paint cut paste

this is a little frog story, illustrated by my little artist. she calls it “play drawing” when she draws while telling the story (oh so dramatically!) as she creates the pictures. thought i’d share this little ditty N made up in her room on friday afternoon, in her own words, as explained to me when she came downstairs:

(click images to view them in a larger size.)

“once upon a time there were six frogs. they were hanging out on their lily pads until one day they decided they were bored. they wanted to paint cool designs on their lily pads. so they did. and when they did, they realized the lily pads looked like surf boards, so they went surfing!

one little frog (the one at the bottom who was about to paint purple in the first picture) surfed by a pole and held on tight!

and then when he let go and was surfing, he saw his reflection in the water, and he felt peaceful.”

i just love the expressive faces and postures captured in this little vignette… random froggy surfing fun!

as you all may recall, we got a great package from decoart this summer containing lotsa artsy fun. someone in our house was definitely psyched about this surprise! we have made a few projects so far with these materials — like our first day of school chalkboard sign:

and our glow-in-the-dark rocks:

while there’s still much more fun to be had under our roof with these goodies, i thought we’d share the artsy love by giving some supplies away to you, dear readers! many of these giveaway items are part of our decoart surprise package and others are from our own overflowing stash. i am so thankful that you’re here, sharing in our artventures and continuing to provide me with amazing feedback and inspiration. enter to win some tangible tokens of my gratitude:

• decoart 8oz chalkboard paint (not pictured – oops)
• three 8oz bottles of decoart acrylic paint in the primary colors (red, yellow, blue)
• three 4oz bottles of decoart stencil paint in fuchsia, yellow, and turquoise
• decoart flower stencil set
• decoart glow-in-the-dark puffy paint
• decoart pearlizing medium – 2oz (fun to add to your acrylic paint to give it a shimmery glow)
• rose art rainbow swirl pencil set
• package of twelve #2 pencils
• 4 color ballpoint pen
• a little jar of pixie dust, for art-making magic!
• and one other very cool surprise…

DRAWING IS NOW CLOSED.

you can enter the giveaway drawing up to five times by doing one, a few, or all of the ideas below:

• entry #1: leaving a comment below telling us what you’d like to paint with chalkboard paint
• entry #2: like us on facebook & comment below to tell us you have
• entry #3: follow us on twitter & comment below to let us know you have
• entry #4: follow us on pinterest & comment below to let us know you have (i’d love to know your pinterest link so i can follow you back, too!)
• entry #5: share this giveaway on your own blog, your facebook wall, or twitter page and let us know you have by commenting below

apologies to all of my friends in other countries (who i also deeply appreciate,) but i can only ship these goodies within the continental USA. i will use a random number generator to choose a number of the winning comment on the autumn equinox – friday, september 23rd, at 9pm pacific/midnight eastern. be sure to leave your email address with your comments so that i can contact you if you win!

THE WINNER IS MANDY:

it’s back-to-school time again! this time of year brings so much nostalgia for me. while N doesn’t start kindergarten until after labor day, i realize that many are starting this week and next, so i wanted to share this simple little idea with you all for that sweet first day of school photo op.

my first day of kindergarten back in the day, age 4.5 (nope, my mom couldn't get me outta terry cloth clothing)

a couple weeks ago, the kind folks at decoart sent us a box of awesome free art supplies(!!!)

among other wonderful things (all of which i will share in the coming weeks with a giveaway at the end) were two bottles of chalkboard paint. score! we decided to create a first day of school sign. we found a really smooth, hard particle board (like the kind you’d see on standard clipboards) in our stash, and decided to paint it with the chalkboard paint. first we applied one layer horizontally to the board and let it dry for an hour.

then we applied another layer vertically to the board and let it sit for 24 hours. on the bottle, it says to dust lightly with chalk to condition the board, and then clean with water.

dusted

N and i thought it’d be fun to create a frame for the board out of pencils. i hot glued them around the edge of the board (breaking and sharpening where necessary to get the proper measurements.)

N wrote “kindergarten 2011″ on the board to show the year of school she is heading into. (do not adjust your screens – it is not 5011 and we are not in the future. 2s and 5s can be confusing to a 4 year old. )

she practiced her first day of school pose that we’ll do in a couple of weeks. this is not only a fun chalkboard to play school with, it would also be a neat tradition to break out the same chalkboard each year for the quintessential first day of school photo.

aside from the art projects we do around here, N spends anywhere from 1-3 hours per day drawing. this month, i’ve noticed a few new additions to her artistic development, and i wanted to share some of my favorite creations from july with you all. (but gosh, it’s hard to choose!) you can click on any image below to open the larger sized version of it to look more closely.

i am intrigued by how parts of the faces are covered in this image, and how the features are continued around the white parts:

"mascots"

while we’re on the topic of parts being covered, the image below shows foxes in different spots, and parts of their bodies are hidden by trees and clouds:

"how many foxes do you see here?"

N has enjoyed drawing tables and chairs for the past couple of years – i just love this one:

"the cafe"

whimsical animals are always a fav… she’s really into outlining everything now in pencil or black and then coloring it in:

"animal friends"

while we’re on the animal topic, the lucky girl in this image has a merry-go-round in her front yard:

"merry-go-round"

loving this dude so much that i want him on a t-shirt:

"weird guy"

inspired by the horses on the beach on our vacation:

"magical horses"

not only do i love how much is going on in the picture below, but N’s use of shadows under the figures is a new thing. (she says the gray marks under the ground line are shadows of the figures above them.) the zig-zag-like squiggles near the figures’ mouths mean that they’re talking. hee hee.

"playtime"

the image below is about finding the silly things happening on the playground… yes, the girl in the upper right is naked and peeing on the bounce house.

"how many silly things do you see in this picture?"

another nude “with a cool arrow design on her” – tee hee:

"naked girl"

"surfers"

"squirrel with his dinner"

"outer space"

and one last one i just love…

"home"

most of our days consist of this: N chilling at her art desk with her crayons and pencils just cranking out the pictures, telling stories about them while she draws. i LOVE these parts of the day. i know she is fully in the flow and engaged in what she calls “play drawing.” i enjoy seeing the world through her perspective in her art, as all of her images are completely authentic to her eye since i’ve never taught her how to draw anything. thank you for letting me share these with you, dear readers. in all honesty, sometimes i wonder how i get any other art activities up on this blog.

aaand happy half-birthday to N, who turned 4.5 this week! thanks for all who chimed in on my facebook page about celebrating half-birthdays in your home – glad we’re not alone!

sure, N draws people every single day. she also draws things she sees, but for some reason, she has yet to have a model sit for her and draw the person she sees, until now.

life drawing class in our kitchen

my mom (who N calls “gwee”) has been in town visiting. gwee offered to sit for her portrait to be drawn the other day while i was making dinner for the family.

N had a great time, and would not let the model see her picture until it was finished. (but mommy was allowed to see it and take pictures! yay!)  she drew the face and added realistic parts that i’ve not seen her do before when she draws from her imagination… like eyelids.

she decided to add a body and dress from her imagination. she wanted to color it with a “rainbow theme.” N said the one green eye (realistic) and one magenta eye (not realistic) were to keep it with her rainbow theme.

my mom said she’d take the portrait home and frame it for her house.

N is so honored!

as of late, N’s days and evenings are filled with line drawings. she has found her “favorite pencil” (just a regular old yellow #2 pencil) and it’s pretty much her go-to art material these days.

in september, she began to crank out an impressive volume of line drawing, usually totaling 5-15 per day. she draws them at her “art desk” in the kitchen, usually while i am preparing meals. as she draws, she narrates what is happening in the picture, she does voices for the characters in the picture, and she describes each image to me in detail afterwards. this has almost replaced her magna-doodle habit.

the papers were stacking up on her desk, my desk, the dining room table, the kitchen counter… i put the date on the back bottom right corner of each one because each is just such a gem — way too precious not to keep and cherish forever. but how?!

"this cat is an artist all day & all night"

many of you have written to me asking how to store your child’s art. we display N’s art around our house in a gallery format in her bedroom and in frames around our house. we also create cards, giftwrap, and gifts out of N’s art. the rest we do store. i keep much of it in a large portfolio (read: two pieces of posterboard taped together on 3 sides) in the playroom closet. but these drawings were just coming too fast and too brilliantly to do that. so i got a cute binder at target and a 3-hole punch and created a drawing book in which to store these masterpieces chronologically.

my intention was that all of N’s drawings for the remainder of 2010 would go in here. you can see that by the title i put on the spine.

however, this book — the stack you see here in the photo below — is the product of just 22 days of drawing! (and my own sketchbook project‘s book has 3 little pages done. i think i should commission my little artist-in-residence to help me with that!)

a serious body of work for 3 weeks time!

most of them are with her trusty pencil, but a few get colored in.

cinderella & the prince

N makes all sorts of other art during the day, but no matter what, she cranks out the line drawings. she says she’s “writing a movie.” i think she’s well on her way to illustrating a cartoon, a flip book, or a children’s novel at the very least. i think i’m going to get her a spiral sketchbook next. have any of you tried that with your 3-year-olds?

how do you archive your child’s art? do you keep it all? aaaand, how do you get your kid to draw on the backs of the pages? (as green as we try to be and as much as N respects trees, loves using cloth napkins, etc., she cannot bring herself to draw on the back of her pages. suggestions?)

who knew that when N found the regular old pencil i put in her colored pencil cup, a new favorite medium would be born?

she’s been keeping it simple over here for a coupla days now… just doing basic line drawings with a pencil and some scrap paper i keep in a bin on her art desk.

while N draws, she always narrates what is going on in the picture and what the characters are saying, in different voices and such.it’s fascinating to watch.

i will share a few (of the stack that’s collecting) of her little scenes – so fun!

festival with bounce-house, daddy with cotton candy, N with balloons, and mommy with her camera (what else would i have?)

walrus jumping rope while a bird brings her (easter) eggs to a nest

N feeding our cats their dinner bowls, but the cats are mad (see wagging tail) because a yeti has caught a person in a lasso

L to R: bird with a present, ant, spider climbing tree trunk to his web, bee, butterfly, flowers

she even made a little birthday card for our cat, bean, who turned 9 on sunday… just one day before N turned 3.5 years old this past monday, the 26th – (yes, those half-birthdays are a big deal, right?)

she wrote the message and drew a picture of herself playing with bean with the laser cat toy

the other night she began to add some color to a few line drawings she did, using her crayons. i am really into this artistic development going on over here!

our cat, bean, giving iridessa (the light-talent fairy) a rainbow tube

so for this one, i’m willing to bet you’ve got all the materials you need!