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Sunday, January 3, 2010

Friendship Bracelet Book Winners

It’s time to announce the two lucky winners of the Klutz Friendship book giveaway.
Thank you readers for all your really kind comments about my blog. I wish I could give a book to all 113 of you, but alas there can only be two winners. The winning screen names I randomly selected are: “Gerky” and “sew happy Stacy”. Congratulations ladies, you win 2 books each – one to keep and one to give away. Please email me your addresses so the books can be sent on their way. Thanks again to Klutz Publications for this great giveaway!
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Saturday, January 2, 2010

Landscape with Hatching Shading

Hatching is an artistic technique used to create tonal effects by drawing closely spaced parallel lines. A simple landscape drawing is a good place to practice this kind of shading.
1. I drew the outline of a house on a small piece of paper and added horizon lines and a curved road narrowing into the distance.
2. With the outline complete, I added hatching to the house with the lines following each contour. I then filled in the landscape and sky, changing the direction of the lines to give contrast to each element.

CA Visual Arts Standard: Grade 3
2.3 Paint or draw a landscape, seascape, or cityscape that shows the illusion of space.
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Friday, January 1, 2010

How to Draw a Lion

I saw this basic idea for drawing a lion in an Ed Emberley book. I think his books have been around for awhile, but the step-by-step drawing ideas are timeless.
1. I used a letter-size paper and coffee cup to trace the overlapping circles as shown in diagram one.
2. A third circle is centered below the first two. All of the circles need to overlap to create the middle triangle-like shape that will become the nose.
3. The middle black shape is filled in with black marker, and two eyes and two teeth are added.
4. Two ears are attached to the top circles and then whiskers that are coming out from the shapes next to the nose.
5. Lastly, a mane is drawn around the lion. I used a black Sharpie to trace and color my drawing, and then my new favorite Crayola Twistables Slick Stix to color in. I found mine at Michael’s, but you can also get them online here. I really hope stores continue to stock these as they are perfect for getting an oil pastel look without all the mess.

CA Art Standard: Creative Expression 2.0, Kindergarten
2.6 Use geometric shapes/forms (circle, triangle, square) in a work of art.
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