Almost to the finish line

We are in our last few days of the school year.  It is a crazy rush to get assignments in and get grades finalized.  I decided to make my end of year a bit easy.  To end the year, my beginning Art and beginning Drawing classes are all working on Tessellations.  It is a nice assignment because it allows for every student, regardless of their abilities to turn in an "A" project.  The only way they can mess up the assignment is if they turn it in incomplete.


The fun part is to look at the shape you have made and use your imagination to see images in it.  This tends to be difficult for students, who are not used to thinking in this way.  I tell them it is like looking at the clouds and finding images.  I encourage them to help each other out with seeing images.  This is where I have fun because many times they ask for my help and I can list off many things.  It gives them a true glimpse of how creative my mind is.

Here are some samples my students have turned in:

My Intermediate/Advanced students have been playing with Shrinky Dink paper.  They had to create original versions of mythical creatures.  They have had lots of fun watching the paper shrink in the toaster oven.  It is an adrenaline rush for all of us as we watch the paper shrink and curl. 

Here is what they have created:

It has been a great year of art.  I am looking forward to next year's batch of student work. 

Sunday Agglomeration

 I have been out of sorts lately.  My drawing routine has been completely disrupted by life.  I had absolutely no drawings for a Sunday Agglomeration post last Sunday.  It has really thrown me off balance by not having time to draw.  The school year gets closer and closer to the end and I feel like more and more tasks appear with no end in sight.  I am looking forward to summer vacation and being able to be a full time artist for a few months.  I managed to make time for a few creations. 

I'm still stuck on a yoga theme for my daily drawings.

sphinx

shoulder stand

plank

reverse warrior

I also made new Mizzles.  On my yoga retreat, my friend and I stopped and bought some socks that had a yoga vibe.  A few years ago, I began making Mizzles from any trip that I've been on. I haven't finished their faces, but they are already full of personality.

I finished a few more shrink-a-dinks.

I am hoping that this week will be the jump start I need to get me back into constant creation mode.  Tomorrow, I begin taking Mira Reisberg's online e-course, Hero's Art Journey.  It should be an exciting adventure!  There is still time to sign up for her class if anyone is interested. www.herosartjourney.com

 

Sunday Agglomeration

I'm surprised how I managed to work on my own art this week, considering how tired I've felt. I wasn't able to complete a drawing a day, but that is because I worked on a few other things.

Here are some of the drawings I did this week:

Here are some Shrink-A-Dink Mizzles I created:

Before shrinking

After Shrinking

And lastly, I am working on an in progress watercolor piece. This week I was worked on the water. I am using watercolor pencils for the entire piece.

Sunday Agglomeration

I am trying to organize what I do into more manageable chunks.  I'm not sure how successful this is going to be, but it might prove to be easier.  I've decided to do a summary of my daily drawings on Sundays instead of posting every day or every other day.  My art club vice president liked the name Sunday Agglomeration for its title. I will still post a few other days during the week, but I think I want to designate them topics.  I think one might be a continuation of artists and art that has inspired or currently inspires me. The other might be a random thoughts day.  I'm not sure, but little steps will eventually turn into long strides.

Here is this week's first Sunday Agglomeration:

Some of my daily drawings this week are not influenced by anything in particular. For some reason, this week has been a week of very intense dreams, which means I wake up more exhausted before I find my way to bed. My dreams are like adventure movies. I'm always searching for something, but I never find the answer. But thanks to the amount of detail my dreams have, and the intensity of the search I wake up drained of energy. Coffee and Mint tea have become my best friends this week. This was my inspiration for this drawing. I want nothing but to jump into the biggest pile of soft pillows and fall gently asleep.

I had no idea what to draw, but I desperately needed to draw something.  Life decided to throw me a curveball that I wasn't expecting AT ALL!  I wasn't thinking of the baseball analogy when I drew this, but clearly my subconscious was.

The rest of the week's drawings were not inspired by anything in particular.  They were just quick drawings I put together.

During the week, I had my Art Club students play with Shrink-A-Dink paper.  Do you remember Shrink-A-Dinks?  They were my favorite thing to make as a kid.  Needless to say, my students had lots of fun drawing on the paper and then watching them shrink in the toaster oven.  I traced my drawing of Stargazer in tree pose, colored it, and then turned it into a pin.  This gave me a great idea.  I can turn a lot of my daily drawings into key chains, and pins.  I might even make earrings.  I'm still playing with it, but I a bit excited.  I tried out a few others and shrank them.

Happy with the results I began tracing more of my drawings.  Here are the ones I need to color and shrink. I haven't decided what these will be.  I think for now I might stick to key chains.