Vol. 3, No. 263, September 20, 2018

3263 - Rainbow Beach.

I was finally able to finish my beach scene color wheel. I love how it turned out, and I can't wait to color my other three color wheel drawings.

Vol. 3, No. 262, September 19, 2018

3262 - Droopy.

Today I painted my portrait today, using warm colors for the skin and cool colors for everything else. Even with the color, my Blind Contour Self-Portrait looks sad. I decided that it looks sad because the facial features are droopy.

Vol. 3, No. 261, September 18, 2018

3261 - Blind And Blue.

My 7th graders are creating blind contour self-portraits. A blind contour drawing is an outline drawing, like a coloring book, that is drawn without looking at your hand as you draw. Oftentimes, with blind contour drawings, the lines overlap, and parts of the image show up in the wrong spot. This was the second self-portrait that I drew this week, and it is far superior over the other one, which I may post later once it is painted. This portrait has everything pretty much in the correct spot and actually looks pretty nice even though I look very sad.

Vol. 3, No. 260, September 17, 2018

3260 - Pineapple Complements.

After a couple weeks of slowly, painting, drawing, cutting, tracing, and gluing, I finally finished my 8th grade complementary color wheel. I chose pineapples for my design. Unfortunately, the pies didn't all line up correctly, and I had to do some trimming to make it fit.  Therefore, the pineapples don't all fit perfectly. Next quarter, I think I will try again.

Vol. 3, No. 259, September 16, 2018

3259 - Mr. Sketch.

I went to Menards this weekend, mostly because I am a sucker for their Free After Rebate items. This week they had New Mr. Sketch Scented Gel Crayons. While I am anti Mr. Sketch scented products because it teaches kids that it is okay to smell markers, I had try out this new product.

I let the Miller Littles join me as we tested the crayons. The application was very smooth, so I expected to to smear easily, but that was not the case. Plus, the scent wasn't obnoxiously strong. At the request of Oldest Miller, I drew the blue rubber ducky, the Littles drew/colored everything else. Oldest Miller was excited to hang it on her new bulletin board in her room when we were finished.

Vol. 3, No. 258, September 15, 2018

3258 - Tomato Jelly.

Having studied the Meeker County Fair Premium Book with an abundance of  tomatoes and feeling adventurous, I made tomato jelly. The jelly consists of tomato juice, lemon juice, gelatin, crystalized ginger, Tabasco Sauce, salt, and sugar. It has a slight hint of spicy-ness, and an unique flavor. I'm not sure I like it nor do I know what to do with it. I guess it's a good thing one recipe only makes four jars of jelly.

Vol. 3, No. 257, September 14, 2018

3257 - Squiggle.

This morning, I had a couple of projects in process at the middle school. I figured I could take them home and finish them this weekend. Brilliant as I am, I forgot to grab the when I left, so I had co come up with a new project. My first graders read ISH by Peter H. Reynolds. Then we practiced making ISH drawings. Today everyone got a piece of paper with two squiggles on it. They needed to turn those squiggles into something. I decided to make an example turning my squiggles into roses.

Vol. 3, No. 256, September 13, 2018

3256 - Today's The!Day.

Today's the day in which all of my hours of drawing patterns, gluing hearts, coloring letters and rolling pieces of tape pays off! After school today, Mrs. Pawelski, the other art teacher, and I met to create our school's collaborative mural. Together, with help from a handful of eager volunteers, we hung 149 pattern hearts, 32 letters, 12 smaller hearts and 6 signs. Next week I will have 20 or so more pattern hearts to hang, as the kindergartners weren't finished with their's yet. With approximately 9 pieces of tape on each piece of paper, we are hopeful that the mural will stay up for a very, very, very long time. This picture shows the full mural on top and a close up of the word section on the bottom.

Vol. 3, No. 255, September 12, 2018

3255 - Shades Of Blue.

During my Sixth grade class, I continued with my color wheel drawing. I decided to work on blue and orange today. Now I only have two more colors to go.

Vol. 3, No. 254, September 11, 2018

3254 - We Love!

At Annandale Elementary School, students in Kindergarten through Fourth Grade are creating a collaborative mural inspired by the work of Romero Britto. Each student decorated 1/4 of a heart, then assembled them to create complete hearts. The hearts will be aligned to form boxes which will contain letters spelling out a message.  Originally we were just going to have the school  name, but then this after noon we decided to add more. The message will now read "WE LOVE ANNANDALE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!". We want to assemble the mural after school tomorrow so that it is ready for an event on Thursday, which meant rather than having students complete the new letters in class, I had homework. With the help of my friend Amy, I was able to complete "WE LOVE!" while we watched the High School Volleyball Game. I will employ some of my eighth graders to help with  "SCHOOL" during class tomorrow.

Vol. 3, No. 253, September 10, 2018

3253 - Shades of Green.

During class today, I started coloring my color wheel. The drawing was divided into 6 pies, each of which represents a different color on the color wheel. The various sections within each pie are colored with different values of the designated color. During class I was able to complete the green and red pies, which means by the end of the week I should be done with one color wheel.

Vol. 3, No. 252, September 9, 2018

3252 - Pop Painting.

People often make fun of me for having one, but I love my PopSocket and last week it broke. I had mentioned to to my family over dinner one night, and my brother said that he had gotten a promotional one recently and would let me have it. Of course, it had company logo information on it rather than a cute design, but that made it possible to make my own art. Tonight, I pulled out my fingernail polish, because I didn't have my paints on hand, and started to paint. The only colors I had were my "Watermelon Colors" so that's what I made. I'm happy that my PopSocket turned out better than my toenails. Now I have to wait and see how long the polish holds up.

Vol. 3, No. 251, September 8, 2018

3251 - Purple People Eater.

Is it purple or does it eat purple people? That was the discussion on the way to my cousin's wedding. We didn't have any wedding cards st home, so I had to make one and decided to do so using the wedding invitation. I made a postcard style card with a pocket on the back for the gift recirpt. I attached the card to the gift with a ribbon and binder clip.

Vol. 3, No. 250, September 7, 2018

3250 - Just One More.


I was introducing the color wheel drawing lesson to my second group of 6th graders when someone asked how to draw a beach scene. I described a few different ways of how to do it, and then decided to make another example, this time I drew my design as a complete picture and then filled in the more empty spots with other images. It still represents things I like, such as watching sunsets on the lake, laying in the hammock, watching volleyball, art, dragonflies, reading, and a rose. I promise I am finished drawing new designs, as now I need to focus on coloring them in.

Vol. 3, No. 249, September 6, 2018

3249 - Almost Skipped It.

This morning as I was introducing the color wheel project to 6th grade, I decided that my drawing had too many small parts and details, so during class, I set out drawing a new design. For this design, I decided to draw the logos for each school that I have attended or taught art at. After class was over I didn't have time to work on it anymore at school, so I brought it home. It was nearly 11 pm before I was finished with my work for the Fall Musical, so I contemplated just skipping finishing my project and just photographing what was already sketched out. Ultimately I decided to watched one more episode of my show and draw while I was watching. Well, one turned in to two, and all of a sudden I was finished. The images represent the School of St. Philip's, Litchfield Public Schools, College of St. Benedict, ROCORI public Schools, Sauk Rapids-Rice Public Schools, Holy Trinity, and Annandale Public Schools. I didn't realize until I was writing the post that I forgot Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted Public Schools.

Vol. 3, No. 248, September 5, 2018

3248 - Story Of My Life.

I got home after a long day, sitting down to write tomorrow's lesson plans, when I realized that I didn't have any project to post. My next lesson for grade 6 is a color wheel lesson. They will be drawing a design that tells something about them. Then they will divide the circle into  wheel sections and color each section according to the color wheel. I was able to make time draw out my circle tonight. I included a rose, drama masks, the twine ball, trees and a sunset on the lake, coffee, art supplies, cherry and vanilla, a campfire, marshmallow, camera flashes, books, wooden deck, bubbles, and of course, ice cream.

Vol. 3, No. 247, September 4, 2018

3247 - Muddy Cow.

Tonight I got to enjoy some Miller Time at the Muddy Cow. It was an exciting night as it was everyone's first time there, and It was the first day of school for the Miller Littles. I got to sit next to Littlest Miller, who convinced me to help her color her placemat. With limited crayon colors our cows are pretty vibrant.

Vol. 3, No. 246, September 3, 2018

3246 - Labor Of Love.

Today my Mom, Dad, Shawn and I labored over a hot stove canning some of the produce that was covering my parent's island. We made Bread and Butter Pickles, Salsa, and because we pealed 5 tomatoes too many, one jar of tomatoes. We have a lot more produce to deal with, but this was a good start.

Vol. 3, No. 245, September 2, 2018

3245 - Rustic Rooster.

Today I am celebrating Dassel's Red Rooster Days by attending the Knights of Columbus Brat Feed followed by the Fireworks at Spring Lake Park. The Brat Feed doesn't start until 6, but I decided to come out early to help my Dad set up. Once other Knughts arrived on the scene, I headed to the lower level of the park to make some art. Being in the beautiful park, with leaves starting to change color, I decided to make nature art. In the spirit of the festival, I made a rooster. I collected a wide variety of leaves, flowers, and other plant parts and then started arranging them on top of a patch of black soil. My rooster is laying right next to the path, but I doubt that many, if any, people will venture down the hill far enough to see it.

Vol. 3, No. 244, September 1, 2018

3244 - Sweet September.

Today my family and I attended the Dassel Red Rooster Days Parade. We came home from the parade with a very large stash of candy. I was about to eat cherry and lime Tootsie Rolls, when I got the brilliant idea to play with my food instead. I pulled out a rolling pin and flattened both candies. Then I used a knife to cut them before shaping and and assembling. I had to put my completed flower in the freezer to firm up a bit before I could take the picture.