We so enjoyed our Drawing-A-Day project last month, it was so quick and easy and fun for all of us and around the table we naturally started brainstorming all sorts of “Something-A-Day” posts… some would be easy to blog about, and some – like take a walk everyday – not so much!!! But we have lots of ideas for posts like these and they aren’t all arty – other ideas were writing and some were getting outdoors and well heaps of ideas, that we would like to surprise our readers with over the next couple of months. My only criteria really, is that they require no preparation from me and that we can be done and dusted in about fifteen minutes. Also, if somebody really wants to linger longer they can and if we miss a day – for whatever reason – there will be no tears!!! Catch up or don’t – this is an absolutely no pressure project.
A month is really long enough for us to see if we can establish a daily habit… there are so many “good habits” that we are told we need to foster, well a life-style of creativity is one we are working on this year. While my kids have opportunities and materials to work with and they do on a daily basis… often we use things in the same old way… this sort of project is just for us to get into the habit of, say drawing every day, and trying new things that stretch us a little, but not so much as to dishearten.
This month we are going to be playing with watercolours… now we love watercolour paints and use them a lot, to illustrate, to decorate in our journals. But I would like us to break out of our “just drawing with paint” rut and try a few different things. So I have split the projects into weeks and they are specially designed to take just a few minutes… not more than fifteen. Of course we started today and spent well over an hour creating heaps of paintings!!! But the idea is to take your best effort of the day and keep them safe, in order to make a “water-colour ideas book” on the last day. The other multitude of artworks that are created can be stored and used for collage projects or to decorate the fridge – I am all for “artwork of the day”!!!
You are going to need some water-colour paints and paper for this project and a couple of easy to find ties along the way. We could use very smart watercolour notebooks, but because of the copious nature of my children’s artwork, we are using printer paper that has been cut in half. The half size, because everyone seems to experiment better when they have a small surface to fill. By the end of the project your children should have a couple or a pile of paintings and the last days will be spent turning your paintings into a water-colour book to remember the project by.
Day 1: Monday Paint your paintbox colour by colour…
Day 2: Tuesday Mix it up… have fun making new colours…
Day 3: Wednesday Just splotches…
Day 4: Thursday Just lines…
Day 5: Friday Just dots…
Day 6: Saturday Just splatters…
Day 7: Sunday A rainbow…
Day 8: Monday Stripes and wash… paint a strip and just wash over it with water.
Day 9: Tuesday Wet on Wet… Make sure your paper is really wet and then add paint.
Day 10: Wednesday Just Add Salt… Sprinkle salt on a wet painting, for lovely results.
Day 11: Thursday Just Add Cling Wrap… scrunch some cling wrap on your wet paintings and leave them to dry overnight.
Day 12: Friday Just Add Straws… Blow your painting.
Day 13: Saturday Blot it… Paint with fairly wet paint and then use paper towels to dab/absorb the excess paint.
Day 14: Sunday Cut, Snip, Glue… Make a Collage with Some of your pages from the week…
Day 15: Monday Wax Crayon Rubbing and Resist…
Day 16: Tuesday Contact Paper Block Out…
Day 17: Wednesday Delicate Doilies…
Day 18: Thursday Just Use Shapes…
Day 19: Friday White Wax Crayon Resist…
Day 20: Saturday Stained Glass Window… Vegetable Oil…
Day 21: Sunday Put Your Stained Glass Window Up…
Day 22: Monday Painting with Finger Tips…
Day 23: Tuesday Painting with Feathers…
Day 24: Wednesday Painting With Cotton Buds…
Day 25: Thursday Painting with Nature…
Day 26: Friday Painting with String…
Day 27: Saturday Painting with Ice-Cubes…
Day 28: Sunday Paint With Anything…
Day 29: Monday Create Some PostCards…
Day 30: Tuesday Create a Book Cover…
Day 31: Wednesday Create Your Book and Staple Your Water Colour Paintings Together
Watercolours are very forgiving… the projects are purposefully vague, so folks can get experimental!!! Totally don’t worry if you miss a day or three or five… the idea is to sew the seeds of inspiration… and then let the project wander and grow as interests are peaked. If you do join in then you are welcome to follow along on instagram, we are @se7en_hoods over there and tag your pictures #se7ensprojectaday or #se7enspaintingaday. That’s us happy arting in July!!!
Yippee, now I know what to do next. We’re doing the drawing exercise but not every day, so we won’t get to the painting for another month or so, but maybe it will give us incentive to do more drawing!
thanks so much for sharing on craft schooling sunday!
Oh Sara, I am thrilled!!! I have to say while we enjoyed drawing – it was definitely a discipline and training of the fingers and mind – while painting, so far, appears to be pure fun!!! I think we will have to keep on drawing it was the most excellent exercise and huge progress was made for all of us!!! Quite incredible what a little bit of work at a time can achieve!!! Hope you have a good week!!!