Planning for wild and wacky art camp gets complicated

I always want something new and different to excite and entice but keep getting asked "what about the volcano? are we doing a milk thing?" Guess there is a desire to do the familiar and fun too. We are going to try some new stuff this year like building a structure with crafts sticks to see how well we engineer and some old stuff like making a kaleidoscope, using materials in a new way painting with crystals in solution, and experimenting with the movement of color through materials. The younger set gets to explode paint and make a new kind of clay and everyone gets a try at luminescent paints. Just my thoughts.

Our planet our world is creative beyond what I expected!!

First day of camp was a smash hit. we did a lesson on symmetry. Did I say lesson?? project and it was fantastic. followed with a reading of The Lorax and an interpretive project. Our finally project was a denim and fabric appliqué one and several of the kids wanted to sew theirs together instead of glue the pieces on. What a real win. Our planet our world pictures

The cork and bead pendants really got everyone going. The campers
learned a bit of wire work with the beads, esp tiny beads and charms. the beaded windsocks let us use several techniques including painting and beading. We did yet another beading project drawing a design on berry containers and turning them into beaded pins and more. Our last design went back to some symmetry on a light bulb create hot air balloons. tomorrow we add the gondolas.




This was the most amazing day!! we finished our hot air balloons adding gondolas and occupants, made clay from cornstarch baking soda and tempera powder, and created coin holders from a class I took at Austin Creative Reuse, lastly we turned all kinds of plastic tubs into aliens or alien craft. Some were even peaking out or sticking out. I am having a hard time deciding which was the best project. We did get a lot of different ideas for using things that we might recycle or just toss. The kids were super creative and everyone put their own spin on the projects. What art camp is all about!

NOT your momma's art camp!

 Not your Mama's art camp got off to a fantastic start with Mexican Peacocks and Kooky birds. This is Kat's first camp to be in charge of and what a great one it is. The kids are so creative and every project was unique. 

We used a variety of crafts sticks and wooden pieces for the peacocks then the kids painted them. Continuing with the birds theme we used small black microwave trays that the kids covered with fabric then the they  added more fabric and other items to make a tail, head and LONG legs with very big feet. At the end of the day they got to do some painted feathers. We all learned a lot on those and the watercolor ones were the very best. 


2nd day and we were making Crazy critters from a piece of cardboard, construction paper, wood scraps, and plastic scraps. The kids really got into it though creating a real variety of critters. We moved on to a recycled project with berry boxes cut into shapes to make a sun catcher. Used tacky glue to adhere the gems then broke out the glitter for those who needed a bit more glitz. 

We finished up with a marbling project using model paints that were donated to us. Great selection of colors and these really work to marbleize tiles (hands and nails too apparently!) We glued corks to the back of the tiles so we'd have a handle and not get our hands in the enamel--that did not last long!!! 

3rd day was off to a great start using polymer clay for 2 of our creations. Kat got to make custom colors for us tinting white clay with oil paints. It does not come off on your hands any more than the already colored.  we got almost no pictures of the sewn pockets but over half the camp had never sewn anything and did a great job. I kept hearing--first time I sewed a button on, first time I ever sewed. So much fun with the 7 layer masks that Kat created  using fun foam. The kids had to trace the patterns and fit them together. We were able to use a great donation of tiny clay pots to form our Kandy Korn Kritters. 

Painting and drawing I—from traditional to modern

We started art camp off this summer with a trip back in time to visit ancient art, medieval arts and then moved onto the renaissance period and finally to more modern art in America. We started by looking at Egyptian and Greek pots then painting a story on a clay pot in only 1-2 colors. It is a bit of a challenge to limit the palette that much but they made it! 

We moved on to the medieval period and discussed lettering in bibles and important documents and how they were decorated by the scribes with scenes or items relevant to the person. We used wood blocks given to me by the HOTT tole painters group that we had primed in gold for the campers.

Our last project was a fabric painting of an ancient Indian elephant with a lot of gold trim. Because I wanted them to concentrate on drawing the details on the elephant and painting it, the pattern was on their fabric. 


2nd day we moved on to looking at and discussing impressionists, well known artists and pointillism. We started with a tape resist and did a finger painted Monet bridge in his garden. Some of them were not very comfortable with the finger painting only tapping but in the end most did pretty well. the magic was when we pulled the tape off. the oooh and aaahs!  
I pulled out a variety of cloth bags for them to chose from and we talked about Van Gough and his sunflowers. Everyone then got to draw and paint their bags. 

 Kat got to teach the last project today on pointillism using examples from Seurat. I had a variety of wood pieces and we had several different size items for them to dot with.

Our final day started with a Georgia O'Keefe type watercolor. We looked at a number of her paintings both of flowers and of other scenery. We drew the set of morning glories then did wet painting of them. Finally all the kids got how to add paint into the water on the paper and help it move instead of just painting  with the watery paints. Lots of oooh and aaahs on this too. We did a bit of salting at the end too. 

Kat got to lead the Chagall circus scene with the camp and probably got the kids to draw more intricate figures than ever. Yes there were monkeys hanging by their tails too.  The scenes were very detailed. We did colored pencils to complete this one.

Lastly we used an unknown artist as an example and did a very different technique with them. It is a tree with lights in it on a moonlight background. We used the four colors without cleaning our foam brush--scary to not wash your brush!! We then drew the tree in with lots of branches and did dot on dot for our lights. It was really quick and they did a fantastic job. Always goes too fast.

many more pictures at Painting and drawing I