Drawing Fun With Kids: “3 Rooms Creatures”

Art tends to be a solitary activity, but it can also be a great way to have fun with your kids in a way that encourages their creativity and results in fantastic refrigerator decoration!  Try this on the next rainy day when your kids are “bored” or when you want to pull them away from TV, video games, etc.

I call this project the “3 Rooms Creatures” as a reference to the Elton John tribute album “Two Rooms” (referring to how Elton’s songs were written by Bernie Taupin (lyrics) and Elton John (music) in 2 different rooms) – and because I have 2 kids (so there are 3 of us drawing).  However, you can do easily do this project with 2, 3 or 4 people.

OK – here is how it works:  Each person gets a piece of paper, a pencil, an eraser and an assignment for one section of your creature.  Because there are 3 of us, one person gets the head & neck, one gets the torso/belly and arms and the third person gets the legs & feet.  Here is the key – these are the ONLY instructions that get shared!  The fun is in not collaborating on what kind of creature each person will be drawing.  If you have 2 people, one can do the head and chest, while the other does the belly and legs.  If you have 4 people, you can break it into head, chest & arms, belly and tail, and legs and feet.

Now, each person needs to go to a different room in the house where they can’t see what the others are drawing.  No peeking!  You will be amazed at what your kids come up with without any guidance or influence.

Finally, when everyone is done – bring the parts together and construct your complete creature.  Because you didn’t talk about what you are doing, you will likely have totally different parts… maybe a bird-like head, dragon-like torso and human-like legs for example.  You may need to do a little doctoring with scissors and a little eraser work to get the parts to fit, but surprisingly, it usually doesn’t take much!

The end result is fun, even outrageous.  Kids love the process and are thrilled with the roll they played in creating this new crazy thing.  We proudly display the end result on our refrigerator… The only challenge is what to do when you need a bigger fridge to display all of your creatures!

Happy Drawing,

Jason

Recent Projects: Period Miniature Portraits

I have discovered that one of my favorite things about doing art projects with clients is the opportunity to learn something new – and that was definitely the case on one of my most recent projects!

Enter Jen.  She and her boyfriend Mick are passionate about their hobby of doing period reenactments, specifically the period of the Seven Years War (also known as the French and Indian War).  Jen was faced with a common challenge; after many years with Mick, what could she get for a birthday gift that would surprise and delight him?  This is where her period knowledge came in – and my education began – when she asked if I could do portrait miniatures of she and Mick.

As I came to learn, portrait miniatures were common in this era.  They originally became popular among elites in England and France in the 16th century, but this popularity then spread across social classes in Europe and into the United States from the middle of the 18th century up until the mid-19th century when the rise of photography started to take over the role of the miniature.  It was common for soldiers to carry miniatures of loved ones, and for women at home to also have them of the men while they were away. Since Jen and Mick and their reenactment compatriots focus on the seven years war (which took place between 1756 and 1763) the portrait miniature was a perfect fit!

But this is not where my education ended.  While Jen had great pictures of she and Mick in period garb, Mick was not wearing a wig.  This all seemed normal to me until I learned that for a soldier of the status that Mick portrays, he would never be depicted in a portrait without a wig.  Adding a wig was the least of my concerns, however, when I also learned that these portrait miniatures were about 1 inch high!

Enter my next lesson – how to paint on an extremely small scale.  As a muralist, I am obviously used to working on a very large scale – and even when working on canvas, my paintings tend to be on the larger side.  I had certainly never done a 1 inch portrait!  Since I have done portrait work and even a good amount of caricatures (which are great practice in identifying what features make a drawing look like that person), I had that as my starting point.  As it turns out, this experience, plus a magnifying glass and some patience and some VERY small brushes, did the trick!  I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge – and more importantly, Jen and Mick were thrilled with the results. 

These portraits are on my main site – but here is a snapshot that includes my finger to give a sense of scale:

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1 inch high portrait miniature

 Happy painting,

Jason

Drawing tip #2: Play with Composition

To help kick off the second of my drawing tips lets look at Wikipedia, which tells us “composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art, as distinct from the subject of a work.”

So, what does this mean for the beginner?  Really, it is all about your choice of what part(s) of your subjects you include in your drawing and how you put those parts together.  The goal is to make your overall piece of art more interesting and engaging than just the subject by itself.  Focusing on this will ultimately make your drawing look more like a work of art vs. a “study.”

To illustrate this idea, I’ll keep running with the example of trees I used in Drawing tip #1.  If you look at this drawing, it comes off as a nice study of a tree --- but not necessarily an interesting drawing you might want to frame and hang in your house.  So what can you do to make it unique?

An example of a "study"

Try to zero in on just part of your subject and blow it up.  Emphasize an interesting shape or detail that catches your eye. Now think about where you place your subject on the paper.  Play with the idea of starting with your focus to the right or left of the center line. 

Next, think about the space around your subject.  Creating an interesting composition can be about what you choose to include or not include.  If there is a car parked behind the tree that takes away from what you want in your drawing – leave it out!  If the variation in the textures of bark is what pulls your interest – work on getting excellent detail in the bark – and maybe loosen the specifics of the background.  Then focus on different bark textures of multiple overlapping trees – and place them in an interesting composition to make the final piece more compelling.

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An example of playing with multiple subjects to create an interesting composition

Once you start drawing what you see and focusing on interesting compositions – you are well on your way to making art you will want to show everyone you know!

Happy drawing,

Jason

Drawing tip #1: Draw What You See! (If a tree falls in the woods, does it look like a lollipop?!)

In the first of my series of drawing tips, I will focus on what you see.  This may sound obvious - but I have found that, when starting out, most people tend to draw what they think they see instead of what they really see!

The reason behind this is two-fold.  One is that we tend to apply logic when we first begin to draw instead of trusting our eyes.  Take for example tree-covered mountains.  If it is spring/summer and the mountains are covered with trees, they should be green, right?  Well, depending on the weather, time of day and your distance from the mountains – they likely will be many colors other than green (blues, purples and greys will be very common).  Now look at the trees in front of you – the leaves are all green, right?  Kind of – again, it obviously depends on the time of the year – but even in spring, leaves on different trees will be very different greens, and even leaves on the same tree will have a good amount of variation (tops and bottoms of leaves are often different, some will be in sun while others are in shadow, etc). 

Using the example of color is an easy way to illustrate this phenomenon – but the same concept applies to black and white pencil drawings.  Think about a portrait; logic tells us that when we draw people’s faces, their 2 ears and 2 eyes will be the same shape and size as each other and be symmetrically placed on either side of a person’s head.  However, this is rarely - if ever- the case.  Capturing the variations between a person’s eyes, for example, is one of the most important elements in making your sketch resemble the person you are drawing!

The second reason we draw what we think we see is because we have a tendency to think about objects as concepts or symbols rather than observing the details.  Drawing peoples’ faces works again here as an example.  We think of two eyes, a nose and a mouth – all with clear outlines.  But take another look at the nose and you will see that other than the very bottom and nostrils – there are no hard lines – just soft shading to distinguish the bridge of the nose from the rest of the face.  Now go back to the tree example.  Often times, we simplify trees into symbols – the “lollipop” for deciduous trees and the “spear” for evergreen trees.  Now sit and really look at that tree and you realize how far from a lollipop or spear that tree really looks… notice how the trunk splits into smaller and smaller branches and finally out to twigs.  Notice the patterns leaves or needles make around the outside of the tree as well as inside the outline of the tree. 

The "spear" - or what we think a pine tree looks like

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What is really there when we see past the symbol!

These are simplistic examples – but they can apply to any subject matter.  To get some practice in drawing what you see – grab common objects.  You may think you know what they look like, but force yourself to ignore that and draw only what you see.  Draw a pinecone, your hand, tree bark, a cloud – you name it.  And have fun doing it!!  Don’t get frustrated if it doesn’t look “right” the first few times. Like anything else, you will need lots of practice and careful observation until you start to get the results you want.

Happy drawing,

Jason