Monkey Faces

Monkey Faces - Day 2

Bear Paw Studio - Kid's Art Camp

Art Safari - Sept. 24 - 27, 2012

Day two of our Art Safari took us to the monkeys!  The adventure started with a review of the color wheel and how primary and secondary colors differ.  Two other terms we learned about were complementary (opposite) and analogous (similar) colors.  We used chalk to color a daisy shaped wheel to use in our project today.

The main project was to use three pre-selected "mystery" analogous colors to create monkey faces. 

With these pre-selected oil pastels, students drew circles and ovals for muzzle and eyes, and triangles for the nose and hair, colored them in, and adding a little black for contrast.   After drawing the features and laying in the colors, they worked the oil pastels with their fingers to smooth out and blend the colors together.   The artists also learned and practiced some smart cutting techniques to be sure the monkeys looked their best after being cut out.

Gretchen cuts carefully around her cute red-brown-gold monkey.

Danielle's monkey has several brilliant shades of green.

Hailey's monkey is beautiful in blue and blue-green.

Melody's monkey looks wonderful in pink and violet.

Emma's monkey is a stunning yellow-orange-red.

Cassidy's  monkey looks great in shades of blue with lots of black accents.

After the monkeys are cut out, the artists choose a paper that is a complementary color to put behind it, and then both are mounted on a black background.

Danielle is putting red behind her green monkey.

Melody puts yellow-green behind her violet monkey, and adds a nice violet border, too.

The monkeys hang on the wall, and the artists do a little monkeying around too.

Wow!  The monkeys all had very unique personalities, and color schemes that sizzled and popped! 

That does it for day 2 of our Art Safari.  Visit again to see what exciting things are on the itinerary for day 3!  Thanks for visiting!

Safari Guide,  Betsy Bear

Van Gogh's Stars

Bear Paw Studio - Betsy Bear Creations

Art Mini-Camp - June 4 - 7, 2012

Day 4

It's the last day of camp, and Van Gogh is our artist to learn about and emulate today.  

oil pastel "Starry Night" by Gretchen, 8 yrs

But first, we enjoy eating some smiling snacks before diving into the art books, oil pastels, and Starry Night.

Eating always helps artists work better.  This is a theory I've tested many times.

After reading about Van Gogh's short life and art, we get out the oil pastels and some blue paper to create our paintings.  We look closely at Van Gogh's painting, noticing the church and tree in the foreground, and how Van Gogh used short, lively strokes to make the swirls and spirals come alive with movement.  We try to do the same, a few changing Van Gogh's tree shape to a spruce tree like the ones that grow around North Pole.  The stars look the same everywhere, so we don't need to change them.

Danielle, 9 yrs.

Cinnamon, 10 yrs.

Gretchen, 8 yrs

Hailey, 9 yrs

Kaylee, 8 yrs

Melody, 8 yrs

Emma, 7 yrs

Afterwards, we paint Van Gogh's sunflowers . . .

Danielle, 9 yrs

Hailey, 9 yrs

. . . .or look through the many art books we had used throughout the week to read more about our favorite artists.  It is sad to learn that Vincent Van Gogh had such a unhappy life and sold only one painting while he was alive.  

Emma enjoys a popsicle with her art.

Popsicles, friends,  and art--life is good!

Kaylee  looks over Van Gogh's work.

Hailey and Danielle

We do a little writing before our rides come.

Lastly, we take some group photos before everyone leaves, so we will remember our fun week together at art camp!

The artists with their work!

L to R: Cinnamon, Gretchen, Melody, Emma, Mrs. Bear, Kaylee, Hailey, Danielle

I hope to see these artists back again for my next art camp!  It was a great week of creating and learning about great art.

Betsy