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animal art kids

Ruckus in the Radiant + Rare Rainforest

Happy forever fall! October days in Colorado have been most beautiful, filled with sweet sunshine and warm weather! Our studio just wrapped up our first six weeks of a fresh + new school year and we’re excited to announce SESSION II STARTS THIS WEEK! We have just a few spaces in our art workshops offered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays! Jump in and join us if you’re in the Roaring Fork Valley!

We’d love for you to peek at the most recent project dreamed up + designed + created by creative children in our workshop ~ Ruckus in the Radiant + Rare Rainforest! You might just be inspired to make your own! Tag your creations @handmakery on Instagram!

SUPPLIES FOR ~ RUCKS IN THE RADIANT + RARE RAINFOREST:

  • black & white imagery for inspiration
  • heavy-weight white paper
  • India ink
  • paintbrushes
  • scissors
  • pencil & eraser
  • tempera paint
  • permanent marker
  • cardboard
  • white school glue
  • pattern & solid papers
  • foam core
  • posterboard
  • egg carton
  • hot glue
  • embellishments: pom poms, buttons, glitter sticky foam, stickers
  • drill
  • twine

A SIMPLE PROCESS FOR ~ RUCKS IN THE RADIANT + RARE RAINFOREST:

ONE Read The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest as a fantastic introduction to rainforests. Get inspired using simple black & white imagery for discovery, inspiration, and reference. Imagery may include rainforest plants, flowers, leaves, and trees. Use a thin brush and black India ink to “draw” on a large scale, filling a large paper with a variety of observed + organic habitat. Illustrations should remain separate so they can eventually be cut apart. Dry.

TWO Using tempera cake paints in neons and fluorescents to bring color into the rainforest habitat. This semi-transparent paint will allow the black lines to still shine through. Dry. Cut plantlife apart, leaving the exterior black line.

ART WORKSHOPS FOR KIDS!

ENROLLING: SESSION II ~ FALL

WORKSHOPS + CLASSES + CAMPS + EVENTS

Early online enrollment at HANDMAKERY is highly encouraged as seating is limited!  Start making + creating + connecting in a colorful community focused on a creative + collaborative childhood!

STAY CONNECTED @handmakery ON INSTAGRAM!

THREE Use pencil to lightly sketch rainforest creatures. Start with simple shapes like circles and ovals, eventually moving to smaller shapes and detail. Use simple black & white imagery for animal inspiration. Move to a permanent black marker to outline, detail, texture, and to bold each creature. Cut out each animal with scissors keeping the exterior black line. We did most of the cutting so young artists would have more time drawing and painting.

Each artist selected their own creature combinations to incorporate into their rainforest. Creatures included poison dart frogs, snakes, exotic birds, sloths, leopards, monkeys, and more! It was exciting to see the different combinations of animals each artist selected to personalize their piece.

FOUR Explore lightweight cardboard and white glue construction for additional plantlife popouts and to add additional dimension. Paint cardboard pieces using solid body tempera paints in neons and accent with tempera paint pens.

Detail dry painted cardboard pieces with glitter sticky foam or smaller mixed-media components such as pom poms, circle stickers, buttons, oil pastels, washi tapes, patterned papers, and more.

FIVE Layout the cutout “creative collection” of rainforest plants, black & white creatures, and dimensional habitat on a horizontal, pre-painted, black cardboard, backed with a smaller piece of foam core for strength and stiffness. Arrange pieces considering foreground, middle-ground, and background. Pieces can flow off the black cardboard to allow more space and to add dimension.

A beautiful rainforest flower painted in paint pen to pop out.

A birds-eye-view of rainforest animals accented with eye catching patterns. Creatures remained in a black + white color scheme for a brilliant + bold + contrasting statement.

SIX Use three to five, precut egg carton pieces to pop out selected pieces. Use white glue to attach a low profile egg carton piece to add height and a bit of pop.

SEVEN Arrange finished pieces on the pre-painted black cardboard, again, that has been backed with foam core for added durability, flatness, and strength. Use a light amount of white school glue to tack down pieces so they’re not fully glued down, so pieces still have a flex & flow. Use a neon poster board to create a vibrant frame to finish off and showcase. Drill holes in the top two corners and add a piece of twine to display.

A peek at a few pretty pieces in progress as artists were planning and popping with a unique perspective, point of view, and of course a powerful punch, all part of the process and on point. Now say this three times!!!

Having a project with “several separate pieces” allowed artists to move around pieces to the puzzle, to build, and to layer their one-of-a-kind ~ Ruckus in the Radiant + Rare Rainforest so it was unique to each artist. Keeping all animals black & white created a wonderful contrast to the colorful habitat.

Every artist walked away with a one-of-a-kind creation with a collection of creatures they were proud of creating!

A little hand-stamped + black & white saying we printed for each artist to frame using materials of their choice. Little wooden clothespins were used to clip onto the twine of their projects. We discussed how this piece was truly an artist statement to ~ RISE + RALLY + RESECT + RADIATE YOUR HEARTS for the RUCKUS in the RADIANT + RARE RAINFOREST to remind humans to protect and preserve this special land!

The week wrapped up with our traditional recognition ceremony + mini art show as makers took home ~ a most marvelous mini-masterpiece on Main Street in the majestic mountains!

Tag us @handmakery with your creations on Instagram!  Follow our blog for more inspiring process-based art projects!  As always, thank you for following our artful adventure on Main Street in the heART of the Carbondale Creative District!  Send us a note anytime!  We’d love to hear what you’re thinking, dreaming, and envisioning!  Much love and happiness creating in this creative + colorful world filled with collaboration + connection + community + arts & crafting!  Ami