arThou Blog: Resource about arT, arTists, Burning Man Theme camps, festivals and self-expression » Learning arT

Five Simple Ways to Add arT Appreciation Into Your Homeschool Routine

ℓūfħer arThou DeeCyfher — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:34:05 +0000

1. Get an art calendar and hang it in your home. Make a point to spend time at least once a month discussing what you see in the artwork. Each month you will have a new reminder and a new art print.

2. Take a field trip to an art museum, an art gallery, or even an artist’s studio. Remember that visual art includes pottery, sculpting, drawing, architecture, and printmaking. Don’t limit yourself to paintings. Look in your yellow pages to see what options you have locally.

Take a field trip

3. Choose a favorite children’s book illustrator. Look through as many of his books as possible. Have your child talk about what makes his style unique. (It may be helpful to compare or contrast his work with another illustrator). Then let your child copy his style as he illustrates his own story.

4. Find art that matches the period of history you’re studying. Look for paintings that reflect the historical events in your curriculum, for example art of the American Revolution.

Find arT

5. Stop and appreciate art when you see it no matter where you are. Is there a unique sculpture at the community center? Is there a reproduction of a famous painting hanging in the mall? Take time to pause and discuss it with your children. For discussion starters, try this PDF.

ArT by Gen G: Ceramic Beads

arThou — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:49:11 +0000

Gen G starts forming the clay into the shape that she wants to be either a ball, a flat bead, etc and either add a hole or pieces of high temperature wire as needed. After the beads have been slowly air dried, and this drying time can take up 4-5 days in winter, each bead is cleaned gently with a damp sponge to make sure the surfaces are smooth. Re-drilling is usually required because with this cleaning process, the holes can be partially lost. Now the beads are placed in an electric kiln and fired to 1101Celsius. Then they must be completely cooled in the kiln before removing. This whole process takes about 24 hours. Once out of the kiln, each bead is painted with tiny brushes. Usually 2-3 coats of specially formulated underglaze colour is applied to each bead and then 2 coats of a clear glaze.

After complete drying, the beads are placed back in the kiln, this time on special supporting racks which I designed myself, and then through a second 24 hour kiln process.
Once this second process is complete, I can hardly wait to open the kiln and catch the first glimpse of the small treasures I have created! I hope you will enjoy my Beads as much as I do creating them. So …
Jen-e-sais-quoi

Source: http://artbyjeng.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-i-make-ceramic-beads.html

Issues When Considering Oil Painting

arThou — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 08:58:42 +0000

Oil painting is a many varied segment in the established areas of what an artist works with as far as a medium to focus the artistic vision through, and many artists in the past have had a long history with the style of painting with oil-based colors and artwork, as this particular medium of artistic expression has had a long history in the making. What oil painting entails is the use of pigments that ground and mixed into a base of oil, and especially the oils similar to linseed oil, which was a popular kind of oil to use back in early modern Europe.

These oils would give the paint less of a yellowing effect, and would alter the drying times and the sheen of the paint depending upon the oil used that would give various properties to the pigment, other oils commonly used then were poppy seed and walnut oils. Some painters have used various oils in the same painting to mix effects, and depending on specific pigments as desired, also the surface used can do much to change the effects of the oil painting. A good example where an artist has used a different material instead of canvas is Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa that was painted on a wood panel surface.

Some of the rules applied to painting with oils are that each layer over the first should be oilier than the layer below it to prevent from cracking and peeling as it dries, traditional oil painting began with the paint being mixed in a specific amount with turpentine, but there are other items which can be utilized to prevent this such as varnish or cold wax. These additional elements can be an aid to the painter in adjusting the translucency of the paint, the sheen of the paint, the density of the paint, or can even be used to change the ability of the paint to hold or conceal brushstrokes.

These various traits of the oil paint are greatly related to the expressive capacity of the oil paint, aiding in the choices made by the artist as they applied the paint, and allowing a sense of those choices from the viewers standpoint. Moving the paint is done with palette knives, rags, or even directly from the paint tube itself, though to be removed, one must do so while the paint is wet or scraping may be required to take off the layer. Before this ends up being necessary, a rag dipped in turpentine can remove the layer previous, and oil-based paint dries through oxidation not evaporation so it may feel dry after a day.