Learning Masterfully!

This summer these students took their art to the Next Level!  And they fell in love with their paintings!  They already knew how to draw, so they went on to tackle the beast of mixing colors.  We first began the course by creating a color wheel so they could see how colors were made.  Then, really observing their animal, they had to decide where to place the shades first.  By understanding your darkest darks on your object you can gauge the lights and mediums.  Once that is in place, the artist looks at the highlight areas: areas where the sun is hitting their object.  We first started with a still life so by using simple shapes we could understand darks do not have to be black!  After that exercise,  we moved on to animals of their choices.  Here are their results. . . they were pleasantly surprised even if they felt it might be too hard.  SECRET: To tackle the fur and the palm tree fronds we used a special brush so you don't have to paint every hair or leaf.

Listening to my students for ideas

I was quite surprised after my summer Fashion Design class when students told me how much they enjoyed learning to sew.  They wanted to have more sewing classes, so I took them up on that and this Fall I offered a sewing class that was FULL and had a WAITLIST!  Here are some of the projects we worked on.  I am looking forward to sharing my sewing skills with another group of girls soon!  

These girls had no prior sewing skills and learned how to operate their own machine, practice how to control the pressure, follow a line, and make a bobbin.  We redesigned a T-shirt and then we made emoji pillows.  We started some snakes from old socks but we will need another class to complete them, if they did not finish them on their own. 

If you are interested in a sewing class for your daughter call me at 805 443-1555 for the next available class.  Students must have their own sewing machines.

Cartooning, is this Art?

Parents are always wondering if their child drawing cartoons is really learning any skills? YES! When your child is drawing and copying what they see, even if it is an anime or another cartoon, they are focusing on their drawing skills. For many young children, drawing something realistic is intimidating and they are afraid of failure. Drawing cartoons puts an animal into a correct perspective, yet they can be silly which takes the edge off of it having to be perfect. So much of their schoolwork revolves around them performing or testing well and this gets translated into a need for "perfectionism" for many young children. And who wants to fail?

I have found that the students in my after-school cartooning classes at St. Mary Magdalen's School love to draw and have fun with drawing many of their favorite characters from current movies, such as "Jungle Book", "Finding Dory", and "The Secret Life of Pets".  They are learning how to draw expressions, a variety of animals, create a story, and will gain confidence to draw beyond the "stick figure".