Art

Watercolor Wednesday: Rainbow Parrot

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Last week for watercolor Wednesday, I let Rami choose a project.  He chose the Rainbow Parrot project by Let’s Make Art.  Let’s Make Art is an ah-mazing company that offers subscription boxes of art supplies and projects.  They have a YouTube channel with tons of FREE tutorials for watercolor, art journaling, lettering, and kids’ art!  They have all different levels of ability, and I highly recommend them.

Anyway.  More about them next week though.  

So the best thing about these rainbow parrots is that we get to use the straw blowing technique- I’m pretty sure that’s the technical name, ha ha.  I have used this on a few projects with the kids, and it is something they always really enjoy.  I mean, who doesn’t?  Word of warning- if you have a very concrete thinking child, they might not enjoy the unpredictability of the paint blowing.  Just frontload for them, telling them about the process and that it is very loose and it is fun to see where the colors may blow and how they may mix!  Keep it positive, and they will really enjoy it.

We were unable to trace the outline, so we free handed it.  I actually think the kids really enjoyed this aspect of it.  You will notice that Nick doesn’t always participate.  He was really excited about this project for some reason and got super into it.  That was fun!  Lucy, who is usually very amped about Watercolor Wednesday chose not to participate in this project, but she did hang out with us.  She wanted to learn how to draw a ferret.  She had a very, very hard time with it and got really frustrated.  I was so proud of her because she was able to say her feelings, and even though she said she was going to quit multiple times, she never actually did.  She ended up with a ferret she was very proud of!  

Jimmy painted along with us too, though he didn’t quite grasp the straw part despite many attempts at helping him.  🙂

Fun project!  Thanks, Let’s Make Art!

Find the Rainbow Parrot Tutorial on Let’s Make Art’s YouTube channel!

Watercolor Wednesday: Kindness and Bookmarks

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This week for Watercolor Wednesday, I wanted to tie it into our theme of kindness. So we didn’t just create a picture or do a tutorial. We created a gift!

I had ordered some plastic bookmark sleeves several months ago, anticipating using them for Lucy’s birthday party which I didn’t end up doing. It was twelve dollars for fifty of them. They are marketed also as photo booth picture frame things. Here is an Amazon link for them- this is not an affiliate link- just sharing information.

I then sliced watercolor paper into two inch wide strips to fit inside the sleeves. We taped the papers to the table and let the kids go to town. We made some for ourselves and each other, but we also made a couple to gift to someone whose kindness has helped us or made a difference to us.

We do watercolor Wednesday pretty regularly, almost every week. It is met with different reactions by each kid. Nick likes art, and some weeks if he likes the project, he really takes his time to do it. Other weeks, he has a list of a million things to do, and he will rush to the next thing quickly. Some weeks he chooses not to participate, which is okay too! Lucy loves art. She recently wrote a book at school about how art makes her smile and how she loves to do art. So she is fully invested and fully CONFIDENT! Jimmy loves to do it, loves to do it his way, can’t get enough, and is super proud of his masterpieces. Rami loves doing the art, and often has really great ideas. He is meticulous. He really enjoys the art, but he can get caught up in perfectionism and disregard the process. So he always learns really great lessons through the process.

I also gave the kids oil pastels to use too, thinking they might do some oil pastel/watercolor resist work. Lucy did a little bit, and I did one too. She loves the oil pastels. The I love Rory bookmark for her firends is done in oil pastels.

I made tassels out of embroidery floss. Tedious! But it really makes them look legit, and I got faster at it the more I did. We made a lot of bookmarks! 😀

I chose to give my bookmark to someone I work with who, I believe, is a very strong person and who inspires me. I put a French quote on the back that says, “Au milieu de l’hiver, j’ai decouvert en moi un invincible ete.” by Albert Camus. (My apologies that I do not know how to add accent marks on here.) Anyway, it means, In the midst of winter, I discovered in myself an invincible summer. This is one of my favorite quotes, one that I have represented on my body in a tattoo. During this difficult year, this person has brought that invincible summer. It hasn’t been easy, and there have definitely been mountain valleys on the journey. But I wanted to acknowledge her strength through this bookmark, which I did oil pastel resist under watercolor.

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