Art Lesson - Sketch Page: Little Mouse

Hello!

I have been dieting the last month and a half,

a challenge between a couple of people and I,

It was a pretty focused endeavor.

My husband's boss and the secretary at his job are very thoughtful people

and often send home little treats to the kids or myself.

About a week or so ago, the secretary sent home a piece of cake for me:

she told my husband to have me wait until the kids were in bed,

and enjoy the cake all by myself.

Of course, she didn't know of my diet competition:

it was a sweet and kind gesture.

The cake was the most incredible-looking chocolate cake I have ever seen:

rich, dark frosting covered in mini chocolate chips,

drizzled with a bit of butterscotch.

The kids were all as desirous of it as I was.

Of course, I did what any good dieting mother would do:
I put it into a container and buried it in the freezer where it would be safe and sound until the competition was over, and I could enjoy it then.

The competition ended the day before yesterday,

and I waited a whole day before I dug the cake from the freezer.

I am being very good about it and only ate a section of it,

gave a few small bites to the kids,

and have the rest saved for another day...

after the incredible taste of it,

I am thinking that will be tomorrow.
:)

All that to say, I purposed to make a nice card for the thoughtful secretary

for such an incredibly delicious cake.

I decided to add a bit of something cute to the card,

so I decided on a little mouse to be in the picture.

A great tool for digging up realistic pictures of creatures is,

of course, the internet.

I typed in "cute  mouse" in the search engine,

and these are some of the images that popped up:

Using a combination of the images,

I came up with a sketch page to get myself familiar with this creature.

 I then sketched a picture of a mouse with some cake,

and then copied my sketch (using the light box) onto another page.

I am glad that I did because I used watercolors and did not like the way a few parts of the picture came out, so I used my original and the light box again, and am coloring it in this time with copic markers and colored pencils.

I haven't finished it yet, but here is the image of the mouse in watercolors.

I wish I could share a bit of the cake with you...

INCREDIBLE!

Feel free to print up the mouse page and give him a try,

if you'd like.  He is free for personal use, just not for resale.

Thanks for stopping in!

(To copy these pages, click on the image, right click, and then click on "copy".

Open up Microsoft Word and right click on the screen, and then click "paste".

 The image should paste onto the page.

You can then click "print".

If you have difficulties or suggestions, please let me know.)

Using Art for a Clean House: Chore Chart

Today I am going to switch my usual vintage illustration post with a home project

because I wanted to join in Kelly's Korner blog and share a post on "cleaning tips."

Trying to keep the house clean with three little kids on a farm can often seem overwhelming.  I quickly realized that a great way to try to keep up with the house

is to encourage a bit of help from the little folks themselves.

Last year, I created some images to use to make chores more fun for the kids

and easier for those who aren't reading yet to see what everyone is supposed to do.

I affixed the images to used canning jar lids and put magnets on the back.

We used an old tray to put them all on.

At the end of the day, the kids got "tickets", little colored papers, that they could save up to use in the 'Attic Store.'  The 'Attic Store' is a space we cleared out in the attic and have some odds and ends I have picked up on sale, at the second hand store, and at yard sales: games, art supplies, hair things, little toys, videos, etc.  Each item had been priced 25 - 100 tickets or so, depending on the child who they were intended for and how many jobs they were expected to do (otherwise, my youngest would take a year to be able to purchase her items).  On occasion, we would change the target goal to a breakfast out with dad or some other fun adventure.

Before Christmas, I can change the tickets to money rewards so they can save up for some Christmas shopping.

Here are the images I made for their jobs

(yes, there are some that are not really "jobs", like reading some of the Bible everyday,

but it is a good habit that will help them through life, so I made it as well.  Certain of their jobs are much harder than others, but I figured the easy job tickets make up for the harder ones,

and they knew that they had to do certain jobs in order to get any tickets each day,

like making their beds: that had to be done or no tickets would be rewarded.)

The kindness award was given when I saw somebody doing something that I thought was especially kind.

 I need to made a few more to add to this list: my daughter occasionally helps with hanging/taking in laundry, helping with lunch, and I want to add watering the house plants to somebody's job list.

Here are some colorized versions I made using Copic markers,

 but kids could color their own in as well.

 

 Some of the jobs are seasonal, like the hauling wood happens more in the fall and winter.

Helping with plants happens mostly in the spring.

Vacuuming and the stairs are done on Saturday morning, and only one room is necessary at this point.

If they want extra tickets, they can do additional work at their choosing,

and mom is always happy to give them extra tickets!

This year I changed up the structure of our chore chart. 

I shrunk the images down when I copied and pasted them into Word

and copied, pasted, and cropped a few extras of the jobs I needed for more than one child.

I cut them and then put them into contact paper.

I got some velcro tape at the dollar store and put one section of that on the backs of each chore.

For the chore chart board, I painted the middle section of an old cupboard door using Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Ambusson blue,

 which can be used like a chalkboard. 

I painted the edges in a cheerful yellow.

Color is always fun on a chore chart.

 I put the other part of the velcro tape down the front side of the painted board,

and will put each child's name on the left side of the tape.

On the right side, I will use chalk board pens

to create a graph for the days of the week so that those lines won't have to be written in every week

but they can be washed off when I need to alter something.

(These look like chalk marks but stay on well unless washed with water).

The chart is leaning up against the wall in the living room that is painted in chalkboard paint

so it will be easy for them to mark an "x" on the chart when they complete their jobs.

 I put another strip along the bottom to hold the extra chores.

It is always fun to have a new chore chart at the beginning of a new year.

I found this system to be very effective, jobs getting done everyday without my even having to ask.
It's amazing what just walking by a straightened boot box will do to a room...
especially when I don't have to ask anybody to do it.

But even better is the sense of responsibility and help the kids get from being a part of keeping the house running smoothlly.

You are free to use the chore pictures I have made if you'd like,

as long as they are not for resale.

If you would like me to create certain chore pictures for you,

just leave a comment and I will post those here as I finish them.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to:

Kellyskornerblog.com: Show-us-your-life-cleaning-tips
 Time-warp-wife.blogspot.com
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Astrollthrulife.net
Sugarbeecrafts.com
Hiphomeschoolmoms.com
Betweennapsontheporch.net 

Bystephanielynn.com

Funkyjunkinteriors.net

sixsistersstuff.com

Iheartnaptime.net

Commonground-do.com

Colored Pencil Bear: Drawing from Book Images.

(Here is the sketch I will use to teach today, as well as the colored pencils that were used).

Hello, and welcome back to another lesson in art.

A good exercise in art is to draw different animals.

There is so much variety in animals, and it is always a fun undertaking.

Of course, animals are not ones to sit still and pose, and it isn't always easy to wrangle up a polar bear for a session from which to paint.

This is where books and magazines come in handy.

http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Animals-Dk-DK/dp/1405315601

My son received this Animal Encycolpedia as a Christmas gift from his grandmother.

I immediately knew that I would be borrowing it from him.

It is the nicest book I have ever seen of animals, such a huge variety and they are all real pictures, not drawn ones.

(Of course, I do appreciate drawn pictures, I just like to draw from real ones.)

I picked up this book the other week and decided to sketch a bear.

I started with the lightest color I could distinguish in the bear's fur, and sketched the outline of his head.

It isn't necessary to erase all the lines since the color will blend in with the colors that are added.

Next I measured with my pencil where the eyes were on the head

and lightly drew in some lines to place them.

From there, I lightly marked in the bears features:

nose, mouth, ears.

I darkened some of those features that I felt confident were in the right places...

 and then added in some colors for shading around the eyes, his mouth, and the edge of his head.

At this point, I sat back and looked at the original bear picture, and my own,

and really critiqued how things were going and what needed to be fixed.

(I try to do this along the way, of course, but at this point, I could sees something was off).

 Can you see what it was?

Look at the bear's head from his eyes to the top of his head.

My bear's head is not tall enough over his eyes and between his ears.

Thankfully, this can be fixed by extending the head and ears with the original lightest color,

and then working to blend them in.

Next I went a bit heavier with the reddish brown,

and then darkened around the eyes, nose, and in the fur with a brown/black.

As the shading continued, I found it helpful to edge in the dark fur at the top of his head.

 Legs were darkened it.  This helps me see where the boundaries of his head are.

When I had my bear to the point where I felt finished, I went back with some of the lighter colors

and blended the fur in at certain places, to get rid of any underlying white.

He was a fun sketch to work on.

 Do you have any books with real animal pictures in them?

If you do, try sketching one soon.  Take your time, be patient, and draw what you see.

There were several times in this sketch that things looked terribly wrong to me and I wanted to quit,

but patience was worth it for me this time.

No, my bear isn't perfect, but I like the way he turned out, and he was good practice.

Remember, practice makes perfect.

 Until next time, thanks for stopping in!

Linking up to:
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Kids in a Row Free Vintage Print/ Lion

Hello, again.

Today I am sharing an old book illustration of snapshots of children.

The unique placement, the diagonals of the pictures, gives this the "active" look that I mentioned in my previous post.

Don't you think the variety of placement gives this more energy and creativity than an

 all-in-a-row school yearbook-look would have given?

Here is a cleaned up version in a brown tint...

and a black and white.

I thought this one offered some good sketching opportunities.

I find it hard to sketch what somebody else has sketched

because the line placement has to be exact.

What is useful about sketching vintage printed pieces, is that they can be used to create cards when the sketching is done.

(The fiddlin'  frog image is from the Graphics Fairy).

I thought I would leave you with one more old print.

The kids had a field trip to the zoo this week,

so I found this picture a fun one,

even though there weren't any maned lions at the zoo where we went.

I think lion eyes are a bit terrifying,

 almost as if to remind the candid onlooker who the King of the Jungle is.

I love the detail of his fur, especially the messy tousle on the top of his head.

(Feel free to use any of these images as you'd like).

Have a happy day!

Sharing at:

Bystephanielynn: Sunday-showcase-party
Adiamondinthestuff.com
Aboverubies.net
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Graphics Fairy: Brag Monday 

Painting Spotted Animal Fur

Hello, friends, and welcome to another lesson in art.

When you think of spots, what do you think?

Little circles or dots is the first thing most of us think of.

Like droplets, round and perfect.

But most animals that have colors or spots have variety in their colors...

and spots.

 Now here's a happy little fellow to demonstrate for us.

If you look at his fur from far away or at a quick glance, it's easy to think dots of black,

but if you look more closely, it would become more obvious that some are large, some small,

some are brownish and others black,

and pretty much all of them are not perfect little circles.

If you were to come up and rub his fur backward,

he wouldn't like it much, but you'd see that under his fur, his undercoat is actually mostly black,

but the white fur sits on top.

 I was working on this project for my living room,

so I thought I'd use this cow to demonstrate

(sometimes it is helpful to get a piece of art in plaster form

to practice something like fur and get to know the body structure of an animal).

I printed up a few images of real cows from the internet

and then used the colors I wanted for my own.

 I base-coated him in a bright shade of brown.

When paintbrushes get old and uneven like this,

I tend to throw them away, except this one still had plenty of soft bristles.

I knew this type of condition would be great for painting a rough splotchy look,

like for tree leaves on a faraway tree...

or animal fur.

Here you can see how the old frizzy brush works nicely to make the fur look more realistic.

I worked in the white more heavily in some places

and dabbed it on lightly in others.

 I worked on some of his other details while I let the white on his fur dry.

I definitely wanted the white to dry so that the spots would be a crisp color

and not muddied at all by the white.  Patience in art is very crucial, but one can usually find other things to work on while waiting for something to dry.

Once dried, I began adding random splotches for spots.

I used a darker brown and also a lighter brown,

and had some that got mixed.

I kept adding spots until I hoped it might be enough.

Knowing when to stop is sometimes a hard thing to know.

So many times I wish I had stopped on a project instead of being too critical of my work

and then I get frustrated because I feel like I have done too much.

 Walking away across the room and looking at your project from a distance when you feel you may be done but are not sure is a useful tip.  Sometimes you'll notice something you need to fix;

if you don't see anything that looks as if it really needs work, then stop and let it be done.

Once you have created your own spotted animal either on paper or in a project like this,

it becomes fun to notice the wide variety in the animals you meet.

Try noticing animal fur this week, in books or magazines or if you go out.

Try sketching up a dog or other animal and giving him some "spots" in his fur

and see how creating spots of variety makes him look more realistic.

Thanks for stopping by!

This is part of my free art lesson series each week.
To see the full list of art lessons, click <HERE<.

Linking up to:
Betweennapsontheporch: Metamorphosis Monday 
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Frenchcountrycottage: Feathered-nest-Friday
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