WINTER BREAK DRAWING AND DESIGN CAMP

During our winter break camp students were asked to think about about elements of design, such as composition, line quality, scale, value, and pattern. They were given a variety of unusual materials to create with, including old newspaper layout tape and letraset letters and patterns, fountain pens with india ink, carbon copy paper, vintage encyclopedia pages, and dayglo paper. The kids were fascinated by these materials and made some truly captivating work.
We also discussed foreground, middle ground and background, and the idea of things in the distance getting smaller. The kids were then asked to copy an animal/landscape image while thinking of these ideas.

exactly real, kinda real, and definitely not real

Wolfie: What is Grey drawing?
Grey: This is definitely not a real thing.
Wolfie: I'm just gonna draw ordinary things.
Smith: Look at my jet and it has jets coming out of it!
Wolfie: Look what I did! I did the real circle parts on the wings.Smith: Look! Someone's sitting in it!
Grey: A pilot?
Smith: No, it's a truck-jet.Grey: What?
Smith: Nothing. . . Look! It's shooting into the air like a real jet-dog does!
Wolfie: I'm drawing the exact same thing [the toy-plane that I see]. First I'm drawing red cause that's the basic part of it.
Smith: I'm keeping the color right and kinda not right. I'm gonna draw this like real life -- like I'm on the sidewalk!
Wolfie: Look my lines got destroyed. My other lines just blended in with the colors, but look! That line got destroyed!Grey: I'm gonna cover up everything and see how it is. I want to turn that paint a color!Wolfie: What is that?Grey: I don't know. I'm just making something ... I made grey! I made my name!




***

watercolor alien

Ellery: Look, it's an alien from a different planet. Planet Septune. It's holding...well, I don't know what it's holding, but in it's other hand it has a magnifying glass. It needs a magnifying glass because one eye is really damp.

Grey: What does "damp" mean?

Ellery: It means really black. It means ruined. It means rusty.
Grey: Is it just a robot?
Ellery: No, it's actually an alien.

Grey: Well, then why is one eye really damp?

Ellery: Because all my aliens have that. ... I can make it shooting a blue laser out of its eye. See?
Ellery: ...What are you drawing?

Bianca: Who are you asking? Grey or Elena or...?

Ellery: I'm asking myself.



***

making mountains

That's a giant shadow. I'm gonna make a little mountain down here. there I go. Look! Look!
[in corner of page] I'm not finished until the whole paper is filled! I wanna be done . . . no I'm still working! I'm putting a little mountain between the two big mountains. Oo! Oo! I have a long space up here -- I can put a long skinny mountain. It's the tallest mountain you ever saw because I'm using up the whole paper and the paper is very long.
This one's really cool. I choose this one because it's blue and blue's my favorite color. And I like snow. That's the big shadow. See the big shadow? Oo! I like this! And see that mountain over there? It really looks like a real mountain! Not this one over here -- that was an accident -- but this one [real mountain = the smudgy violet area in corner]!
Oo! I still have a couple space. This is a tiny mountain that's going to become a giant mountain. I always blow off all the dust.

SUMMER CAMP: Week 10

We had a fun and very full week! The theme for our camp this week was Nature. The kids created artworks using many natural materials. Our projects included: flower pounding; paper-making; dyeing fabric, wood beads, yarn, and string with turmeric, onions, cabbage, and spinach; weaving and embroidery; stick, bark, cork, and rock sculptures; bean mosaics; felted rocks; painting with beet and carrot juice and coffee; weaving pots for plants; planting rye grass; creating Andy Goldsworthy inspired nature arrangements; and salt painting!

This concludes our Summer Camp program for this year. Thank you to all of the kids who participated! We are forever enchanted and inspired by your personalities and artworks! xo