Sunday Sketches; A Cup of Spring

Good morning to all my Sunday Sketching friends... I'm  sorry I've been missing lately, but I do have something to share today ;)  It's just a little cup of Spring...  and boy do I feel rusty painting. It's not the best sketch I've ever done but I'm enjoying its charm.  Note to self... Even though you're tired, push yourself to sketch something, anything every day.

 So here is my excuse... My day job is sucking up all my creative energy. I come home after school, and instead of taking a walk or drawing in my sketchbook, I just want to take a nap. I refuse to think this is old age... I'd rather like to think I'm having too much fun pushing my students to try one more thing on their projects. Next thing I know it's 3:00 and all my creative energy is used up.  Having enthusiasm for my job and encouraging students to think creatively really drains the life right out of me. I've talk to my  28 year old daughter who is also a teacher and it happens to her too. Ha ha.

Have a wonderful day.

~Karen

Sunday Sketches; All About Me

I've been so  busy teaching this week that I haven't done anything in my sketchbook to share with my Sunday Sketches friends, and was feeling rather sad about that. Well that all changed when I hopped over to see what Juana had created for this weeks Sunday Sketches, and read her post about Drawing and Stamps.
  Guess what I have been working on all week with my students?  Drawing and Stamp Printing, and I thought I didn't have anything to share...
 This week I introduced my Studio Art Final Exam Project. Its an Art journal that the students create based on a theme designed around their interests. They must complete 6 pages based on certain Elements and Principles of Design (determined by me)  plus a front and back cover. This project has always been a favorite of my students over the years.
With that said, the requirement for page 1 of the Art Journal is Line/ Pattern. Students must create a stamp print using a variety of different line and then print their stamp in a pattern of their choice.

Basketball Love

Its all about Sweets

Shoes, Shoes and more Shoes

Three Samples from my power point presentation

Both the students and I have been creating stamps all week. I wish I had thought to bring samples of the students drawings and stamp prints to share today. So... seeing that I'm working on a Power Point Presentation for the "All About Me" page this morning I'll share my exemplar for that page. Its a photo of me and a sketch of how I connect with my theme "The Tree of Life." My image of course is an acorn. (I'm Nuts) ha ha.

 Hope you enjoy, and a thank you to Juana for giving me an idea to post about today.

Happy Sunday Sketches...

~ Karen

Printmaking in the Studio this Week

School of Fish

 I have  been teaching my Studio Art students how to design stamp prints this week at school. This is a fish print I designed a while ago that I scanned into my computer, and with the help of Photoshop I  added a little poem to the piece.

I used two stamps for the piece. Positive and negative images of the fish were created.The positive was printed using black ink and the negative stamp was printed in silver ink on top of tissue paper.
I love how the blue tissue paper bled onto the paper.

Happy Friday!

~Karen