children’s art
My fabulous art students created a project personally dreamed-up and designed called ~ Pet Portraits with Personality. With moving our studio to Main Street last summer, life got a little beyond busy so thank you for your patience with just getting this project out! With fall in the air and back to school really here, thought it would be the perfect time of year to share this fun favorite with you!
Pet Portraits with Personality was a huge project created with children ages 10 – 14! The artwork, 120 finished pieces, were then used for a local circulator bus (yes, a REAL BUS!!!) and a collection of 35+ community “bear-proof” cans. Both the bus and can projects were designed to bring more art to the heART of our historic downtown! So proud of each artist and their unique creation, contributed to both of these colorful community projects! So happy to see our community come together to support both kid-friendly + child-focused art projects! The artwork has brought a great deal of humor, color, and a whole lot of creativity to our community of Carbondale | Colorado at the heART of the Carbondale Creative District! Don’t you just love how childhood and creativity completely collide, to completely capture community and collaboration!?! Take a peek!
FALL ART WORKSHOPS START IN 7 DAYS!!!
COMMUNITY BUS COLLABORATION: Project Details
HIGHLIGHTS: Unveiling Ceremony
COMMUNITY CAN COLLABORATION:
Read a fantastic article highlighting all the details about these upcycled Bear-Proof Cans wrapped with student artwork located throughout downtown! Would you believe there are over 35+ cans throughout our community!?! A huge thank you to the Town of Carbondale for taking on this project. This particular can is located right across from our studio at 449 Main Street! The day the install happened was just beyond exciting to watch out our windows!
SUPPLIES:
- Pencil + eraser
- Scissors
- Gluestick
- Realistic animal face photos for inspiration
- Sketch paper + final paper + tracing paper + watercolor paper cut to size
- India Ink
- Watercolors including both liquid and traditional pallets
- Watercolor brushes + water container
- Lightbox or window
- Colored pencils, permanent markers, acrylic paint, colored paper for additional details!
PROCESS:
ONE Select a realistic animal and dream up your animal’s expressive personality. Create several mini sketches focusing on the face, head, and shoulders.
TWO Finalize your favorite sketch selection into a drawing, again with a focus on the face or upper body. Humanize your animal by adding human-like features, ex. eyes, mouths, shoulders, costuming and fun accessories, yet keeping a bit simplified, as individually drawn pieces will need to be drawn and cut out.
THREE Finalized your favorite animal drawing to a specific vertical paper size, fill the space by going big and focused in.
FOUR Trace each section of your drawing onto tracing paper at a window or lightbox. Separate out each layer. For example, the glasses would be a separate “drawn and cutout piece” from the face, to then overlay on top of the face. Start with the largest shapes first, such as the face, neck, and shoulders. It is very helpful to create bigger shapes to smaller shapes, working background to foreground.
FIVE Place the tracing paper shapes behind the final watercolor paper at the window or lightbox. Trace images onto heavy-weight watercolor paper in pencil. Again, all individual pieces that make up the complete animal, will be all drawn as separate pieces. The photos, above and below, should help with the visual understanding.
SIX Before cutting apart, use India Ink and a small brush to outline all the separate pieces. Remember to vary the line quality to keep your pieces more painterly so they capture both thick and thin for a more handcrafted flair. Dry.
SEVEN Plan out a color scheme- complementary, analogous, warm or cool, intermediate, triad, or monochromatic for the overall piece. The color scheme should include the background.
EIGHT Using watercolors, which could be liquid or traditional pallets style, paint each piece remembering to dry between colors. Dry all pieces. Cut apart all individual pieces following the outer edge ink so the varied edge lines are preserved. Use a heavier weight watercolor paper to create a vibrant wash for the background. Dry.
NINE Assemble all the separate cutout/painted pieces using a heavy duty glue stick.
TEN Onto delightful details! Add highlights in eyes using white acrylic paint. Add swirls using colored pencil or permanent marker by using a similar color. Add texture and additional delightful detail. Use cut paper shapes, ex. stripes or polka dots to create a contrasting background to pop the creature! Most importantly, create a pet with personality and humor that comes to life with color, contrast, and human-like features!
A PEEK: Into the Planning Process of the Bus
A HUGE THANK YOU!!!
CPAC Carbondale Public Arts Commission
RFTA Roaring Fork Transportation Authority
Town of Carbondale
Carbondale Middle School
… for making these two community projects, completely focused on kid art, come together for our community!
Tag us @handmakery with your creations on Instagram! Would love to see your ~ Pet Portraits with Personality! Follow our BLOG for more inspiring process-based art projects! As always, thank you for following along on this artful adventure in beautiful Carbondale | CO at 449 Main Street! Send us a note or contact us anytime at hello@handmakery.com! Much love and happiness creating! xo Ami
Happy New Year!!! Looking back, one of our most favorite workshops for children included ~ wee Wondrous Weavings on Wooden Looms! Oh my, the possibilities of textile design! These mini-masterpieces were created by 6 – 10-year-old artists! Our NEW ~ 2018 Winter Art Workshop Brochure is hot-of-the-press! Workshops start early January, yes this week and they’re filling up fast, just hop on over to our simple SIGN UP! If you’re looking for hands-on + mixed media + creative expression + an artful highlight to each week + a chance to meet new families and friends JOIN US + ENROLL TODAY! You can also connect with us on Instagram @handmakery to keep an eye on what we’re creating in the studio from special art events to birthday parties, and of course everything in between at our NEW art studio located at 449 Main Street in Carbondale | CO in the heart of the Carbondale Creative District!
WORKSHOPS + CLASSES + CAMPS
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Join us for our 2015 SUMMER + 2015/16 SCHOOL YEAR ART WORKSHOPS + COMMUNITY HAPPENINGS!
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Our Winter Vintage Cottages were created in our workshop HANDMAKERY FROM THE HEART: making + creating to give with 6 – 9 year olds! The Winter Vintage Cottage was our third project in a six-week session! The children absolutely LOVED working on these! Most children created their cottage as special gifts for a loved one! We were excited that the cottage could light up with a flameless tea light and be used for a nightlight! With all the windows it has fabulous ambiance! Our biggest challenge was finding enough of these fabulous little houses, but with friends and family searching across two states, we had just enough for our seventeen HANDMAKERY artists! Thank goodness for family and friends that searched high and low, making room in their travels for these delightful pieces to inspire! Here is a little gift to welcome your NEW YEAR focused on making + creating + crafting + exploring creativity + being hands-on + celebrating mixed-media! Enjoy our DIY to guide and inspire you in making your own Winter Vintage Cottage!
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A peek at creating in our outdoor art studio at May’s First Friday in historic downtown Carbondale | CO! HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio had the opportunity be a sponsor at the Family Block Party for a second year! The Family Block Party is an annual event that includes a fabulous live band, beautiful face painting, exciting carnival games + a bounce house, arts + crafts {with us}, sweet adoptable pets looking for a forever home, a silent auction full of amazing giveaways, food + drink hosted by The Village Smithy Restaurant and more! Funds benefit Colorado Animal Rescue, Children’s Rocky Mountain Preschool and Carbondale Recreation! This night wouldn’t be possible without all the fabulous organizers, volunteers, local businesses, community sponsors + supporters and all the MANY families + friends that attended the 4-8PM celebration of moving into spring!
Happy 1st Birthday HANDMAKERY, so wonderful that SO many amazing HANDMAKERY artists + volunteers joined us for an action packed evening! Last year we made our debut at Family Block Party 2013, which was another incredible night of celebration and art-making with children!
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We are excited to announce our grassy lawn has just sprouted up INSIDE our art studio! Creative seeds have sprouted and spring has sprung! We’ve been patiently waiting and today it is finally here! A plush + luscious 10′ x 15′ indoor space to collaborate and connect on! We envision lots of creative conversations + ideas + art-filled learning to only sprout up here! We had a little aspiring artist ask “does it need to be watered?” No watering, dandelions or mowing here, just a possible red + white + polka-dotted mushroom popping up from time to time! Don’t worry mom + dad, no grass stains happening here, just the perfect texture with endless possibility for HANDMAKERY to inspire. express. create. Stay current + connected on events, classes, workshops + community happenings… join us on Facebook!
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A little vintage camper drawing {on stretched canvas} started by a little artist in our workshop creating with six to eight year olds in HANDMAKERY FROM THE HEART: making + creating to give. Day #1 of a six week workshop, gathering to create once a week! This project was inspired by HANDMAKERY’S -{LOVE}- for vintage + collected + time-worn objects, graced with patina + imperfections + textures + unique colors, that tell a one-of-a-kind story. We dreamed up this project and envisioned it beginning 2-D, then moving into 3-D, with the addition of mixed media. Can’t wait to show you how it evolves and gets personalized below!
A few of our personal vintage object from 2Market2: clothing + handpicked goods located in Carbondale | CO used for inspiration + learning about vintage.
A photograph of one of our favorite vintage campers {borrowed for educational/artistic purposes} from one of our favorite blogs featuring Elsie + Emma at A Beautiful Mess.
Discovering vintage colors and developing a color pallet for our vintage camper painting. Think avocado green, bubblegum pink, creamsicle + clementine orange + more. We LOVED when each little artist shared their specific color scheme, as they were SO excited to create their own combination and very interested in getting the exact wording! Visit + follow our collection of “vintage inspiration” on our HANDMAKERY Pinterest page!
Take a peek above at all the variations of our Vintage Camper Paintings!
A close up of a Vintage Camper Painting complete with special editions including:
- a snowy + sparkly clothesline with wooden clips + handmade winter wear
- skis + snowboards
- garland created with washi tape + red and white twine
- a personalized quote on handwriting paper
- sparkles, shine + snowflakes, oh my!
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A few favorite photos of the week instructing in the Children’s Program at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, Colorado, over the week of Forth of July! In just four art filled days, we explored Monoprint Monday to Texture Exploration Tuesday to Wild for Linoleum Blocks Wednesday to Celebrating the 4th of July (off to be with family + friends) all the way to Freedom for Printing Friday! The class was sold out, so we had a group of 15 amazing little ones, ranging from 6-8 years of age, from all over the nation! Each artist explored everything from paste paper, monoprinting, creating with texture tools, transferring, linoleum carving, collagraphs, silk screening, plus various printing processes! The creativity, independence, confidence, and relationships formed this week, in these 15 aspiring artists, was incredible to watch blossom. So thankful I got to be part of it and to see it all in action firsthand, wouldn’t have wanted to miss it for the world.
Think you’ll be amazed at a few of the images captured when hands were not busy creating or full of printing ink! At 2:30 on Friday we celebrated with the children and their families with a little indoor/outdoor art exhibit + popcycles! Excited to be on the schedule for next summer! If you get the opportunity to visit Anderson Ranch Art Center you’ll be beyond amazed, exploring all the specialty studios- woodworking, ceramics, painting, just to name a few! I encourage you to head up to Anderson Ranch Art Center on a Friday afternoon to explore the studios, the artwork produced throughout the week in all the specialty studios and to have lunch in the cafe, which is by far, the BEST homemade food around- definitely one of the teaching perks! Enjoy the collection of photos from Printmaking 101!
Ami Maes
Founder + Creative Director
HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio
www.handmakery.com | info@handmakery.com | carbondale.co
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