Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Art lessons

We had some fun and relaxing art lessons today at the "Petracci Academy."  I was the art instructor... with some help from Marjorie Flack, Kurt Wiese, and their delightful book "The Story About Ping."

My daughter Anna and I chose a drawing to work from and we set to work making our own versions of Ping diving into the Yangtze River.  I provided minimal discussion about techniques the artists may have used in creating the original.  I then set to work on my drawing using colored pencils.  My kids watched me for a while and emulated some of my technique as they began to work on their own masterpieces.

Here is Anna (age 7) and her beautiful artwork.


My son Arik (age 5) was a little nervous to begin his drawing.  He was worried that he would mess it up.  With a bit of gentle persuasion, he returned to the table and set to work.  He got distracted part way through so I don't have a picture of his artwork.  But he did a good job!

And here is mine.  (Please imagine this picture rotated, I'd do it if I knew how!  Ping is actually diving down rather than up.)  Spending time enjoying art with my kids is extremely relaxing for all of us.

This was our second time to practice our artistic skills using "The Story of Ping."  You can view our first attempt from one year ago in this post.  It is so much fun for me to see the artistic progress Anna and Arik have made in the past year.

2 comments:

  1. I think Anna has far exceeded my artistic abilities :)

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  2. These are fabulous!!!! Try a little book called Beautiful Oops for the perfectionists amongst you. (it's been very helpful for jack.) :) love you!!!!!

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