  You take one strip of paper, run a line of glue down the length, lay your piece of wire into this glue.  Take your glue and do some zig zags all over the paper.  Place another paper strip on top sandwiching the wire between them. I also used my fingers and ran down the sides of the wire to make sure it was secure in that sandwich.

Let dry.


We cut them into a large feather shape.

Paint the feather shape in Fall colours  on both sides.

I bought some feather boas at the Dollar store.  Cut into pieces about as long as the feather shape.  Glue to one side.

Now it's time to glue together.  We used a glue gun to put on the legs and arm strip.


This enabled us to angle the legs if needed in order to get the squirrel to stand.

Glue tail onto the back of the squirrel.

With scraps of felt add a nose and ears.

We glued on googly eyes as well.

The Grade ones went on a nature hike and collected some pine cones.  We added these as well.

Great work Grade one!




See you next time.

Gail