Cheerio's

"He sang into the Sky" is this week's creative challenge for Mr. Toast's Creative Tuesdays.

I always like to sketch out my ideas for a painting in my sketchbook first.

The color studies for the cheerio challenge.


I had mentioned last week that my painting class was starting a unit on Watercolor.
I thought, Mr. Toast's challenge was a wonderful opportunity to teach by example.
All week long I have been sharing my creative process with my students and thought my blog friends might enjoy too.
Once I came up with the concept for the project and had drawn it on watercolor paper, it was time to think about color scheme. My first watercolor sketch seemed to blue, so I decided to create a color study sketching out nine little versions of the original drawing. The funny thing about this was that everyone had a different favorite.
I decided to go with contrasting colors for the bird house and cheerios.
I also gave myself another challenge. Over the past few weeks, I have admired the witty writing style of many of the other participants, many of which write lovely poetry, something I have no experience with.
I went to my favorite creative writing teacher, John Edwards for his help. Having seen my drawing, I expressed my desire to include a piece of writing. John suggested a limerick and was kind enough to send me the guidelines for developing one.
It was much harder than I thought. In the end, my daughter, the elementary teacher, helped connect the pieces. We are very proud of the finish piece.
Hope you enjoy, and remember never stop learning.