Journal Entries

Watercolor  Sharpie 

Black and gray sharpie 

Sharpie and Plastic Sushi Grass

My Neice

A photo I could not resist drawing from social media

Our adopted stray cat

A Museum show visited

An old photo

A beautiful weed

Journal Entry Something Borrowed Something Blue

Tried something new. Took some packing paper, white acrylic, watercolor and markers. Didn't wait for any of it to dry properly so its a little funky. Tried to trace from a photo but the acrylic wouldn't take it so I had to draw it out.  That will teach me to try to trace!

Holiday Hair Challenge Discarded Book Journal

The Holiday Hair Challenge Entry.  Draw a simple face and attach a ton of hair.  In some of the spaces you make while drawing - write something about your inspiration for the drawing.  

Creative Challenge Posts

I posted a creative challenge and here are some of the fine examples shared

Mrs. H. Holl, Art Teacher Hartford 

From my niece, Julianna Gould

Snowflakes from Caitlin Roberts FACS graduate 2014 

Discarded Book Visual Journal

Exquisite corpse - As a child I had a book filled with all different types of cats.  There were three flaps on each cat so you could mix and match the heads, tails and middles. I decided to make my own in a discarded book.

7 Day Journal Challenge
Monday:  Use digital trends as prompts for inspiration. For example today is Manicure Monday or Monday Blues.  Using a discarded book, permanent markers and watercolors.  For manicure Monday I made a grid and filled it in with nail polish.

7 Day Journal Challenge
Tuesday:  Using digital trends as prompts for inspiration. For example today is Transformation Tuesday. 

7 Day Journal Challenge
Wednesday:  Using digital trends as prompts for inspiration. For example today is Wisdom Wednesday. Thumbprint ninja.

7 Day Journal Challenge
Thursday:  Using digital trends as prompts for inspiration. For example today is Throwback Thursday or Thankful Thursday. 

7 Day Journal Challenge
Friday:  Using digital trends as prompts for inspiration. For example today is Friday Fun Day. 

7 Day Journal Challenge
Saturday:  Using digital trends as prompts for inspiration. For example today is Saturday Shenanigans. 

7 Day Journal Challenge
Sunday:  Using digital trends as prompts for inspiration. For example today is Selfie Sunday or Sunday Fun Day. 

Watercolor & Ink

The watercolor techniques inspired more work in the discarded book journal.  Today I made a brain!  Sharpie Marker drawing on a discarded book page.  Tray watercolor painting.

Watercolor Techniques

Watercolor techniques - exciting and magical!  Students divide the paper into 12 rectangles labeled per technique.  When complete they cut them up, mix them up into an abstract landscape and re-label.  As they assemble the landscape they are making decisions about color placement, overlapping shapes and balancing it all out to name a few.  It helps them to keep the techniques in mind for future projects while making a spectacular landscape.
The top photo is my abstract landscape.  The three pages of techniques are courtesy of two wonderful aides that visit my room this year.  Student landscapes and techniques are just as sweet.  I just didn't catch them before the scissors did today.

Student Examples

Pixelated Paintings

Minecraft is popular with the younger population at my school.  I recently developed some plans for pixelated paintings and I thought they might be useful for others.  I used 12X12 stretched canvas as a starting point.  Some of them divided into 2" squares making 6 squares across and down.  Then some 1 1/2" grids making 8 squares across.

In Microsoft Word I made some one inch graph paper by inserting an 8 X 8 table and stretching the spaces to the inch marks on the rulers.  Students can plan their painting by coloring in the blank grid.

In Adobe Photoshop I created 1" grids using the line tool while viewing the ruler.  I made a template with 8 squares across and another with 6.  Within this template I could use the paint bucket tool and the color selector to quickly fill in several examples.

Students can create their own Minecraft skins using an app called Skin Creator Pro (Seejaykay). The possibilities for paintings are endless.  My daughter uses this app on her iPod but it is available on other devices as well.

8 square Rainbow

6 square Rainbow

Value Typography Photoshop Tutorial

Typed up a new tutorial for Digital Photo

My Cornell Box

At the end of last year a friend and colleague brought me a pile of discarded encyclopedias.  This year my students will make Cornell boxes out of them.  Here is mine.