Winter Magic ✩ Painting/Drawing for Young Artists ✩ Davis Arts Center ✩ Autumn 2015

Class Description: A furry polar bear in the snow and a little penguin on ice are two of the wintery scenes we will paint in this magical drawing and painting class. Lessons will be guided drawings and basic watercolor painting techniques concentrating on snowy landscapes, starry skies and arctic animals to create some whimsical winter paintings.

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Our first day in class we spent time with a polar bear!  In our sketchbooks, we sketched the head and face of a polar bear since that is the most difficult part of the animal to sketch and get the proportions right. We made a little whimsical watercolor study of our Polar Bear face coming up through the icy waters in a snowy winter scene. 

 There were lots of different types of Polar Bear faces!

Our first watercolor wash was of the light blue icy water.

Then we added a second blue wash for the sky.

Many different polar bear faces!

Then it was "penguin day", and we sketched several penguins in our sketchbooks
before drawing a final penguin on watercolor paper. 

Students had the option of painting a double watercolor wash for
their background, mixing blue and green to make a unique wintery sky.

Some adventurous young artists decided to sketch a more challenging Emperor Penguin.

Two beautiful paintings with subtle snow backgrounds

And then there was "SNOW DAY"!
- where we learned two different techniques for painting snow,
then added snow to our polar bear study,  penguin study, and final snowy scene!

The careful task of adding details to an Emperor Penguin

Young Artists decided on either a polar bear or penguin to include on their
final winter scene.

An adorable little polar bear in the snow

ANIMALS IN NATURE ✩ Painting/Drawing for Young Artists ✩ Davis Arts Center ✩ Autumn 2015

Class description: Students continue their world tour, this time visiting Africa, Australia, and South America to search out their most beautiful animals. We’ll spend time in the rainforest with frogs and toucans, the African savanna with giraffes and zebras, and on top of a eucalyptus tree with a koala bear. Lessons will be guided drawing and painting techniques of animals in their natural habitat using both acrylic and watercolor paints.

Our first stop on our Animal World Tour was the South American Rainforest where we learned a bit about the Poison Dart Frog and worked on our Frog pencil sketches. Students were surprised to learn the Poison Dart Frogs are VERY small and I brought out a nickel coin to show them their actual size!

Poison Dart Frog found in the
tropical rainforest

Drawing our Poison Dart Frog proved more challenging than I expected but so many students rose to the occasion and did a fantastic frog! There were a few beginning young artists who were a bit more challenged by the task of drawing the frog and I decided to help them with an outline sketch to guide them with proportions and balance of the frog’s body. 

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While in the rainforest we also painted the Toucan, which was a fun and colorful experience for all of the young artists in class. The long and colorful beak was the most fun AND the most challenging to draw, but they came out great after a few practice pencil sketches.

Watercolor Toucan - work in progress- first layer

Watercolor Toucans - works in progress- first layer

Toucan found in the tropical rainforest

MORE TOUCAN WORKS IN PROGRESS

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Starting our drawing lesson on the giraffe….

My lesson sketch

A great giraffe sketch!

Lovely giraffe pattern which is challenging to do!

Excellent sketchbook notes!