Project: Hand Flower Sculptures

Flower sculptures made with hand prints are cute, fun and can actually become toys. My boys loved playing with them. The act of painting is quite fun too, as they get to put their entire hand in paint. I wanted to create a project to go along with the theme of close-ups of flowers and plants so I just super-sized a flower and this is the result. Read on for directions on how to do it with kids.

Step One: Gather materials. You will need tempera paint in green plus a flower petal color such as red, orange, purple, or yellow, white glue, scissors, paper towel tubes, colored puff ball, bristol board, and an inking plate or paper plate. 

Step Two: Pour the paint on the plate and have the child smear their hand in it. 

Step Three: Press hand on bristol board. For young kids, you will need to hold their hand to the paper for them. Let them know that they need to keep their fingers still.

Step Four: Continue printing until you have at least 4 hand prints.

Step Five: Paint paper towel tube green.

Step Six: Allow to dry, then cut the hands out. This should be done by an adult. If you're doing this as a class project, ask for parent volunteers to cut the hands out. 

Step Seven: Glue only on the bottom part of the palm of each hand.

Step Eight: Arrange hands in a fan formation at the end of the tube. Make it a little easier on yourself by flattening one end of the tube before applying the hands.

Step Nine: Glue puff ball to the center of the hand formation.

Complete flowers!

Project: John Singer Sargent's Clouds

Gio's Clouds

Kids love cutting and pasting. Eamon especially is crazy about wielding a pair of scissors. So I try to find a lot of projects that involve both of these activities. John Singer Sargent's Clouds is a perfect painting to emulate in collage. It's a simple composition with many layers. 

Interpretations of Henry Moore's Drawing, Reclining Figure

Brownie, charcoal on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

 This is what happens when I haven't drawn from life in a long time. It's all a little off! But, it was fun doing it and especially fun using charcoal. I forgot how nice it feels to smear the charcoal and and how dark it applies.

Cup and Bowl, sharpie on card stock, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

 This week was pretty busy so I didn't have a lot of time to draw, unfortunately. One afternoon, while Eamon was eating his snack, I drew a few dirty dishes on the table. Using a sharpie, there's not much room for error, which made it a little more challenging and exciting. Even though I only had a few minutes, I was able to get in the zone. Drawing is like meditating, really.

Eamon's First Still Life, charcoal on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

 This is Eamon's first charcoal. His favorite part seemed to be the smearing. It's certainly fun giving them different art materials to work with. They obviously love it!

Gio's First Still Life, charcoal on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Gio's charcoal does have some shapes similar to the Brownie camera. The circle with the lines radiating is the winding knob, the large circle is the lens, and the long curved line on the right is the square shape of the camera. I will challenge him with a still life again. He understood the concept, so why not?

Children Recreating Henry Moore's Drawing, Reclining Figure

Believe it or not, I asked a 4 year old and an almost 2 year old to draw a still life. I set up an object, an old Brownie camera, and told them to draw it. I did a demonstrate on how to do it by making a drawing of my own. Eamon kept touching the camera, but after he got bored of it, he began drawing.

Interpretations of Wang Hui's Scrolls

Shadow Mountains, litho crayon and ink on watercolor paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

 The most attractive element of Wang Hui's scroll painting is the way he created the mountains. They're so dreamy and stylized. It's obvious he wasn't there because mountains don't really look like that. But, that's why they look so great in the painting. They're from his own imagination and what he remembers mountains to look like.

I just took those repeating, craggy, curvy lines and did them my own way. First a little bit like him, then less and less. The boys did a project with them as well their interpretations are a bit further away from the original, but still have the same, basic idea of repeating lines and shapes.

Warble Lines, graphite, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Lined Egg, pastel, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Eamon's Wang Hui, crayon and tempera on watercolor paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Gio's Wang Hui, crayon and tempera on watercolor paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Children Recreating Wang Hui's Scrolls

As in Eva Hesse's paintings, it is possible to get a 4 year old and a 1 year old to emulate an artists style, sort of. I began by showing the kids this painting by Wang Hui. First asking them what it looked like then asking them to find things like the people, the buildings, and the trees. I explained what the artist was trying to accomplish and then demonstrated how to draw a line and then make a similar line underneath, over and over.

Interpretations of Eva Hesse's Drawing

Two Circles, charcoal on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

 This was so hard for me to do!! I'm not a minimalist at all! It took so much to keep myself from filling in details. I had to force myself to stop. Eva Hesse's ideas were in my head as much as possible. My favorite  is that of disintegration and allowing things to change. I just think that's so beautiful.

Spiked Seashell, acrylic on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Woven Circles, ink and pencil on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Worm Circles, block print, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Gio's Original Eva Hesse Painting, tempera on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

 The boys did a painting using only black and white and then they took another paper to create a mono print. The first painting is the original and the second is the print. When the white mixed with black they made a grey-blue. They must have used blue for the black base. It turned out great, so I'm glad! Sometimes the cheap art materials surprise you!

Gio's Eva Hesse Mono Print, termpera on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Eamon's Original Eva Hesse Painting, tempera on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Eamon's Eva Hesse Mono Print, termpera on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Children Recreating Eva Hesse's Drawing

For a minimalist, Eva Hesse-inspired project for the kids, I decided on a mono print project. It's simple, it's fun, and both boys were pleased with the results. Before we began, I showed them some examples of Eva Hesse's drawings and paintings, told them about minimalism, organic shapes, and how Eva Hesse loved change and disintegration. Sure, some of these ideas are quite complex, but they listened intently and it's often surprising what they remember. Try it!

Interpretations of A Bright View of a Dark Time

Floating, watercolor and crayon, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

 I love the stark lines and colors in A Bright View of a Dark Time and attempted to do the same here. Klee's work is so playful and optimistic, even the title spells it out. It was definitely fun using so many colors and simple lines.

The boys did their own interpretations using black crayon with watercolor on top. I did the same above. They definitely liked the painting part more than the crayon part. If you've been watching carefully, you may have noticed Gio's great interest in the spiral. It's a recurring motif in his work.

Klee's Birds, acrylic on canvas board, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Gio's Klee Interpretation, crayon and watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Eamon's Klee Interpretation, crayon and watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Interpretations of Vasarely's Vonal Period

Circle Rhythm, pip squeak markers on paper, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

The Proenza Schouler purse from the dressing post helped me with the work above. I love the changing colors and the circles. It was fun using the boy's crayola pip squeak markers. They come with a surprisingly good palette. The best part of it was the limited nature of markers. I had to stay within the palette given and could really only create one, flat texture. Restrictions can make art-making more challenging and fun.

Blue Anxiety, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

As in the title, I took this from the movie High Anxiety that inspired the dressing post. Concentric circles have always been a favorite of mine. They're present here and above. My love for circles comes from my Grandmother who uses them often in her compositions. I think of her as the master of the circle. She uses them in ingenious ways and they always bring everything together so beautifully in her paintings.

Eamon's Pinwheel, pip squeak marker on paper with pencil and push pin, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

The boys made pinwheels for their Op Art project. Yes, it's pretty literal, but with preschool age projects, that's what I have to do! They chose the colors and did the drawing while I constructed the pinwheel. We made them on Wednesday and they're still playing with them! It was a hit!

Gio's Pinwheel, pip squeak marker on paper with pencil and push pin, copyright Nina Leung, 2013

Interpretations of Vermeer's A Girl Reading a Letter.....

Interior after Vermeer, graphite and colored pencil, copyright Nina Leung 2013

 Vermeer's work is all about the interior. Women working, reading, pouring milk, conversing with others, all in a room. Usually it's the same room over and over, just slight adjustments to each. I did my own, slightly Surreal version in graphite. The light is so important in Vermeer's paintings, so I tried to do something similar. Of course, he painted right there in the very room, setting up the scene. Mine was taken from the imagination.

Abstract Interior, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung 2013

 Since I'm more an abstract artist and I enjoy finding the fundamentals of something, abstracting the interior was an obvious choice. The grid on the window, the yellow bowl, and a strange, kind of difficult composition. I actually asked Gio for advice as to what to do with the upper right corner. He told me to make squares with fireworks in them. So, that's what I did. I think it worked!

Gio's After Vermeer, watercolor, crayon, collage, copyright Nina Leung 2013

 The boys did their own Vermeer interpretation. We studied a few of Vermeer's paintings looking at a slideshow, then we followed this lesson. Gio did his completely on his own. Eamon needed a little help on his, but most of it is his own. The key with doing artwork with children is separating the project into chunks and then limiting the materials. I only allowed 2 different colored markers for the background, 3 colors of crayon for the window, and only blue for the watercolor.

Eamon's After Vermeer, watercolor, crayon, collage, copyright Nina Leung 2013

Interpretations of El Greco's View of Toledo

Starry Sky, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung 2013

 I've always loved dark skies and light colored landscapes. Since the sky is normally lighter than the landscape, it's appealing to see the opposite. Could that be why we like the look of stormy skies so much?

Dark Desert Sky, graphite and colored pencil, copyright Nina Leung 2013

 The two above were also partially inspired by a great Georgia O'Keeffe painting. I took her technique.

Umbrella Tree, watercolor, copyright Nina Leung 2013

 This tree is right down the street from me and it really does look like this. the colors really do blend from yellow to red. The strong contrast reminds me of the View of Toledo.

Big Sky, watercolor, copyright 2013

Gio's Story Sky, tempera and crayon, copyright Nina Leung 2013

 The boys did their own version of a stormy sky. They first did some finger painting. I gave them one color at a time and let them go crazy. They loved it!

The next day, they received a piece of green paper to cut in half. Eamon needed a little help as he's not yet 2. Then they colored it with some brown and black crayons and then glued it to their stormy sky. They were pleased with the results.

Eamon's Stormy Sky, tempera and crayon, copyright Nina Leung 2013