Inspired {Dr. Seuss}

As most of you know,

Dr. Seuss's birthday is March 2.

You can find Seuss-related activities everywhere,

there is definitely a Dr. Seuss cult following.

Most tend to focus on Seuss the Author

but what about Seuss the Illustrator?

Today, we've been inspired by

Dr. Seuss

We didn't focus on creating works using the same pencils or paper as Theodor Geisel

(he liked to use pencils, pen, ink, and watercolors)

We mostly focused on how and what he drew

Look at any of his books,

you will notice lines around his characters showing movement.

Study the different lines, what do they imply?

Green Eggs and Ham has a lot of different motion lines.

One super fast car

Goofy characters (with just as goofy names) are created by combining parts from different creatures

Behold, the Moggy! Part whale, part doggy.

A variety of fantastical landscapes fill the pages,

some zany, yet structured cities...

some continuing on like mazes that appear to never end.

A Seuss-ian maze

After looking through many books and comparing and contrasting his illustrations

we came across the book,

I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

I wanted to see if we could draw with our eyes shut

Mommy's

Miss C thought this was hilarious and absurd!

She kept trying to peek and would giggle when I caught her.

 At first she was upset when she didn't pick the right colors or draw in the right spot,

but, 

when she realized that the crazy pictures she drew resembled Dr. Seuss's drawings the most,

she relaxed and had fun with drawing while her eyes were closed.

We had a wondrous Seuss-filled day!

"Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!"

What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

Ribbon Rainbows and Cotton Ball Clouds

Rainbows are taking over the internet!

I love rainbows!

We each created our own cute little cotton ball cloud 

with

a rainbow of ribbons streaming out of it

 Here's how we did it:

First we gathered a few plastic fruit cups, some yarn, and some ribbon

(That ingenious ribbon storage idea was inspired by this pin)

I poked small holes in the top of the cups with a push pin before we started

Set your cups aside and start picking out your ribbon and yarn

I asked the girls to shoot for at least one of each color of the rainbow

Cut the lengths however long you want

I like the look of the varying lengths

When you're done picking out your ribbon and yarn, 

you should have a nice colorful pile smiling back at you!

Lay the ribbons out meeting the ends (of one side) together

Tie the ribbons together with a string

After this step I tied some fishing line around the ribbons as well

I threaded the fishing line through the middle of the ribbon and out the top of the ribbon bundle

then pulled the fishing line through the hole in the plastic fruit cup

and hot glued the fishing line inside the cup 

and 

on top of the cup (after pulling the ribbon all the way inside the cup) 

Here are our plastic fruit cups with their ribbon rainbows glued in

Next, we glued cotton balls all over the outside of the plastic fruit cup

Look at this teamwork!

Here are our ribbon rainbows and cotton ball clouds hanging up!

Mine, C's, and then A's

 I can't help but smile when I see these hanging in the room

Just brightens up my day!

How are you liking the rainbow trend?

Do you have a favorite rainbow project?

You can find more rainbow activities on my Rainbows Pinterest board!

Sketching Outdoors

At the beginning of the week we had snow,

by the end of the week people were walking around with shorts on!

I knew I needed to take the girls outside but wanted to make sure we fit in some art time too

So, I packed up our 

Staedtler Aquarell Watercolor Pencils

image from www.staedtler.ca

a couple pads of paper,

some brushes and a jar of water.

Grabbed the dog, the wagon and the camera and headed out on a walk. 

Along the way the girls pointed out the things they saw

and by the time we reached our destination they were ready to sketch!

C drew a picture of a pink sun and quite a few flowers

 The girls were so cute sitting next to each other just sketching away.

When they were finished with their pictures

I got the water jar out and watched their faces light up,

this was their first time using the watercolor pencils

(even though I've had them since before they were born)

A liked drawing, then painting with the water, then drawing over the water

 After a couple of drawings, they'd get up and go look for some new inspiration

sketch pad in hand

 It felt so nice to be outside enjoying the beautiful weather

taking in the sights and sounds

feeling inspired and creative

What a perfect way to spend the day

What's your favorite thing to do outdoors?

Process Art {Painting to Music}

I decided to see how music moved the girls during some recent painting sessions

This was a two day process for us.

The first day we listened to a few different music stations on Pandora

I took note of the types of music that they showed interest in

The next day I chose 3 songs from 3 different genres

(Keep in mind, I'm not an expert)

Before playing a song 

I talked with the girls about trying to think about how and what the music made them feel

We sat on the floor, closed our eyes, and listened to the song in its entirety 

When the song was finished I set up the paper and brushes

allowed them to choose whatever colors they were feeling

and played the song again for them while they painted.

I did ask them to paint the whole time of the song

and I restarted the song if they weren't finished painting

We did this process for all 3 songs with about 30 minutes between each painting session

Clair de Lune~Debussy

I started the girls off with a nice slow relaxing song

C chose blue, green and purple and made mostly big, slow, circular paint strokes

 

A chose blue and pink and made longer streaks across the bottom and the top of her paper

  

The Phantom of the Opera~Andrew Lloyd Webber

I was most interested in seeing how C would translate this song on to paper

(The Phantom of the Opera is one of her favorite movies)

She chose pink, black, and yellow and used mostly black.
This was the only session where she created a story about her painting

This is a picture of poor Christine that has been burnt (but only a little bit) 

 A was fun to watch during this song because she sure had fun making the dots by slamming the paint brush down on the paper

Organ Donor~DJ Shadow

This is the kind of music that gets me pumped and this is where I learned something new about my girls

Though they love jumping around and having crazy dance parties to music like this

but

It did not motivate them to paint

C painted for the whole song but I could tell that she wasn't feeling the music

A sat for about 5 seconds and took off to play

and that was the end of our painting sessions!

Has music ever moved you to paint?
What's your favorite music to listen to while creating?

Process art is for anyone and everyone
Can you guess which painting of mine goes with what song?