Best Artists in the Ocean Paintings

As I continue the unit on literacy in the art room, our young artists read the book 'I'm the Best Artist in the Ocean!' by Kevin Sherry, and learned about squid, their tentacles and their ability to squirt ink.

We then created an ocean background using cake tempera and large wash brushes. Next we made a directed line drawing of our artist squids. The pencil drawing was painted with liquid tempera, and then cut out and glued to the background painting. Options for our paintings were to include an artist's cap and/or mustache to the squid character. Younger artists painted solid black lines for the tentacles and older artists created outlines of black filled in when painting the entire body of the squid. I was inspired by fellow bloggers  Dali's Moustache and by This Little Class of Mine among others. I hope you enjoy our "Messterpieces!"

Hurricane Sandy

This has been a trying week for many of us due to Hurricane Sandy. I do hope that my art teacher friends, and blog followers have suffered little damage and that you are safe and well. Our town definitely took some damage! My street had many downed trees and power lines, and was closed to traffic. My home and family are safe, and power returned yesterday, November 5th in the afternoon. 

I have amazing neighbors and we all took it in stride with fireside chats, pot luck meals, outdoor fires, and the kids getting lots of fresh air! We lived on lots of candlelight, fireside chats, and heaps of blankets on the beds at night. No one went hungry, as neighbors took turns hosting dinners of whatever they could cook or provide. Halloween was postponed for a week and then canceled altogether, but we had tricks or treat on the block and a Halloween Party anyway!

So I am just checking in, wishing you all well, and letting you know that my art blogging life will continue as soon as possible. Please be safe and my thoughts are with you.