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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Olympic Masterpieces

We have been doing a lot of watching and talking about the Olympics around here, but not a whole lot of "doing." SO--we are having our very own Olympics in this house later on this week--will let you know how it goes! Here is one of a few posts I found to DIY Olympics: http://www.education.com/activity/article/challenge-family-olympics-home/ I also decided it was time to get going on an art project.

I wanted to do something where my kids could really pay attention to the detail of the sport in action. For this project you will need:

::printouts of Olympic sports ( I just did a Google image search)
::heavy-ish white paper
::pencil, white crayon, and watercolors
::daylight

First, you need to tape the image and paper onto a window, so the child can trace the image of the athlete in pencil. They can be as detailed as they like, but not all details are necessary. In fact you can talk about "stylized art" here to show it is okay to not be exact. (Always a hard point to get across in my house)


Now, go over the tracing with white crayon--press firmly.


Next, bring out the paints. One good thing to do when using watercolors--is to try to wet the palettes first with just a dab of water and let it mix into the paint. The white crayon acts a resist for for the outline. Gives the athlete that standout look they deserve!



If painting a sky, it is fun to dab away some paint with a paper towel to create clouds. These are really fun, and the kids were glad we FINALLY did an Olympic project.

14 comments:

Annette W. said...

Beautiful! It's funny...in all my years as an art student, noone ever showed me this trick!

Grace said...

Love this. I'm trying it today with my children. Thanks.

Decomom said...

Beautiful. We are trying this today too! Thank you for sharing!

Sheila said...

Beautiful! What a great idea.

Jennifer said...

Hey there--just popping in via The Crafty Crow. Love the Olympic art idea!

I've added your blog to my blog reader, and I look forward to seeing what fun projects you come up with! In my kids' school district, they have eliminated art class and taken it out of the curriculum. So, I'm always collecting great ideas for projects to do during the summer months--you know, to try and balance 9 months of math worksheets with a few months of creativity!

Anyway--thanks for the fun ideas!

Little Family Fun said...

Wow! Those are brilliant!

Simply Create said...

Thanks for all the kind words!! Jennifer--I can't believe they have taken away all the art classes--so sad!! I am a former art teacher, so I know just how important it is to kids. You have given me even more reasons to post new ideas :-)

Jerri-Lea said...

Popping by from Jenn's Aspergertopia. LOVE IT! My girls and I are going to try it tomorrow after school. Off to poke around some more. Thanks!

Simply Create said...

you are so welcome---and I "popped" over to see her version---they are gorgeous!

Jenn said...

Hi there! You know what? I thought I had left a comment on here, but I don't see it. I must have just been thinking it! I got sooooooo very excited when I saw your idea. Perfect for celebrating Olympic fever and great for all kinds of hands! We loved every minute of it :)

Sam said...

You're off to a gold medal start!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a great idea. We broke it out today - and both my 7-year old and 3-year old loved it. DD7 did the whole thing by herself, and DS3 did the painting after I traced. We just pulled images from our newspaper. DD7 then used the same techniques to paint some birds for her grandmother's birthday tomorrow.

Simply Create said...

So glad the kids are liking it! And how great that you are taking it to other subject matter--creativity at its finest!!!

Unknown said...

Beautiful, i will try it ! thank for sharing !!
merci

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