A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Art

Paint by Sticker with free printable

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Saturday night I came home later than I had planned from a homeschool conference, completed the chores I needed to and than sat down tired.  My mind was racing and I felt unsettled.  Watching TV with the boys as they played their computer game was relaxing me so I thought I would pull out my Paint by Sticker book and do a page.   I don’t think I’ve shared this book with you before so let me walk you through it.   Do stay tuned to my ArtWork Notebooking Page at the close of this post.

Paint by Stickers, my reviewThe page I did took me about 30-45 to complete and I have to admit I was TIRED, I wasn’t focused on perfection, I was focused on getting my mind to settle so that I’d be able to get to bed and sleep.  🙂   So the page I did isn’t perfect, but it completed that task I had…the fiddling with stickers, looking for numbers, settled my brain down wonderfully. I think it’s one of the reasons I like colouring, it gives my brain something fiddly to work with that helps it to shut off all the extraneous, and at the end of it I can see I’ve accomplished something.   This Paint by Stickers book does the same thing, but leaves me not having to worry about getting colours right. 

Paint by Sticker gives me 12 different pieces of artwork to complete. What the artwork is, is listed in the table of contents.  This book contains such as the Creation of Adam, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Dance as well as others.  The one I am showing you today is called “House of Parliament, Sunlight Effect” by Claude Monet.  

I admittedly didn’t take a picture of the uncompleted work, so I’m showing you a different page.  🙂  You’ll bear with me right?  The spaces have an alpha-numeric combination. 

Paint by Sticker
The instructions in the beginning of the book tell you to be careful about putting the stickers on, and advise using a tweezer.  I learned that if you don’t stick the pieces on firmly you can do some replacing, but once it is stuck, it’s stuck.   AND if you apply too much pressure it’s too bad, so sad.  Ergo, if you want it to come out just so… take your time, have good lighting, be finicky about your placement.  

Paint by StickerIt’s easy to know which page of stickers you need to use.   Each sticker page has a picture of the completed art work in the top right corner. 

AND each sticker page is perforated so they rip out easily making it super easy to complete each page. And they do… sometimes perforated pages don’t rip out smoothly or easily, these do.   So much better than flipping back and forth in a book trying to reach small stickers.

Paint by StickerYou may have noticed on the page above the stickers are divided into colour coded sections.   This makes it easier to find the sticker that you need to use. I found the colour coded divisions added a bright spot, so helpful and so much nicer than a plain white background eh!  🙂

Paint by StickerMy thought when I started out was that I would start on one side and work my way across but as I worked I changed my mind.  I then started picking out the biggest pieces and fitting them in, I saved the smallest pieces for the end.   You can make your creation in whatever way you want to!

MOST of the stickers I managed to get well.  I was able to reposition three or four of them, one I bungled badly.   But my son said “It looks good mom!”

Paint by StickerYou can probably see the darker purple one in the middle that I messed up with.  I’m thinking if I wanted to I could take a purple pencil crayon and fill in those white lines, but from a distance the lad tells me it looks great and I should just leave things be.  🙂

I did learn that the stickers are definitely not oriented to the page.  I frequently had to turn the sticker around to find the right orientation.   Make sure that you don’t just slap the stickers down.  Take your time and turn them around so you get the sticker on the correct way. 

All in all this was an excellent way to relax without having to fuss about with crayons, paper or markers.   No big colour decisions to make, just a look, sort, place and be finished with a decent looking piece of art.  I urge you, if you like colouring books, to give the paint by sticker books a look.  I know I’ll be looking for more of them (hopefully on sale like this one was).  🙂

Just so you know, some of the art work is more involved and requires two pages of stickers to complete.   All carefully labelled so you know what goes where.  Go on… create a masterpiece… One sticker at a time. 🙂

Paint by Sticker
I was thinking about how this book would be so handy to do with a homeschooling unit. Can’t you just see working with your students/children as you talk about this work that the artist did, and then take small breaks to see other works by the same artist. You could easily pull in history, geography, science and more. Reading to your children fascinating tidbits as they keep their hands and eyes busy recreating works of art!

Click on the image below to download my ArtWork Notebooking Page.

artwork notebooking page

Monsters and Heroes of the Realms Colouring Book

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Look who is joining us today! Kristen with a fabulous colouring book!  Kristen is from the blog Mom’s Quest to Teach.  You really should go visit her.  🙂

Monsters and Heroes of the realm colouring Book

Monsters and Heroes of the Realms Coloring Book is a collection of more than 60 black-and-white versions of illustrations from some of the more popular Dungeons and Dragons books such as the Players Handbook (2014) and the Monster Manual (2014). There are also 16 pages of full color illustrations.

The pictures are very detailed and intricate. For that reason, I would recommend colored pencils or fine tip pens once you decide if you want to color a Goblin Battle or an Elf Ranger.

Dungeons & Dragons ® has been around for more than forty years inspiring artists, writers, and adventurers to explore the forests of far off lands or caves deep and dark. This coloring book allows fans to explore within the confines of a book some of those worlds.

Among the black and white illustrations are several maps that would be ready for a game master and their newest campaign.

Personally, I have enjoyed coloring the pictures while role-playing with my family. As we take turns exploring or talking to non-player characters, I can color a potential future enemy like a mimic or an umber hulk.

The Monsters and Heroes of the Realms Coloring Book is a nice addition for any fan of D&D ®, fantasy, or adult coloring.

“A Mom’s Quest to Teach is a regular column covering elements of teaching and learning (with an eye towards homeschooling), parenting, crafting, and all of the discoveries, joys, and daily roller coaster rides that occur while being a mom.”

The history and fun of wooden spoon dolls

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Last week our six-week co-op classes started for the spring session.  I have two children signed up for my class, one great helper and her wee little who joined us.  We had SUCH fun.

The history and fun of wooden spoon dolls

Our first class I wanted to assess their skills so I chose a doll that could be simple or hard depending on their abilities (6-8 year olds can be all over the map you know).   We would make wooden spoon dolls.

Part of my class is to give the children a VERY brief history into wooden spoons and the dolls that came from them.  We talked about how wooden spoons came into being, and then how wooden spoons were a symbol of marriage.  A fellow would give his gal a wooden spoon and she’d hang it on the wall.   Sometimes they would be shaped like a key, or have a wooden heart on the end or just be a good wooden spoon. Something she could take into her marriage with her a vital part of her life.  We talked about how a spoon could be passed down from mom to daughter and so forth.  The children thought that was amazing. 

Then we talked about how wooden spoons were easy to make if you had wood on hand, and how parents like to make their children happy (just like their own moms and dads do) and they would often use whatever they had on hand, and sometimes that would be an older wooden spoon they didn’t use any more.  They were very popular in colonial days, being made of scraps of material mom would have left over.

making the wooden spoon dolls

Then we set out to make wooden spoon dolls.  I was really clear with the children that they got to make all the decisions about what their dolls would look like.  I’d help them if they needed it but they needed to decide on colours and design.  We had one boy in our class who DIDN”T want a dress on his doll so we learned to make pants, and then later a cape.   We had one girl who choose to make a elegant evening gown and then a simpler evening dress.  I made a gramma doll and the children HOOTED.  🙂

Anyways, this was an amazingly simple craft to do with the children and we had so much fun.

Art Book: Fallout, a colouring book

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Welcome Kristen to the blog today.  She’s introducing us to a adult colouring book for a game called Fallout.  Kristen is from the blog Mom’s Quest to Teach.  You really should go visit her.  🙂

Fallout, an adult colouring book to go with the game Fallout

Fallout Coloring Book
It’s All Over But the Coloring

The Fallout Adult Coloring Book, a ThinkGeek and Bethesda Store exclusive, contains over 100 line drawings from the game Fallout 4. For fans for of the Fallout series, this might be a must have for their vaults.

The majority of the book contains images of the Vault Boy to color of the various perks one can choose from the actual Fallout 4 game. Other pages depict the companions of the game: Dogmeat, Piper, Strong, Cait, Hancock, X6-88, and Gage as well as some of the enemies of the game like Deathclaws and Ghouls. Noticeably missing from the coloring book are many of the more popular companions including Nick Valentine, MacCready, Deacon, the two Robots (Codsworth and Curie), Preston, and possibly Danse (one could argue he is one of the two Brotherhood of Steel soldiers). Upon further thought, Preston is probably helping a settlement.

Personally, I like the chance to color some of the characters from the video game and Vault boy but I would have also liked to see more images from the game itself. Perhaps towns or locates of the Commonwealth like Diamond City or the Atom Cats Garage? Or even Vault 111.

(suggested Fallout hashtags: #Fallout #Fallout4 #Fallout3 #Bethesda #ThinkGeek #VaultBoy #Vault111 #Vault101)

“A Mom’s Quest to Teach is a regular column covering elements of teaching and learning (with an eye towards homeschooling), parenting, crafting, and all of the discoveries, joys, and daily roller coaster rides that occur while being a mom.”

Art Book: Draw Like an Artist – Pop Art

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Does PopArt interest you?  Want to learn how to do it yourself?   Draw Like an Artist PopArt will help you along your way.

My review of the art book Draw Like an Artist Pop Art by Patricia Geis

Don’t know what Pop Art is?  Me too!   I had to learn and this video helped.  Simple colourful work.

 

Draw like an Artist: pop art is a book that takes you through 18 different artists, introducing you the work they did and then gives you an opportunity to copy their style.   This book does tell you how to do it, it gives you the opportunity and the paper, and then says This is what this artist did.. now.. make their style your own. I love this style of teaching.  Being able to look at works of art until you understand the style and then being encouraged to make it your own….It’s wonderful!

Anyways, artists include people such as Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Peter Blake, David Hockney, Claes Oldenburg, Joe Tilson and more.  18 artists, 18 activities.   Included at the close of the book are elements you can use in your creativity.

sample pages from Pop Art

Each artist has a brief biography given plus a sample of their work.  A brief synopsis of the type of work they did, and then encouragement to make your own piece of art. 

My thoughts.

I thought this was a wonderful book. I love how each artist was introduced along with some of their art work.  Then a simple encouragement to just try your hand at it.  A page to work on with the artists work visible for inspiration makes it a useful book for students of Pop Art.   I can see this book being SO easy to use for a co-op class.  It would be a matter of finding samples of the artists work, adding a bit more to the biography, providing papers, magazines and a variety of art materials and then simply encouraging each student to make a work of art that is all their own. I think it would be fantastic to see more books like this one. 

cover of the book draw like an artist Pop Art 
Draw Like an Artist - Pop Art
Patricia Geis
Princeton Architectural Press
64 pages, softcover, age 10+
art, art book, pop art, draw like an artist
Series: Draw Like An Artist
Reviewed for Raincoast books.

Where to find: Amazon Link.

Other Art Books:

How to Draw Comics. 
How to Draw . 
Stick Stekch School.

Art Book: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

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Guess what! Ritsumei was ever so kind and thought she would join me in my art series.   Please welcome her with me. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, art book guest post.

  I was introduced to Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by a friend of mine, a Real Artist. I asked him one day, “How’d you do that??” –and after he told me, he loaned me this book. Which I quickly decided I needed to buy. That was in 1994, and this book has been my friend ever since then.

It’s a little worn… the poor thing split into two “volumes” when I had my oldest son working in it not long ago, and not because he was rough on it; he wasn’t.

 

It’s just the kind of how-to book that’s easy to refer to and easy to use… and we gradually used it up.

The book was first published in 1979, and a lot of the brain research that it rests on has been updated: I understand that the idea of the strict right-brain/left-brain categorization of tasks (logical work to the left; artistic on the right) has been refined and even outgrown. And when I sat my son down to read the book and do the exercises, I told him that: the science is dated.

Well, the science may be dated, but the exercises work.
So we continue to use the book.

Drawing is not really very difficult. Seeing is the problem, or to be more specific, shifting to a particular way of seeing. You may not believe me at this moment. You may feel that you are seeing things just fine and that it’s the drawing that is hard. But the opposite is true, and the exercises in this book are designed to help you make the mental shift…”
-From Chapter 1: Drawing and the Art of Bicycle riding, page 4

And it’s true: the things that Jay taught me in the five minute conversation that literally took me from drawing bad stick figures to doing a recognizable portrait that afternoon were all about how to look at things. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain continued the lessons in how to see, and just as important, to trust what I see.

I still have the first sketch book that I bought, where I did the exercises in the book, and thumbing back through it, I still remember the thrill of putting the things I see on paper — and having other people look at them and say, “Yep, that’s what it looks like.”

I thought that my sister got all that talent; really, she learned to see before I did.

So. The book.

It’s got a nice collection of before-and-after student work. These two are my favorites.

Throughout the book, there are readings, as the author teaches in the main body of the text, and puts a great collection of quotes and exercises and artwork from both students and masters in the sidebars on each page.

The exercises start in chapter four, and they are excellent. Sitting in school, I passed time by doodling vase faces on my notebooks and folders long after I had completed the exercise. I still enjoy doing them; to make a convincing face requires a relatively high degree of concentration and care, which makes it a good exercise long after the basics of drawing become familiar.

…if you do use words to think, ask yourself only such things as: 
“Where does that curve start?”
“How deep is that curve?”
What is the angle relative to the edge of the paper?”
“How long is that line relative to the one I’ve just drawn?”
These are R-mode questions: spatial, relational and comparative. Notice that no parts are named. No statements are made, no conclusions drawn, such as, “The chin must come out as far as the nose,” or, “Noses are curved.”
-From Chapter 4: Experiencing the Shift From Left to Right, p 49

There are a number of other great exercises as well. One of the most memorable is copying a Picasso line drawing — but the drawing is upside down while you do it. It really messes with the preconceived notions of what things ought to look like when you draw them upside down — and that is exactly what the book is all about: helping the student get past their preconceived notions of what things look like, so they can get to putting what things really look like on the paper. More than once I’ve suggested that moms who want to learn to draw ought to grab one of the coloring sheets they print for their kids, turn it upside down, and draw it themselves. It’s a great exercise for confusing the part of the mind that likes to slap a quick label on things and be done — which allows the slower, calmer, more patient part of the mind to emerge and to really see. Because seeing well is what drawing is all about.My poor, worn-out copy is from the second edition, and looking at Amazon, I see that it’s now in the fourth edition, and the chapters have been reworked enough that a few of them have slightly different titles. But looking through the preview, I see that much of the material is probably going to be familiar, when I finally get around to replacing my poor old book. Which I probably will do: after my oldest, there are two more children that I’ll want to work through the book, so that they, too, can learn to see well enough to draw well.

Ritsumei is a wife and a mother of
three. She has been using a Classical/Charlotte Mason approach to
homeschooling for ~8 years, since her oldest started doing preschool.
You can find her blogging at Baby Steps, where she primarily posts about homeschooling life, educational philosophy, and the Bible.

 

Ritsumei is a wife and a mother of three. She has been using a Classical/Charlotte Mason approach to homeschooling for ~8 years, since her oldest started doing preschool. You can find her blogging at Baby Steps, where she primarily posts about homeschooling life, educational philosophy, and the Bible.

 

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Betty Edwards

Where to find: Amazon Link.

 

The Good and Beautiful

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I want you to welcome Miss Yvie to the blog today. I asked on the Homeschool Review Crew for people willing to talk about an art program, art book or an art resource they wanted to talk about.

Miss Yvie took me up on the challenge.

Here is what she has to say about The Good and The Beautiful.

The gist of the video is :

  • covers level 3-7 (there is also a K, 1, and 2, but we didn’t use them)
  • Cover handwriting curriculum also
  • Talks about how art history, art appreciation and art instruction are incorporated into their language arts courses.

Here is the link to where they can find more information about the Good & the Beautiful’

The Good and the Beautiful is also a program I use with the lad. He wanted to learn spelling and do some work with grammar this year, so I went looking for something I thought might intrigue him and at least 20 people recommended The Good and The Beautiful. It is NOT just a language arts program, but also cover geography, art, poetry and more. He likes it! 🙂 That makes it a winner in my book (and his). 

 

The Good and The Beautiful is available through Jenny Phillips.  Free if you download online, you can also order the ready made books.  Now.. seeing the ready made books in the video makes me want to get them and hang the cost!  Aren’t they simply beautiful? 

You can find Yvie at Gypsy Road School. 

Yvie is a road-schooling mother of two active boys! While traipsing across the country, she creates Lego-themed school and enjoys meeting up with other families. At home, you can find her working at her homeschool ministry, The Book Shack. Find her at Gypsy Road, Instagram, or on Facebook.