Under the Influence

I am so excited to be teaching an after-school art class at my kids' school this coming year. Originally called "Under the Influence," the class will now be called "Copy Cats." Each week we (Preschool through 2nd Grade) will be learning about a different famous artist. The history lesson will be brief, and then we will spend the rest of the class period working on a piece in that artist's style. In other words, learning by imitation. At the same time, I want the children to work on their own unique style, so I hope to hand out some form of sketchbook on the first day in which they can keep all of their own drawings. By the end of the semester, I will then take one of their drawings and use it to inspire a RaspberryKid picture that they can then take home. So, it will all come full circle, and I will eventually be copying them!

Hopefully enough kids will sign up for this class. In the meantime, I have been using my own children as guinea pigs. We have been studying different artists and trying out the lessons I plan to use. (I found some great lessons at www.artsmarts4kids.com). In trying these out on my own kids (one in 2nd grade and one in kindergarten), I'm figuring out how long each lesson will take and how easy or difficult they are for the different ages.

Today we worked on Wassily Kandinsky. I loved looking at the you tube videos of his work.  We started by doing "Color Studies" in oil pastels. I think this is a great project, as it shows them a technique of dividing the paper and then then just following a simple pattern. My daughter was a little frustrated at the beginning, but she soon caught on, and I love the finished product....so do they. 

Next, we might move on to Farbstudie Quadrate, but I think they want to save that for another day.