Zentangle Letter E

I had fun tangling this letter E last night! I've been grabbing some of our old messy paper to play with!

I love this pattern and use it SO much. Here's a link to a variation of it.

If you're really enjoying our letter series and looking for other lettering ideas, check out our Lettering Board on Pinterest, and share your work with us via #kasvtgallery on Instagram! Your images will appear in Our Gallery.

As December approaches, E and are going to be going to our Winter Holiday Board for ideas about projects to try. We'll share our Pinterest successes and failures with you! Come on, winter! I'm really looking forward to trying this one from Debbie's Resource Cupboard!

Lettering and Journaling

This blog post by Kristal Norton shows so many different applications for lettering in journaling, and I love that the letters aren't always super-polished, that some some are pasted in from found text.

These types of pages can so easily be created with your child, too! Let your toddler paint or cut pictures out of magazines to paste into a collage. Doodle/Tangle around their artwork, and add your own quotes!

Notice how, in the last photo, this artist has folded the paper around the outside of the pages -- so pretty on the outside of the journal! Time to dig out an old Moleskine!

My favorite pages from Kristal's blog post are by an artist named Jenn Olson (her site here):

 

Toddler Spooky House

Tonight, my very serious artist painted her background, stuck leaves to it, let it dry, cut out her house silhouette, painted it black, and helped me glue it on the page with white squares for windows. Easy Peasy! Proud Mama!

Spooky Houses

Jamestown Elementary Art Blog

This week, we're creating spooky scenes and houses!

What I love about drawing architecture is that it can be as simple or as detailed as you like! Messy watercolor or acrylic swirls create a great background for a Sharpie-drawn or black-painted silhouette of a spooky house, black cat, ghost, or pumpkin! Add some doodles/tangles or other details with your white gel pen or some white chalk, and what a neat, creepy scene you have!

Want to customize this activity for your toddler? Have them paint the background for your scene and use a stencil to create silhouetted shapes!

I found this amazing creation on the Jamestown Elementary Art Blog. These kids are SO, SUPER talented! And kudos to these teachers for leading some incredible art adventures!

For more ideas about how to draw spooky scenes, check out our Halloween Art Board on Pinterest.

Want to share your art with us? Use #kasvtgallery to be featured on Our Gallery page!

Silly Monsters

Mateo Dineen is one of my favorite creature illustrators! Check out more of his artwork on his site (here). Just a little parental disclaimer: some of his monsters are doing some not-so-kid-appropriate things, like smoking.

But most of them are just... lost on our planet, taking photos, or stuck with their head in a sock... doing very human things, which is hilarious.

Also, his monsters aren't that more detailed than our creature blobs. They have some more detailed eyes, shaded limbs, and FUR. I've posted some how-to pins on our Halloween Board showing how you can draw fur if you'd like to create some furrier creatures for your Halloween artwork!

BONUS: Mateo has a blog where he actually shares the process photos he takes as he creates his artwork, and you can follow him on Facebook (here)!

Mateo Dineen

Ghouls, Monsters, and Creatures

This week, we are making creatures! I first discovered the art of imaginary creatures when I stumbled upon Carla Sonheim's blog, The Art of Silliness.

Then I took an "Unlock Your Inner Creature" class at Artists' Mediums, over the summer, with Kristin Richland. It was wonderful, and I highly recommend checking out her future creature classes! It went beyond the basics I've described below, to get your brain thinking more creatively! I loved it and have been inspired to make more creatures ever since!

Essentially, you draw any-old shape you want. You can draw it with your eyes closed, or trace the shape of an object you like. Then you add a few basic facial features, maybe some shading, and voila! A creature! Or, in honor of Halloween -- a few spiky teeth or lines for hair would make a pretty neat ghoul or monster!

Another way I love doing this is by painting (using your acrylic spray-paints or just making swishes on the page). Then, I look for animal- or people-like shapes in the blobs of dark and light paint patches. I trace them in black, then draw in simple shapes for facial features. I've been enjoying using my white gel pen (Uniball Signo) and a black artist pen (Staedtler Triplus Fineliner) (or any ol' Sharpie will do!) to add details and highlights on top of the watercolors I used below.

Here's one I did this week! There are more imaginary-creature examples on our Halloween Art Board on Pinterest, and I'll post more drawings and tutorials throughout the week!

Want to customize this activity for your toddler? Help them to draw or make shapes on paper. If they can draw dots for eyes, a line for a mouth, lines for hair, they'll have a page of creatures in no-time! If they're not quite ready to draw, cut out blobs of paper for creature bodies, and circles or other fun shapes that they can paste on their blobs, for creature facial features.

Want to share your artwork with us? Use #kasvtgallery on Instagram to be featured in Our Gallery!

DIY Acrylic Spraypaints

OMG yoo guyz!! ..... So, even though it's mid-Halloween-candy-art week, I had to share this! I found this idea while browsing the web and the wonderful world of art journaling!

DIY acrylic spray-paints! I grabbed a couple of old spray bottles -- the ones that our optometrist gives away with glasses cleaner in them (or an old perfume bottle would work). And:

1. Rinse them out.
2. Spray the sprayer a few times using only water, to rinse it.
3. Fill the bottle with about 1 part acrylic paint to 5 parts water.
   Or experiment with the ratio. Too much paint may gunk up the sprayer.
4. Add warm water, and shake to mix!
5. Spray away. Warning, it is messy!*
6. Add stamps, like I did with the "G" below, or doodles/tangles.

*This can easily be adapted to a toddler art project, with supervision. I'd just recommend using age-appropriate non-toxic paints, of course. You also may want to do this activity outside or with a lot of newspaper on your art table. The spray gets everywhere.

You can spray stencils, cut out your own shapes to put on the page, etc.! Today, I also picked up some supplies at The Art Store. I talked to the woman working there, and she recommended 2 new pens: a white gel pen (Uniball Signo) and a black artist pen (Staedtler Triplus Fineliner) for doodling/tangling on top of watercolors/watered-down acrylics. Both are working fabulously so far, though the Staedtler takes a little while to dry. I recommend propping up your finished pages in front of a fan while working on other pages. I love my Micron pens and will continue to use them for basic doodling, but the Staedtler is the first pen I've found that lets me draw over dried watercolor without picking up any of the pigment.

Candy Corn Tangle

Maybe for the next project, I'll venture outside my safety zone a little more. For now, I took on a little candy corn tangle! E was not interested in making artwork yesterday... maybe today!

I Want Candy

In honor of the upcoming Halloween candy feast, we are drawing and creating all things candy!

Join us this week as we draw, paint, and create candy artwork (or healthier treats, if you wish)!

Check out some ideas for creating your own -- drawing candy, painting candy, painting ON candy, sculpting with candy, etc. -- on our Halloween Art Pinterest Board here!

And, of course, share your creations with us in Our Gallery via Instagram using #kasvtgallery.

This great little illustration is from the Charlotte Lucie Farmer Illustration Blog.

Dream Art

Last night I had a dream that my grandmother was cleaning her kitchen closet. She was wearing a surgical mask to protect her lungs from the dust, but the mask itself was covered in a thick layer of dust. It was a WEIRD dream, but I wanted so badly to illustrate this strange image! More inspiration to learn to draw better!

Dream Drawings are definitely on my art to-do list. What a fun art journal that would be! This week, I also set up a Kids Art Source VT Pinterest account. Now I can actually sort all of our project inspiration, ideas, and tutorials into different boards!

Check out this piece by Jaime Best and more on our new Dream Art board.

And share your art with us in Our Gallery by using #kasvtgallery on Instagram.

Learn to Draw with Post-Its

I've been feeling so discouraged lately about not being able to draw more of what I want to draw. I feel like I'm not great at drawing people, eyes, more realistic objects, boats, you-name-it! I always end up going back to my comfort zone -- doodles and tangles -- which are GREAT! But, how fun would it be to implement some more detailed illustrations?

And it's silly, because we can draw anything we want to! I came up with a little system for drawing practice using Post-Its! I keep a pad on my desk or in my purse, with a pen or pencil close by, and I practice, practice, practice! When my work computer goes down, I practice. While waiting for a doctor's appointment, I practice! When I complete one I like, I stick it in my journal or notebook. Others get trashed or dedicated to a "Gotta Work On It" page in my notebook.

It's not always a matter of just practicing, I like to have visual guides too. Pinterest is my go-to for drawing tutorials. It's okay to copy any of this artwork for practicing and journaling purposes! Check out:

Our Pinterest Board for some great drawing tutorials I've collected! Also, try these other Pinterest Searches:

Drawing Tutorials
How to Draw Eyes
Lettering
Drawing Boats
Drawing Trees
Drawing Flowers
Drawing Animals
Drawing Cartoons

And so on! All it takes is a little practice! If you want to share your work with us in Our Gallery, tag your Instagram photos #kasvtgallery!

The Art of Clean Up

My co-worker and artsy friend, Rachel, just introduced me to this fantastic book! It's called The Art of Clean Up: Life Made Neat and Tidy, and you can find it on Amazon (here).

Also, I've been in touch with 2 businesses that currently have October Art Classes. I know specifically that The Art Store, in Stowe is doing a neat class that brings parents and kids together to create art collaboratively! Check out our Local Events & Classes Page for more.

Patio Art

We've lost some of our fun time in the afternoon, with my new work schedule, but there's always time to paint and have a snack outside on the patio. Beautiful day for that! Elle loved having so many rocks and leaves right at her fingertips.

I drew some branches for her, and she ran with it!

Altered Books

Ellie's Art Table!

As part of our art journal experience, I've been exploring the idea of altered books. Pinterest has some great ideas for altering books -- I saved some of my favorites on the KASVT Pinterest Board (here). I really love the smashbook-style of this one from Teresa Collins' Design Team blog (more here).

My two-year-old has been doing a great job keeping up with her painting and journaling, but I'm a little behind. I've started altering a new book, pics soon, but my little one is proudly and quickly covering her journal with all kinds of sketches of "spiders" and "mountains," and sticking on leaves that she's found outside.

I basically handed her a book, and she ran with it! I love the idea of filling mine with watercolors and zentangles. Any old books or magazines will work , and suddenly the thought of having an endless supply of (recycled) sketchbooks to paint and zentangle in is making me incredibly happy! There really is paper everywhere! Check your recycle bin!
 

Teresa Collins' Design Team Blog

Glove Puppets and October Events

Hello, friends! Thanks for your patience as I get my October events in order! I should have an update tonight with some new class schedules from some of our favorite local art shops and studios!

The art journaling continues, but our living-room "studio" is just one big, messy art table. Elle has been continuing the daily routine of painting, drawing, and pasting in her journal, but I just haven't gotten around to documenting it!

But, in the meantime, OMG Glove Puppets!! Check out this site (via handmadecharlotte.com) and some fantastic ideas for glove puppets.

handmadecharlotte.com

Art Journal Paint Supplies

I've been really happy with both of these paint brands -- Basics and Premiere -- very much because they're so reasonably priced. The Premiere paint was on sale at A.C. Moore, and a few colors got me started with acrylics. I'm thrilled with the results, and happy to find out that it's much easier to tangle on top of acrylics than watercolors. I also finally picked up two new Sharpie pens last week which made my heart happy. I was barely getting by with the others, which I had worn out almost completely!

I used a ruler to draw a grid and am making the Amalea Zentangle pattern (tutorial here).

Elle did some acrylic painting with me, too, in her journal!

Heartsy Artsy

Another page of randomness. I don't know why I'm stuck on these "starbursts," maybe exhaustion or lack of imagination, but I'm enjoying filling them with tangles. I wish I felt that I had a true vision with my artwork, but lately I've just been... playing. But that's a good thing, too, right!?

How To: Here, I used a big, checkerboard-pattern stamp to make a background. I stamped over a heart-shaped Post-It note. I dabbed pink and white paint around the heart shape and used a small paintbrush to pull the paint away from the heart. When I took the heart off, some paint had bled through around the edges, so I let it dry then cleaned it up by painting over it with some white acrilyc paint. It didn't cover it completely, but it was white enough to tangle on. Then I tangled away!

You can find some of my favorite zentangle patterns on my Pinterest board here and, on my mommy blog, I give a little tutorial on how to do this swirly pattern, here.

 Also, this weekend, Auntie Bee (her site here) took us to a great Burlington gallery where she showed and sold some of her artwork! E loved it, especially the poetry reading and the kids' art corner. The other girls were making leaf art and leaf creatures, so E made her own. Note the eyes over the leaves... melt my heart!

The Letter E

Here is another fun zentangle lettering exercise! You can check out the tutorial on my mommy blog, here!

Art Journal Idea - Letter Art

Ingrid Padilla Art

Here's some more art journal inspiration from Ingrid Padilla Art!

I love how simple doodles and adding a touch of watercolor can really create a beautiful piece of artwork! This would be great for a kiddo's art journal page or cover! For toddlers, you could draw the letter, then have them paint it!

I like to sneak little Es into all of my artwork as a little "hello" to my daughter, but I may just have to make one huge E like this for her!

Kids' Art Journals

Okay, so, would anyone be opposed to me dedicating the next month+ to art journaling? All in favor? Let's just do it. Haha!

Art journals are our go-to on any day that I don't have a "real" craft planned, so... most days since I've gone back to full-time at my day job!

But, Elle loves it! She knows that, in the afternoon, she can grab her book and do whatever she wants with it. Last week, I went through the recycleables and found some foam packing material, and she pulled it apart and glued it all over her journal pages. Then she painted them. I was having a little anxiety, because the journal doesn't even close now, but that's how it should be, right!?

Anyway, Pinterest has some fantastic ideas for Kids' Art Journaling! Prompts, tutorials, etc.!

Here is what I found in my net surfing:

• One - Pinterest search for Kids' Art Journals
• Two - How to make your own journals (ABeautifulMess.com, pic below)
• Three - How to alter old board-books for journaling! (CreativeWithKids.com)
• Four - Kids' Art Journal Prompts
• Five - Learn about Smash Books & How to Make Your Own!
• Six - Check out our own Toddler Smash Book! (YourMomIsStrange.com)
• Seven - Consider picking up a Wreck This Journal book, with prompts for creative destruction!
• Eight - Learn about the art of doodling/zentangling! (InnerChildFun.com)
• Nine - How about some print-making ideas to spruce up those pages? (TinyRottenPeanuts.com)
• Ten - Explore some around-the-house painting tools! (LessonsLearntJournal.com)

Photo from ABeautifulMess.com!