Friday Fancies

I have been woefully remiss in teaching my children much art, even though art was my favorite subject in school.  In an effort to rectify this situation, I am declaring Fridays to be “Fanciful Friday.”

I hope to make our Fridays more productive and orderly than the Friday we experienced a couple of months ago. 

We will generally follow the Artistic Pursuits curriculum, which gives me a plan in place.  But we veer off AP whenever I feel like, which has been the last 3 Fridays.

I had so much fun making the silhouettes of the children, and it was such a simple process that I decided we do silhouettes during art time one Friday.  I googled free silhouette patterns.

Lincoln chose a heron.  I did help him with the head feathers.

At 3 and 5 years old, the girls can’t cut well enough to make a recognizable shape.  But I had an idea.  Actually, I stole the idea from another artist, Laryssa Herbert.  Thieving, in this instance, is a compliment, right?

I cut out a simple bird shape, again a shape I printed off the internet, stuck it down with removeable glue dots and showed the girls how to use the stamp pads.

Laryssa Herbert used watercolor for her beautiful pictures, but I didn’t think I could tape down the silhouettes well enough to prevent bleeding under the silhouette template.  Indeed, the girls’ birds are only taped down in 4 or 5 places.

I made sure they understood to press down, then lift up instead of brushing their finger across the paper, particularly around the template.  This helped insure crisp lines.

This little project turned into a quiet, soothing activity that kept the girls happily productive for 40 minutes.  I was pleased with their concentration and attention to detail.

Then, when I peeled off the template . . . . . .

they were amazed . . . .

and pleased with their artwork. 

Note:  that is chocolate around Prairie’s mouth.  We had just finished our math session with chocolate chips.  Sorry, I’m not the kind of mother whose kids are always tidily groomed.  Wish I was.  My brain just doesn’t work that way.

The fingerprint method was too slow for Lincoln.  He discovered he could stamp the whole pad on his paper and get quicker results.  Oh, this kid is scrumptious.  That smile just melts me, MELTS me, I tell ya.  Not to mention the green paint on the nose.

I can envision many possibilities with this technique.  I had been wanting to do some kind of leaf art for a while.  We might try this again by taping down different leaves.  If I carefully set out only certain colors, the kids will likely make some gorgeous artwork for the bathroom . . . . . . .or the living room.

I love the idea of decorating our home with art that we have made together.