Stretch it, Rip it!

A big thank you to all the members who came out this year to make this club such a success. Thank you for your inspiring creativity and enthusiasm and writing and illustrating, stick with it and it can take you anywhere!!

Our last meeting of the year started with some readings from last weeks “Horrible” writing activity.  Albert and Connor shared their stories and we had some laughs.

We then moved on to and exercise called “Stretch a Sentence.” It’s basically just about how to write more descriptive sentences by think about the Who? What? When? Where? Why?.  I had this template printed out and they created their own sentences:

Then we completed some construction paper landscapes.  I showed them an example of a landscape created simply from ripping strips of construction paper and then pasting it on to a background. Here is what they came up with:

We also feasted on popcorn, hot chocolate and some yummy chocolate treats that I received as a gift (thanks Albert and family!) I also got some very cute cards from Ashley and Abigail, thanks girls!!  Have a great Holiday everyone, see you next year!

Colour Theory

This week our meeting landed on Fireworks night! So even though everyone was camped out down by the riverfront waiting for the spectacular light show, we were having some fun making stories and illustrations!  We started out the meeting with some sharing.  I was told about a great new App to try on the ipad for everyone to enjoy.  It is called Educreations and it works like a virtual whiteboard.  You can draw or add pictures to blank pages, then you can record your own voice over each page and create your very own audio and/or visual story.  Jessi, who showed me the App, made her own story featuring pictures taken at the meeting last night. You can view it here:

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/mutant/22742797/?s=2qLW2Z&ref=appemail

We also used the App to create a chain story.  This is when you start a story then each member takes turns adding to the story.  These can get a little wacky as imaginations fly.  You can listen to our chain-turned-horror-story here:

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/chain-story-101/22742799/?s=PgKpO7&ref=appemail

After having some fun with Educreations, we moved on to a Colour Theory lesson.  Everyone got the handout below.

 

This was basic review for our members but it’s always nice to have examples of colour schemes available when you are designing an illustration.

Our challenge with colour theory and schemes was to create a drawing to add different schemes to.  What I decided to do to add a little twist to this was to give the members each a page and have them fold it in half.  They then drew half a figure or animal on the one side of the page.  The page was then given to another member and they had to create the other half of the figure or animal.  Then I photocopied each image several times and the members had to add different colour schemes to each copy.  This is actually a great technique for a beginning artist because it allows then to preserve their original pencil drawing while experimenting with different colour schemes and mediums. These actually turned out great but I am going to wait to share these until we have completed all the schemes.  I’d like to do the same challenge again in July when we have more members present. . I think this will become a great series to display in our library and online once they are all completed.

So we saved most of the photocopies for the next meeting and moved on to some free time.  Noel decided to work on some tile and wood paintings, while Jessi opted to start a new story with the help of The Brainstormer app.

“The Brainstormer can serve as a limitless supply of fiction writing exercises. Ideas from The Brainstormer can spark a quick flash fiction workout, ignite short stories, or even kick off entire screenplays or novels. You can also use the World Builder to create rich and unexpected settings, and the Character Builder wheel to create fascinating three dimensional characters.”

The next meeting is Monday July 7 at 6pm, see you all in a couple weeks!

 

Fiction/Abstract vs. NonFiction/Realism

Last week we started our meeting off with a fun little game called “Story in a Bag.”  It’s a simple game where you collect 8-10 small miscellaneous items and put them in a concealed envelope or bag.  Everyone takes turns picking 3 items out of the bag, without peaking.  Then the player decides which item will be the beginning, the middle and the end of the story.  They get two minutes to tell a story using the items they had randomly chosen.  It’s a great way to reiterate the ingredients of a story and also to get the imagination flowing.

We then had a discussion about Fiction vs Nonfiction books.  Just the basics, we talked about what each type of book contained, how they were different and the same.  I made a diagram on the whiteboard!

Then we took what we learned from this and applied it to comparing Realistic Illustrations vs. Abstract.  Here is a quick run down I made up on the topic:

Realism

• art movement that lasted between 1800 – 1900
• focus is on real people, real everyday lives or events
• always has a subject matter
• helps demonstrate what they eyes actually see, including human hardships
• goal is accuracy – using: colour choice, subject matter and brush strokes

 

Abstract

• became more popular after the invention of the camera, demand lessened for realistic paintings
• artists began to create art for enjoyment
• “art for art’s sake”
• Does not need subject matter
• If there is subject matter is it distorted in some way, usually exaggerated or simplified
• focus is on colour and shape combinations

Then we looked at this picture book:

 

It contained some great realistic and abstract illustrations.

I also quickly showed the group the App “My Brushes Pro” and a quick abstract piece I drew:

 

One member had fun using this App to make some realistic sketches which I’ve added to the gallery.

 

And finally the challenge for the day was to pick an item from the Story in a Bag game and write a fiction and non fiction piece, or draw a realistic and abstract rendition of the item.

Here are a couple of examples of what two of our youngest members came up with, they chose the drawing challenge:

A plastic egg by Abagail:

A tiny hockey player by Jessi: