So one day I’m checking a favorite blog called Deep Space Sparkle. I love seeing her colorful ideas for lesson plans to teach art to children. You might think that since I myself teach art to children, that I would love this site for ideas for my own students. But actually, I love the ideas for myself! It’s fun to play, to jog yourself out of any artistic ruts you might be in, and this site gives plenty of ways to do that!
So the featured artist was someone I had never heard of…Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian artist whose work is boldly colorful, abstract, and full of patterns. Something about the raucous color, the shapes and patterns, plus the way Patty (the blog author/teacher) translated his work for children, sparked something for me to give it a go.
All of this percolated for a couple of days, as I thought of how I might like to translate some of it for myself…bold colors could be acrylics or oil pastels, wanted to outline in black (not necessarily a Hundertwasser trait), and definitely wanted to scratch through, like Patty had her kids do…but thought it would be fun to try the scratching through oil pastels, much like we did when we were kids, only with crayons.
So…I swooshed around some watercolor in my sketchbook and let it dry. Then I used the vibrant cray-pas oil pastels on top. The final flourish was to scratch through the pastel. I ended up having tons of fun, the images spilling over so fast, I had three of them in the first go! I’ll share more later!
I love this! And your right…art, no matter who it is intended for, is inspiring! Thanks for linking back.
Layering really does make it powerful. It’s a house with candy trees! Yum
I love this. Isn’t it great when someone sends off a spark that gets you going in a whole new direction? You feel more alive, more happy, more vibrant yourself don’t you?
Are you inside my head? We must be kindred spirits! Yes, yes, and yes to all of it!
Just went to look at the site you mention. Your take on the lesson is definitely your own original one! Super!
Beautiful mixture of colors! =) Love it
FUN! And thanks for that link; I’m off to do some exploring!!
Lollipop trees! LOVE these!