Happy Valentine's Day

To you, my readers! Thank you for spurring me on to keep being creative!

I made this with a class of kindergartners today. 

What a great way to celebrate Valentine's Day! 

If you're wondering, it's crayons and watercolor paints on cardstock paper. The holes, made with a paper punch, were for threading yarn through (which I didn't have time to do as I was helping smaller hands figure that out). The cool thing about crayons, they're what's known as a "resist." Watercolor paints won't stick to them. So you draw with the crayons first, then paint over the picture and the paint stays off your drawing. You can make some pretty cool effects with that. I was just playing around and showing the kids different things to try.
The drips on the upper left are also fun to create. You glob some very wet paint down and then blow really hard to get it to spread out.
There's nothing better than handmade Valentines.

Resources: Dough recipes

MaryAnn Kohl posted some recipes for various kinds of modeling dough (some edible!) from her book, Mudworks. Here's the link to four recipes you can try out, from Goop to Play Clay to Bakers Clay to Pretzel Dough. I'm a big fan of art you can eat, so I want to try my hand at the Pretzel Dough - it sounds tasty! :)

Video: Crochet Coral Reef

The "Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef" started out as a math experiment and has become a world wide art project. How cool is that? I first heard about the project from an article in American Craft Magazine.

What a creative way to get people thinking about the garbage that winds up in the oceans too. It's one thing to say, "There's a lot of plastic junk that gets dumped in the ocean, and that's not a good thing for the environment." People are going to think about that a lot more when faced with beautiful art made out of that same trash.

Artist: Ben Heine

I've seen Ben Heine's work before in the past, but have just now discovered the name behind the fun pictures. He makes deceptively simple images that are full of whimsy and play.

Pencil vs. Camera #30 by Ben Heine

Over on DeviantArt, there's a nice write up about him along with a great interview that spurred this blog. You can browse through the Pencil vs. Camera series (which is my favorite), the Digital Circlism series (a play on Pointillism), and more.

Pencil vs. Camera #59 by Ben Heine

In the Pencil vs. Camera series, Heine takes a picture of a real place, then creates a drawing that overlays part of the scene that plays with your perception of what you're seeing. This would be a really fun project for your kids to try their hands at as well!

Video: Off Book - Video Games

I bet you never thought of your kids' video games as art before.



Video games are a huge industry now. Maybe your kid will create the next Mario!

Project: Design a Book Cover

This post from my employer inspired me today. Have your kids design a cover for their favorite book. (Or if they're into video games, have them come up with a poster that would advertise their favorite game.) What image would say the most about the story? Is there a specific color that shares the mood of what's written inside? Looking at the covers in the post I shared, you see that simple designs can be more powerful than ones that have a lot of clutter in them.

I'd love to see what you come up with! You can always e-mail me pictures of what you create: elisabeth.preble@gmail.com

Video: Graphic Design - Now In Production

Here's a video overview of the current exhibition about graphic design at the Walker here in Minneapolis: