Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project
Here are some pictures of the sun catchers the artists in Berlin made.
Lusine Boyajyan, the teacher of the 5 year old artists at Kita Felix and Friends said, "We had a great sunny day and the kids were happy to explore the light and drawn pictures, the shadow of fingers behind the transparent paper...was a lot of fun :-)"
These artworks will brighten up Ahja's artists' day!
The Tigers impressed me so much not only with their comic strips, but how they can clearly show emotions in their drawn characters! We first made some character studies from one of the characters in their character. For example, since Paavo was the main character in his comic he decided to do a character study of himself. He drew what he looks like happy, sad, nervous, and even drew himself as if he was going to explode from an oversupply of energy!
Everybody did a wonderful job! The Mice in Vietnam will enjoy reading these during their summer holiday too!
Evelyn Müürsepp, artist and workshop leader, gives great tips on how to make a successful comic workshop. It seems that her group of 5 year old in Estonia are natural comic artists. I'm sure their friends in Berlin will enjoy reading their stories!
Evelyn said,
It was a really good experience and I loved seeing how intuitively kids grabbed the idea and started producing their own stories :-)
I did now know where to start- as I have always struggled myself with visual storytelling- somehow I end up complicating things to fast. This time I just prepared few things and then kids got it from the air.
Things like:
- got couple of 3-4 image comic strip examples from internet (with and without text)
Then asked kids to tell what do they see. Everyone told it their way and then i told the version what was written on "bubbles"- It gave them example that there are many ways to interpret visual story...
- got some comic books for viewing (Just when waiting for start and afterwards when some got their work done earlier they were looking these)
- printed out some ready made comic "boxes"- just in case
- prepared some themes and draw them some examples, themes like: "my expressions", "things I like to do", "my favourite foods", "my dear ones..." Themes seemed to be good just to have (mostly for teachers who were helping to give instructions for youngest ones). 5 year olds started immediately making their own, pretty complicated 3-6 image stories. It was interesting to see how kids who do not read yet follow the story line. It is not from left to right, but seemed to be that starting image was in center and then story was kind of evolving around that image- it never followed the same path, but went one way in the beginning and for next round just image sequence switched and story could go on like that forever- ie story wasn't linear, it was spiraling :-)
I do not know about others, but for me it was great lesson and I really enjoyed it, so seemed the children and teachers (they were actually also surprised how well kids got the idea and how creatively they interpreted it)
These profile self-portraits are like a mirror image of the artist! The Tigers did a wonderful job with their Light Works and had fun experimenting with this new technique.
Wow! Aleksi did a spot on job recreating his hair! His self-portrait had equally spiky and spunky hair as in real life. Nachu said she was trying to draw her skin color. Jonatan had a wonderful revelation when he put the yellow gel over the blue picture. He realized that blue + yellow = green. I'm happy that everybody had fun :).
Now for our Mice, we wonder what time does the sun set in Vietnam? Sending light to our friends in Hanoi!
Lusine and her 5 year old artists from Berlin had a great time with their Dear You March project! I am sure Evelyn and her artists in Mooste, Estonia will appreciate their watercolor views.
We split the project into two. First the kids made and used their viewfinders to fix images, colors and different combinations. It was interesting to observe that later on when they were asked to put their creativity onto paper, they knew exactly what and how they wanted to paint. In between, they were encouraged to use the view finders again, which they applied from different distances involving other kids to hold the painting or to look through their view finders.
We had a lot of fun and discovered many new things around us.
All the best,
Lusine and Felixers
Evelyn Müürsepp and her artists have made beautiful paintings with the help of their handmade viewfinders. I love how they use their viewfinder on their newly created painting. Perhaps we can make a painting in a painting? Anything is possible!
I'm sure their friends in Berlin are going to be so happy when they receive these artworks!
The Tigers and I started our session by making a viewfinder with our hands and seeing what is around us. We saw the trees outside the window, we saw the view to the downstairs where the Dolphins and Lions are, we saw the hearts on the windows and all the beautiful artwork hanging from the ceiling! Now have a look at how our views turned into beautiful watercolor paintings : )
We our curious how our views are the same and different from The Mice in Vietnam!
With love,
Arlene & The Tigers from Espoo, Finland
Have a look at some pictures of String Stories from Berlin. Lusine said, "The kids had so much fun improvising with string and glue that they all wanted to make another sting story for the family to take home. It was very sweet :-)"
You are sweet! And your friends in Estonia are going to appreciate your stories!
I see snow, cars, sun and a whole lot of adventures in these string stories by the Tigers! The Tigers soon figured out how to use the string to add texture and volume to their colored pencil drawings. Each one tells so much about themselves. I'm sure their friends in Vietnam will love these pieces of art!
Hi,
We had a great time doing the February Dear You art project. We have been focusing on the solar system and talking about how we are connected to everything, so the project tied in perfectly with our curriculum! We have also been working on sharing and teamwork, so each piece was a collective effort.
Have a great day,
Michelle
The 5 years old at Moonstone Preschool in Philadelphia, PA, USA is making and exchanging artwork with Pre-Kindergarteners at The International School of Antwerp in Antwerp, Belgium.
The artists at Lasteaed Illikuku in Põlvamaa, Estonia have made their stories by collaging string for their friends at Kita Felix and Friends in Berlin, Germany.
It's story time!
Toti and The Mice wanted to mix colors and do some a4 christmas cards for the Tigers using Salt Painting. Learn more about this art technique here:
http://www.oneperfectdayblog.net/2012/04/27/kids-art-raised-salt-painting/
The Mice and The Tigers met up online to sing 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas' together!
Once The Tigers mastered the art of making a pop up box everything became possible! Nachu was experimenting with writing her name in cursive. Jonatan made a pop up reindeer. Sreya said she wanted to give the sun to her friends in Vietnam. That's so thoughtful considering Finland could really use some right about now :). Ida went beyond the twofold card and made a pop up book!
The Tigers will mail these warm wishes to the Mice in Vietnam. Hyvää Joulua and Happy New Year!
Hi,
We had a great time with this project. We practiced the day before we made the cards and now we are all pop up pros! One boy told me he couldn't wait to teach his older brother how to do this! I will be sending them out tomorrow morning.
Have a great day and enjoy the holidays,
Michelle
First we were all surprised, interested, curious and sometimes even scared of the paintings we saw: M. C. Escher, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and other surrealist painters, which made us think a little bit and also realize that painting has no boundaries.
Then, we started painting to Jun Miyake's "Lillies of the Valley". The storm, No teacher, Windy day, The tree, Flowers, Birds of Vietnam or the galaxy are some of the paintings we created. Take a look and you will find much more.
All the best from Hanoi,
The Little Mice
The Little Mice are exchanging with the Tigers in Espoo, Finland. Check out what The Tigers did for their Musical Paintings here!
Kita Felix and Friends in Berlin, Germany have been busy (as you can see) making a sweet package for their friends in Estonia!
Lusine, the teacher at Kita Felix and Friends in Berlin said, "the kids had a lot of fun, many painted with music, letting the beat be the guiding light." I'm sure their friends in Lasteaed Illikuku in Põlvamaa, Estonia are super excited to receive their musical paintings!
For the November Musical Painting Michelle Mullally, Assistant Director at Moonstone Preschool said, "They got so into it. I love seeing how students respond to music while making art."
The pictures speak for themselves :)
