Pencil shavings art

A while back I got a bunch of Prismacolor colored pencils and sharpened them all, resulting in a large pile of very colorful pencil shavings. It was so pretty I took a picture of it (several pictures, actually with the shavings in different configurations). After seeing this art, I wish I had kept some of it in one of the cute little glass jars I have. Guess I can always sharpen more pencils...

This reminds me of the little game that I had when I was little - Wooly Willy where you had a board with a printed face and a magnetic 'pencil' which would pick up small black metal shavings that you arrange on the printed face to make eyebrows, beards, mustaches, etc.

Speaking of Wooly Willy, here are some instructions on how to make your own Wooly Willy table using an Ikea Lack table and Ribba frame (both pretty inexpensive). You could obviously change the image from the bald-headed man to anything else that would be fitting - how about a fashion doll and you use the magnetic shavings to design clothing on her?

See more of the pencil shaving portraits on Design Boom.

Good Bot, Bad Bot

I'm a fan of Sharpies, especially nice pointy new juicy ones! I'm saving this idea for a rainy day - this artist named Gary Hirsch makes bots using oil-based paint Sharpie markers. They are cute! And I'm a fan of robots too - simply because they are easy to draw or doodle and you can use your imagination and create them any way you want - just like Gary has done! Read all about Gary and his art on the Sharpie blog:
Good Bot, Bad Bot

Hand-carved stamps to make

There are a lot of things that I'd like to do some day...and I just found another thing to add to my list. From Geninne's blog, I just found her tutorial on how to make hand-carved stamps.

Visit Geninne's Art Blog for more on the tutorial/how-tos.  She shows you what she uses to make the stamps and more.

And, here's another post from another artist, Margaret Oomen who learned Geninne's stamp carving and makes beautiful stamps among other things!

Stamp Carving from Geninne D. Zlatkis on Vimeo.

Group Drawing event

I have been looking at different art initiatives that I think would be neat for elementary aged students. You may have seen my earlier post on The Big Draw - I thought I'd check on youtube to see if I could find some videos of people drawing (I love to watch people draw). I found this one - it was interesting to listen and watch and get ideas on different things to do if I should ever have to plan my own group drawing event. I got quite a few ideas from watching this:

• I liked the yellow paper ties that the women had on - I don't know the significance but perhaps it was to show they were the organizers? That would be fun - making paper ties to wear and then even letting others write/draw on your tie as a way to get to know and mingle with others in your group drawing event.
• The cards that they were wearing (and had participants and observers fill out and wear) were a neat idea. I liked that they had everyone do a little self-portrait drawing and that the cards asked some random questions like "Your favorite book" and "Guilty pleasure". I think to fit this to an elementary-school age group, you could have "Favorite cartoon character" as one of the questions.
• I liked that they had different 'venues' for drawing - one was the long connected butcher paper that was hung on the wall - everyone just picked a spot and started drawing. I think that drawing on a vertical surface is definitely a different experience than drawing on a horizontal surface and having a large canvas such as a roll of butcher paper is cool. There were also large single areas that people were drawing on as well as individual single sheets of paper. 
• The above idea with the butcher paper canvas could be done and you could add music. I'm thinking...having different mural areas set up and consecutively students draw from one canvas then move on to the next and at each canvas there would be a different genre of music playing. At canvas #1 there could be classical music and drawing for 20 minutes. Then move on to canvas #2 where there could be popular music/dance music for 20 minutes...then on to canvas #2 and Flamenco guitar (or whatever!) Then everyone could look at the canvases displayed and see if there were differences in the energy of the drawings. interesting...
• I saw where people where drawing on skin - my daughter does this with Sharpies (she actually does tattoos with Sharpies and they are so cool!). I don't know if this would be something that would be good for elementary aged kids but it was a neat idea.
• Along with the above idea - you could draw on things other than paper - cardboard boxes, bananas and oranges, fabric/textiles, etc. 

Makes me want to go get my sketchbook and draw. :)

Fun drawing - celebrating the Big Draw

I like to draw even though I'm not all that great at it. I found out about The Big Draw yesterday and went browsing around to see what it's all about. It's pretty cool! Started in the UK, there are drawing events throughout the month of October.

 

THE BIG DRAW 2010

"October 2010 is Big Draw month in twenty countries and on five continents. Launched in 2000, this annual initiative has grown from 180 events in the UK to over 1500 worldwide. The Campaign aims to use drawing to connect visitors with museum and gallery collections, urban and rural spaces – and the wider community – in new and enjoyable ways. Every Big Draw season offers unlimited scope for those who love to draw and those who think they can’t."
They have all kinds of neat events (see their tweets about them) mostly in the UK but also some internationally.
From their website I found Draw and Foldover - it's this really cool and fun flash-based site where you draw something straight from your computer (you get to pick from different pens and can even undo) and then it gets virtually folded over and passed on to another friend, again online, who adds to the drawing and so on. Each person adds to the drawing from head to torso to legs to feet until it's complete. Do you remember playing that when you were a kid? Ha! Of course when I was a kid there were no computers yet...lol! This is cool and you should try it! Then you can add it to the gallery and view other drawings and even vote for them. I love this! If you try out a drawing feel free to send it to me to add to. :)

dorothy and alice

dorothy and alice
Originally uploaded by mike r baker

I just came across this wonderful illustration by Mike R. Baker while browsing all the beautiful and inspiring artwork by artists on Illustration Friday. I have been wanting to draw my own version of Alice and her various friends in Wonderland. Hopefully I will soon when I finish the various projects I am working on. If you have a chance, take a look at the other work that Mike has done in his Flickr gallery. It's fabulous!

so much amazing art!

David-Barneda
Originally uploaded by Darren Di Lieto

I wish I had come up with this idea! I'd love to receive all the artistic and amazing work that artists all over the world create on envelopes to send to the Mail Me Art project. I could spend all day browsing this Flickr gallery and not get anything 'real' done...of course, I'd be so full of creative energy that I'd probably go nuts and have to paint all night long. Take a look here Enjoy!