Starting our Mask Making on Paper forms using plastecine for Paint!

We took a vote to start our masks without drawing and sketching first - going straight to our plasticine. After a few minutes some of us realized that we don't actually like to work that way - returning to drawing to coax out an idea, while others started exploring and experimenting with the clay, taking photos of their work, then trying out new ideas.

We've decided to document our plastecine creations as we go--trying to remember some of our ideas that we leave behind as we re-work. We also agreed to all follow through with a final working form, a papier mache session, further construction-if we want, and paint/embelishment.

We discussed that our masks will be one-sided(we are not going to work on the inside) because we liked wearing them, and especially had a lot of fun finding out how expression and facial gestures are related and can, sometimes very simply, suggest emotion and character traits.

Tracing National Geographics Spring 2014...pics soon

We are off to an interesting start this session creating hybrid animals. We are also learning about rendering a drawing/drawn idea into a different media.

We started by experimenting with tracing paper and photo's of animals to mash up some creatures, and as a starting point for inspiration and consideration. While not necessarily teaching us the importance of eye-to-hand drawing, I think tracing can teach us a lot about looking, and what 'drawing' really means to us. Also, trying to transfer a 'realistic' image-trying to capture an index or 'realism' of an image, with tracing paper is a very quick and useful tool that turns us into a kind of human photocopier or even emotional printer. Much like a camera might give us an illusion of objectivity, a tracing can give us an illusion of accuracy, opening up other channels of engagement in creative mark-making--perhaps asking us to re-locate our considerations of what a drawing should be.

We all got very excited about the accuracy, and the failed accuracy, in our work, and we all accepted our work as a kind of copying exercise - learning that we are taking & making selections from existing material - and then discovered that there was more we could do, and were inspired to do, to make the work our own. So tracing can offer a  really good experience in understanding where we copy things, why 'accuracy' may or may not be the most important signifier to our work, and where we invent and  innovate. We will continue with transparencies, adapt something from our original tracing, and create a 3-D mask invention along side this process to see what connects.

We are not taking tracing lightly. I'll give a bit more thought to Artists we can look at.

Potion to make a monster...eventual faces in 5 Steps?

We started this session by drawing and painting large eyes (will post pics soon) and making monster faces in 4 steps. I think this helped us to let go, or notice, our own ideas of a 'right' way to get at a representation of a face.

We worked a bit on our painting skills on our Monster faces.

Here is our potion(formula) to make a monster appear:
top of head and forehead

eyebrows and eyes-no nose
nose from under eyes to tip of mouth

mouth and chin below

And then this appeared!?

I would really like to see a large format collage face from all of our pieces and drawings of parts of wholes as a final work from each of us. And I think we are due for a large "puppet" head for our group project.

(pics of actual human features to be posted soon...can't find my camera charger!!)

Barbara Reid

We worked on plasticine portraits--and came up with animal, human & hero portraits in 2-D and a 3-D scene too!

It was a fun way to work our own way through a Barbara Reid project from her site, and use the medium she has mastered as a world-renowned illustrator. 

WE started by drawing in our sketchbooks, and using our sketchbooks to figure out some ideas, and then details, of how a thing looks.

We stayed open to imaginative identification, representing animals and heroes as our idea of 'portrait' (7-8yrs.). E. worked through the challenges of representing an actual visage of features, and laying out the background first, unlike the jr. artists, which then inspired and influenced her colour choices. (12 yrs.) (Top of page. Finished to be posted shortly).

After we realized the project, I think the activity of forming shapes and dimensional detail, in different colours, led us into drawing detail and exploring colour combinations in painting(Painting to be posted shortly. Sketching below:)

IKEA frames (on sale!) are a good finish for plastecine 2-D work as they seal in oily plasticine and the colours compliment the bright clay.

ArtClub continues...

Avatars by DMW 2013

Splattered PA DAY Fun!

Some of us calmly working after our Splatter Fest!

An excerpt from our beautiful drop cloth.

Halton PD Days All Ages All Day ArtClub!

Halton PD Days Art Making Fun!!
is available for the following days 2013/2014:

Nov. 22nd:  Drips, Drops and Swirls: Act out
our Weather with Action Painting and
other artful action experiments!
(This will get messy!)
Jan 31:  Discover and Create: Sculpt, paint, embellish and enrobe with fur and fabric, while exploring a Winter palette of forms and colour!
June 6: Discover and Create: Build and create kinetic sculpture...and kinetic drawing too!! Using shapes, colours and sounds too - of early Summer!

$48. All materials included
9-4 pm with am/pm extended care available($6)

Please book ahead to confirm a spot! Email or call Sylvie at 905-639-8545.

Updates and News

Awesome Maché-ing Mask Making and Paper Clackers to make!

Great job with power paper-maché!! We will have great bases  to build our masks from next week.

Here is a link to the instructions for our "Chompers"... it's a Youtube made by kids for kids!

Our "Chompers" are great puppets - we used 60lb card stock. They make great sounds when they chomp, are great at picking things up...and sometimes eat things as well! We enjoyed making up games and ways for our beaks to speak and play - it was very mechanical fun! 

Thanks for a fun and messy studio--still peeling the glue off my hands ;) --we'll build up features and attach handles to our masks next Wednesday.

Tamara Clammer’s Swan Lake Headdresses : Our first session for Fall 2013

Artists at Work #1: Tamara Clammer’s Swan Lake Headdresses

http://www.jigsawrenaissance.org/2013/03/tamara-clammers-swan-lake-headdresses

 It was a lot of work getting the studio ready for new, and returning friends.  Thank you for messing it right up again in the best way with painting and pencil shavings and your work on the walls!  We are a small group but perhaps more friends can join us soon!

We worked on mismatched creatures - drawing from our imagination and nature books, then took our ideas to canvas and acrylic paint - which we'll finish next week. I see some really interesting starts to(inspiration for) our masks/creature characters in our paintings! We also talked about 'performances': and we decided we want to tell stories...and that our stories will be creative inventions even if they refer to stories we already know,that they can no sense, but that our stories will help us to create character masks that will  help tell them...and that we will figure out how to collaborate (work together) on that.

It was a fun first studio for this Fall - Thanks for your enthusiasm!

http://teacupmilliner.com/design/mirror-mirror-movie-swan-headdress/

ArtClub Fall 2013 starts Oct. 2nd

We are Colourful Creatures Oct. 2nd to Nov. 6th (2013 Flyer).
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We'll try another animation studio at a later date -
Check back soon!

ArtClub Afterschool starts October 2nd

ArtClub jr. overview and pictures:
Hope you can join us! 

ArtClub jr. Afterschool starts
Wednesday, October 2nd 2013 

 

ArtClub SPECIAL Projects
Tuesdays & Sundays(if you like) starts

October 2013...tba

Discovering through Action Painting &
Printmaking explorations

Creature Sculpture with wire, plaster and paint

 Creative Stop Motion using mixed & multi-media!

Summer 2013 -Thank you for joining us this summer!

Thanks to everyone who made our summer studios so fun ~

We experimented with Marshmallows and Sticks, raced simple machines and struggled with Rube Goldberg inventions. We made sculptures that balanced, towers of rocks and hot glue that couldn't. We made plaster planets, see through drawings of creatures, painted balloons and the galaxy they belonged in. We tried painting and dripping with wax and glue resists on canvas and cotton, making something familiar and abstract at the same time, by adding dye and paint. We did ice painting and ice orb sculptures too. We played Pictionary Tag(too fun!)and Alien Attack, Night Watchman and Wink, and enjoyed our time together discussing our ideas, sharing our opinions, and inventing games to play in the Lego Zone.
ArtClub Afterschool will start again Tuesdays and Wednesdays in October. details/link posted shortly!

Drawing Clubs: Reflection Portraits, Bob and Round Things - Thankyous 2012=2013

Drawing Clubs: Reflection Portraits, Gesture Drawing and Round things ...were a fun way to finish the school year! Here are some excerpts: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drew ourselves in the mirror...well actually ON
mirror, then we drew ourselves FROM the mirror in a few ways.

This is Bob. Tuesday's Artists made Bob.

So they could draw Bob.

 

We all drew Bob. 

 

...and we drew round things like Marbles and balloons in many different ways:

 

 

 

 

 

We drew marbles on Mylar and stuffed animals in motion
and tried to fill a jar of marbles too...

 

  

Our very last Wed. drawing studio, so calm you wouldn't
guess we were also getting ready to show our work!

 Round treats at our show.

Thank you to Arryn and Heather for donating smocks for our painters. Thank you to Heather for her continuing time, great thinking and repurposeful materials...and her yummy muffins! Thank you to Brian and Tawny for our Beaver sticks and tubes!! Thank you to Stacy and the kids for joining us on the Feb. PA Day. Thank you to Kristen of Edible Arrangements for donating containers, boxes, printer and computer time, and other excellent materials. Thank you to LaDawn for all the treats!Thanks to Krystii and Maylynn for sharing their expertise, insights, ideas, talents and enthusiasm. Thank you to all our ArtClub Artists for their energy, efforts and input into making each studio interesting and fun for all - and thank you to all our artist's parents for for sharing your talented children with us and coming to all our shows!!