Zinnias

One of my favorite garden flowers is the Zinnia.  They are easy to grow and just full of bright, bold colors that attract bees, butterflies and hummingbirds to your yard.  So this new piece was just so much fun to create. I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about the name and I couldn't really come up with anything funny, punny or clever so I named it "Zinnia in the Bucket".  It's rather obvious name but I find that it is better to keep the title simple than to be too elaborate or wordy if a "clever" title alludes me. 

The medium I used here is Prismacolor pencils.  I get asked often it the is watercolor and so I thought I would mention that I use odorless turpenoid with a brush to melt the wax and blend the layers of color pencil.  This process gives it a painted look that I just love.

I decided I was going to also make the design into a coloring sheet and offer it on my website as a free download. I have a number of design there already and I just love the whole process of sharing my art with others.  So feel free to hop on over to my website and print as many coloring sheets as you need.  All I ask is that you don't try to sell them. 

Here is the link:  http://www.julietownsendstudio.com/free.html

The Beginnings of an Art Club

I'm excited and a wee bit nervous to meet a couple of new students this afternoon that are signed up to join me on our first meeting of the MVCS A-Club.  I made this poster to hang on our door helping parents and staff know where we are.   My plan is to just do a lot of drawing in this session and use the book written by Kathryn Temple called "Art for Kids Drawing" as a guide to our drawing discussions.  It is a great book that covers all the basics.  

 Today's lessons plan:  I hope we can get this all covered during the one hour allotted me.

* Talk about the importance of the Artistic Journal- I have sketchbooks to give them that they can use and decorate  

* Stress these points from page 9 of the book    
       ~There is no right way to draw    
       ~Don't compare your artwork to others    
       ~There is really no messing up    
       ~Practice and then practice some more    
       ~Don't stress about showing your art to people  

*I'm going to then show them my favorite drawing and sketching materials-Pen, Pencils, Prismacolor Pencils and my Tombow Markers I have created a zentangle pattern work sheet to practice from and a blank sheet that they can fill with their own created zentangle patterns.

*Finally, I have prepared a blank art page that has nothing more than a circle drawn on it from which we are going to start our own zentangle artwork.  I will post pictures as we progress through the next eight weeks.  I'm hopefully to find areas around the school and venues away from campus that we can display the art we create.  I pray to encourage their creativity and passion for art and at the same time, lay a strong foundation of sketching basics.