Activity Day Art!

Tonight was a lot of fun!  We talked about different art genres and made some original art!   You cannot spend a lot of time on each activity if you want to get through them all.  I did about 10-15 minutes on each activity.

First was Impressionism. We talked about what it means and I showed different examples of impressionism from the game "Masterpiece".

Art cards from the game "Masterpiece".  This would be a fun game to play if we had more time.  Could play it next time as a follow-up and discuss the different genres as we play.

For the impressionism art activity, I had the girls tape their paper to the underside of the chair and draw a landscape picture using crayons.    This was to imitate how Michaelangelo (not an impressionist but this is a fun way for the girls to draw) painted on ceilings.  (I would NOT recommend, however, showing the pictures of his Sistene Chapel paintings. I mean, perhaps a distant overview but there are a lot of nudes in his creation and judgement depictions.)
The girls had fun with this activity drawing upside down.  This is my favorite genre so I had fun showing different examples and telling about the different impressionist artists.

Next we discussed pointillism...creating art using dots.  For this we used q-tips and watercolor.  I found an example of this technique on-line here.  First they drew a design with pencil then they did the q-tips. They LOVED making these paintings!

Next was abstract art.  Again, I showed some examples of this type of art.  I suggested that they think of an emotion and then try to draw it.  For this activity we used markers.  They got a little crazy with this one.  It was fun.

Finally, we did realism.  I had a basket of fruit and they were to draw it using a pencil.  I tried to teach them a little about shading but this was the most challenging for them.  None of them really liked this one too much.  It was much more challenging.

They were proud of their work!

For a treat I made sugar cookies shaped like rainbows!  The night was a hit!

For a follow up, I will encourage the parents to do Developing Talents #5- Visit an art museum, and the girls can share what they've learned about art with their parents.