Part 2 - Ukiyo-e Art with a Side of Katakana and Kanji

The second part of our lesson on Ukiyo-e is busy and very productive!  We start with a demo of watercolor painting techniques, then jump right into painting our drawings made the day before (See the 1st lesson here).   Here are the drawings as we start:

Our goal is to imitate the classic Ukiyo-e painting style by using bold colors and painting in "flat" washes, with little or no shading or modeling. The foreground is painted first, then the background.

While the backgrounds dry, we learn a little about the Japanese writing system, and practice writing our names in Katakana characters and the word Ukiyo-e in Kanji characters, which we add to our paintings.  The students find writing in Katakana and Kanji fun and enjoy this activity greatly.  The characters are a nice addition to the Ukiyo-e paintings.

The next step involves putting together a simple scroll on which to mount the paintings.  The scrolls are made using construction paper for the center and strips of mat board for the top and bottom supports. Construction paper triangles secure the corners of the paintings, and a piece of twine is added to the top for hanging.

Our Ukiyo-e paintings are done and the artists justifiably proud of their art.  What a wonderful job they did!

Melody

Jillian

Gretchen

I'm so glad you visited and shared in our Ukiyo-e experience.  Please leave a comment and let these students know what you thought of their work. 

Thanks,  Betsy

Ukiyo-e Art with a Side of Manga and Kanji

Bear Paw Studio is finally back in operation with an exciting art class for middle and high school age students on Japanese art, specifically Ukiyo-e, or "Pictures of the Floating World."  This is probably the most famous example of an Ukiyo-e woodblock print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, painted in 1831 by the master, Katsushika Hokusai.

Hokusai, "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" 1831

In our first 3-hour session we learn about the origins of Ukiyo-e from a slide presentation and an excellent short You-Tube video by Phil Hansen, GBAacademy.com, along with several good library books I found on this art form.  In the presentations and books, we are introduced to two famous Ukiyo-e artists, Hokusai and Hiroshige, and view examples of their work.  The connection between Ukiyo-e and Manga graphic art forms are explored a bit, and by the end of the lesson, we will learn how to write our names in Kanji.

Jillian draws a Geisha girl in preparation for painting.

Ukiyo-e designs can be found on a variety of objects.

Additional Japanese art and our class project (lower right).

To begin our Ukiyo-e paintings, we make a free-hand drawing from reference materials, trying to develop our ability to see and draw shapes instead of objects or features. To help accomplish this difficult task, we turn the reference material and our drawing paper upside-down and draw the shapes we see bottom-to-top, trying not to recognize the actual objects or features they represent.  This technique forces us to observe shapes more carefully. It is challenging, but avoids the pitfall of letting our minds short-circuit our eyes, and rely on our often faulty mental image instead of reality.

This horse drawing by Gretchen was made using the upside down technique.

Here you can see Gretchen drawing from bottom to top,
with her reference photo upside down and partially covered.

Jillian's Giesha drawing.

Jillian's second drawing is another Geisha.

Melody works on her drawing of a Geisha atop a giant Carp.

Melody's drawing.

In the next session, we will use watercolors to paint our drawings, sign our names and titles in Kanji, and mount them on a paper "scroll" for display.  

 To be continued!  Please stay tuned for the rest of the story.

Watercolor Fun - Kids Art

Kids Art Camp - June 9-13, 2014

Watercolor Fun -- Ready, Set, Paint!

Day 1 - Love Birds (Silhouettes)

I'm back with a wonderful group of artists for the fourth year of kids art camp.  I'm always amazed at the high level of energy and the fast pace of this group. This first two and a half hour session was so busy I hardly had time to take any photos of our process, but did manage a few. 

After reviewing a few basic art terms (primary, secondary colors, complements) we practiced mixing up tube watercolors and painting dry brush, wet in wet, flat washes, and glazing. 

Our main project consisted of a wet in wet wash of warm colors for a sunset and another wet wash for two birds in silhouette sitting on a wire in the foreground.  The birds were drawn freehand, using what we had learned about using simple shapes to create a figure or object.  In this case a circle, oval, and triangle created a bird. 

Gretchen working on her sunset sky after painting a juicy wet in wet wash.

Danielle is done with her beautiful wash and ready to cut it out.

The group with their Love Birds finished and looking magnificent on the art line!

It was a great lesson and we are ready for Day Two!

"Draw, Paint, Grow" Art Camp - Day 4

"Draw Paint, Grow" Art Camp

June 10 - 13, 2013

Bear Paw Studio - North Pole, Alaska

Day 4

A little computer work --and viola!  A Tower of Cats!
 (from bottom to top--done by Melody, Emma, Danielle, Hailey, Aaron, Gretchen, Kaylee)

Today's Lesson included a game of "Pass the Puzzle," which was a fun way to review symmetrical and mirror drawing skills.  Each student got a design to complete the mirror image of in the allotted time, then passed it on the the left, until all designs made the rounds.  

Our painting subject was a wild cat - leopard, cheetah, lion, tiger, or other cat.  This was a more realistic depiction than the other drawings we've done this session and much more challenging to get the cat's many curves proportional and well positioned.  In spite of that, no one was intimidated and only a few required some assistance to get started--a big accomplishment for all! 

The painting lesson today focused on adding some shadows here and there to make the cats appear more rounded and realistic.  We also tried using our brushes to make natural looking grass shapes and give them depth with color changes.  It's a difficult step from flat to 3-dimensional at this age, but the students are all headed in the right direction.  

The artists with their work in progress.

Emma paints her grass.

Gretchen uses a black marker to make her tiger's stripes.

Kaylee carefully removes the tape from the watercolor paper edges.

Melody's gray lynx cat.

Gretchen's striped tiger.

Danielle's sleek cat.

Kaylee's spotted cat.

Emma's wild cat.

Danielle's bold cat.

Aaron's fast cat.

We are all done for this session of "Draw, Paint, and Grow," but will be back for more in the fall, I hope.  

Have a wonderful summer!

Betsy Bear

"Draw, Paint, Grow" Art Camp--Day 3

"Draw, Paint, Grow" Art Camp

June 10 - 13, 2013

Bear Paw Studio - North Pole, Alaska

Day 3

Today we started with an abstract drawing exercise that incorporated all our five shape elements in one fun composition.  Following oral directions, students added specific elements a few at a time, being sure to extend some to the edges of the paper and so on.  After all the elements were added, they filled in the newly created shapes with colors or patterns.  Each painting is unique, in spite of everyone following the same directions, and the variety of shapes is amazing.  This would be a great project for a rainy day!

Abstract drawing exercise

Next we used step directions to draw a bird.  This is what the directions looked like.

After drawing our birds, we learned some new techniques for painting transparent washes with watercolor to keep our colors full of light and energy.  We also learned that if we paint more transparently, we can see the drawing right through the paint, which helps with showing small details.

Aaron is working carefully on his painting. . . 

. . . and his finished painting is full of life.

Danielle paints her tail feathers . . .

. .  . which look awesome on her bird.

Gretchen draws a great duck . . . 

. . . swimming in some beautiful blue water.

Hailey works on her bird's wings. . . 

. . . and her bird is ready to fly!

Emma thinks about her colors . . . 

. .  . . and her bird ends up very color coordinated.

Kaylee likes yellows and green . . .

. . . and so does her bird!

Melody mixes some yellow up on her palette . . .

. . . for a lovely moon in her bird painting.

After paintings are done, students carefully mount them on a larger colored paper so they have that nice "framed" look.

Our sample bird stays in the studio, and all the other birds fly away to new homes with their owners.

It was another fun day of drawing, painting, and growing in our art.  Tomorrow is our last day, and it will be fun too.  Come back and see what we do.