Friday, October 29, 2010

Art study: Vincent van Gogh (take two)

We're slowly (veeeerrrrry slowly) working our way forward in our artist study. I have a difficult time clearing space in a morning for time intensive painting. Working on that. :) This morning we managed it, and we had a great time. We were copying Van Gogh's Roses.



Here is Jonathan's reproduction:



He started with the vase - note the blue and yellow coloring, and the handle. Then he decided that the rest of the picture was boring and needed extra color, so he added red and black roses. :)

Jonathan feels pretty intimidated before he actually starts. If I start painting too, it seems to help him settle in and enjoy it. I understand the intimidation, because I rarely want to start painting either! But once I get going, it is usually quite fun. Here's my copy:



Do you do art with your kids? How do you choose to do it?

5 comments:

Jennifer said...

Nice painting, Em! You're talented.

Emily (Laundry and Lullabies) said...

Thanks, Jennifer!

Christa said...

When your children get to an age where they are concerned about making object appear realistic (or earlier), I recommend Mona Brooks' Drawing with Children. I've been looking for some age appropriate "art history" books for kids. This week we tried: Katie and the Mona Lisa by James Mayhew (a whole series) and Look! Look! Look! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. My 3.5 yr old and I were both pleased with the books. They are certainly age appropriate for kindergarten. I hope to also look at the Come Look with Me series by Gladys S. Blizzard. At least one of these series has a book on Van Gogh.

Bethany said...

I LOVE doing art with Clara. We sit down and look at pictures together for inspiration and then do our own pictures like (or unlike) the picture. We look at famous art works but more often we open a children's book with illustrations that we both like.

Often, we share one big piece of paper and let our drawings spill onto each other. That way, we both feel ownership of the final production. I think it's really good for Clara to have someone working with her. For one thing, it teaches her art techniques--shading, sketching, perspective. I'm not a great artist, but we talk while we work and I explain what I'm trying to do.

Clara loves portraits. Recently, we looked at a few and drew our own. It was really fun to do research on the people portrayed.

Emily (Laundry and Lullabies) said...

Christa, thank you for the book recommendations! We'll look for those at the library.