HOME PAGE

HI EVERYONE! 

MY NAME IS JULIE DUELL.  I AM AN AUSTRALIAN ARTIST & ART TEACHER.   IN MARCH 2008 I BEGAN A SITE http://artintegrity.wordpress.com GIVING FREE ART LESSONS, WHICH IS VERY POPULAR.

 NOW I’VE ADDED THIS SPECIAL SITE FOR KIDS.  EVERYTHING IS FREE ON BOTH SITES….SO ENJOY!

 

 YOU WILL FIND LOTS OF STORIES AND ACTIVITIES HERE  –

IMPORTANT! WHEN YOU  HAVE PICKED ONE YOU WANT TO LOOK AT, YOU NEED TO  CLICK ON ITS NAME UNDER “CATEGORIES” OVER THERE IN THE SIDE COLUMN TO OPEN IT> 

Here is a quick look at what you will find in this site, to help you choose what to open. 

 LOTS OF STORIES

 

Help! Can you help choose a name for Beanie’s little sister?      To open, scroll to top & click on ’Wallaby Watch’under Categories

***

Next is a little sneak peek at Regie Rock  when he turns upside down. Read his story to find out WHY he is so sad upside down!  

 

 

 (To open, scroll to top & click on ‘Regie Rock Sprite’ under Categories)

***

   

“Forest Sprites of Australia” is a magical animated E-Book to enjoy. To open, go to Categories and click on the title.

 *** 

  

 Attention teachers: “Bush Sprites of Australia” is a great way to teach children about one native Australian wildflower at a time: first share the story (to open, click on the title under Categories)  then print the matching B&W “Sprite activity pages”  also listed under Categories … see 2 examples below:

  

*** 

 Are you a good reader? Then you are sure to like this exciting ADVENTURE story in 3 parts                                                                                

To open, scroll to top & click on ’Spriteland Part 1′ under Categories

***

 DRAW.PAINT.CRAFT 

  Send in your Drawings  Get together with friends and Paint!Make an “ocean in a box” & lots more craft ideasPerspective drawing - You can do it!

  

Draw cartoons

 Print with Fruit & Veg!Colour mixing for Kindies

 

To open any of the above, scroll to top of page & go to Categories.

Then click on ’Let’s Draw’  ‘Let’s Paint’  ’Perspective drawing’  ‘Cool craft for wet days’  ‘Draw Cartoons’  ‘Print with Fruit & Veg’ or ‘Colour Mixing for Kindies’ (whichever one you want)

***

DRAMA IDEAS

To open scroll to top and click on ‘Snow White & the Prince Charming’. Why not write your own play and act it out with friends?

***

   OPTICAL ILLUSIONS 

 What do you see? A horse or  a frog?

 

This next one is amazing! The 2 small men ARE the same size! Measure them with a little piece of paper on your screen to check! 

 To open more of this tricky stuff, scroll to top and click on ‘Optical Illusions’ under Categories.

***

YOUR DRAWINGS ANIMATED!

AS A SPECIAL OFFER, YOU CAN HAVE YOUR OWN DRAWING  COLOUR-ANIMATED AND PUBLISHED HERE TO SHARE WITH CHILDREN EVERYWHERE!  Just email as a JPEG attachment your drawing, giving just your first name, age and the town or country where you live...to    jduell@pnvr.com.au  

Attention teachers: You are welcome to send in a batch from your class. Please ask the children to do action drawings if possible. Black and white or colour is fine.

Here is an example…first I will show you the drawing Julia sent in, then how it looks animated …

Julia, 10 Australia – Trampoline fun

  To see lots more, click on ’Your drawings animated’ in the list of Categories at the top of the page

***

What is your favourite story or activity?

Like to tell me in the Comment box below?….and….don’t forget you can  EMAIL me at jduell@pnvr.com.au  & ATTACH YOUR SCANNED DRAWINGS  SO THAT I CAN COLOUR-ANIMATE & PUBLISH THEM HERE FOR KIDS ALL OVER THE WORLD TO SEE.  Check with Mum or Dad first – they may be able to help you scan and send your picture ( 350 pixels wide is best but don’t worry if you can’t. I’m sure I can adjust the size at my end.) 

REMEMBER IT’S ALL FREE & JUST FOR FUN.

  ATTENTION PARENTS & TEACHERS:  SUPERVISION AND FEEDBACK WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED.  THANKYOU.

Copyright information:   This is a non-commercial site. All material of my own creation may be utilised freely for fun and educational purposes; however all commercial rights are protected.   c. Julie Duell 2009.

Contributions by children to the site are published on the understanding that their work cannot be subject to copyright protection and may be freely shared. 

COLOUR MIXING FOR KINDIES

Hello there!

This is a great way to show and involve young children in the magic of colour mixing – creating 3 secondary colours (Orange/Green/Purple) from 3 primary colours (Red/Yellow/Blue).

This activity may need to outdoors in case of spills.

Set  6 clear plastic beakers or plastic ‘glasses’ set in a circle.  Add plain water to every second one e.g. 1,2 & 3.

Next you will need food colouring or non-toxic ink in RED, YELLOW & BLUE which can be added with an eye dropper.

Add the red, yellow and blue as shown below. You will need to add much more yellow than the red or blue to alter the water colour. Add the red & blue a drop at a time to monitor colouration.

  

Now you have a choice of 2 methods. Method 1 is great if you have large beakers & Method 2 is better if they are small.

1. You can pour some of each 2 beakers of coloured water into the empty one between them. Remember that you will need to add only a little of the red and blue to these mixes and much more yellow.  This is because yellow is a pale colour and it takes very little of the darker colours to alter it.

OR

2. You can add clear water to the remaining 3 beakers, then use the eye droppers again to add each set of 2 primaries to the beaker between them, resulting in beakers 4,5 & 6 becoming orange, green & purple. (As before, use much more yellow than the red or blue)

  

If the children are old enough not to drink the fluid, a little dishwashing liquid can be added to each beaker and they can blow bubbles  through a straw, making very pretty pastel shades.

 

PRINTING WITH FRUIT & VEG!

Hello!

Have you ever printed using fruit or vegies before? It’s a lot of fun and you can use the colourful printed paper to make cards, wrapping paper for presents or to cover your books. 

First ask an adult who does the cooking at your house if they can spare half a lemon, half an apple or half a potato – plus a little time to help you with cutting, because as we know, using a sharp knife can be dangerous. 

Also, printing can be a bit messy, so best to do it outside if you can and have some water and an old towel ready for cleaning your hands. If it is windy, you will need to put  small stones or paper weights on the corners of  your paper to stop it blowing away while it is drying.

If  the lemon and apple are cut across the middle instead of top to bottom, you will get nice patterns. See the little flower shape in the middle of the apple half?  After the fruit or veg. is cut, you need to blot it as dry as possible before adding the paint.

 Next I mixed some lovely blue paint and spread it out in a puddle big enough to dip my lemon half into. Here is the lemon lifted up and ready to print with.

 

 It makes lovely wheel shaped prints with different textures depending on how much paint is on there and how hard you press.

I am putting out some red and yellow paint to print with as well…

 

If you like, you can put another colour on your lemon  and add it to make a pattern on your paper.  Yellow is a great colour to put over the top of the other ones because it will turn into orange, green or purple when you put it over reds and blues. 

Can you see how it made green in some places below? 

Next you might like to try the potato half.  How about asking for some help to cut your initial into it?  You will have to cut a little channel out to make the letter AND…your letter will have to be back to front – otherwise it will print the wrong way around like this “S”…

 

If you want to see what shape your initial is back to front, draw it on a piece of paper and hold it up to a mirror. The shape you see in the mirror is the shape you need to cut out of the potato – so that when you print it will be the right way around.

Now lets add some yellow to this print. Where it goes over the red it will make some orange.

Now I am going to print with my apple half. I don’t want to waste any paint, so I am spreading  all the colours (red, yellow and blue) onto the fruit with a palette knife. Do you think it will be beautiful when we print with it?

 

Here we go!

 

I think it looks beautiful don’t you?  Can you see how the little flower shape in the middle left a design in the print?

I still had a little paint left, so I cut a carrot and used it up by printing circles on the paper below.  It will make really nice wrapping paper for a present don’t you think?

There are lots of things you can print with! Just have a look around you. You could try leaves, other fruits or vegetables like carrots or onions (but don’t get onion juice in your eyes!) lids and knobs off containers or things that are being recycled or thrown away.  Always use a non toxic safe paint, don’t put anything in your mouth AND  OF COURSE, ALWAYS CLEAN UP AFTERWARDS!!!

DRAW CARTOONS!

 Hi everyone!

Would you like some help in drawing cartoons?  It is such a lot of fun creating characters!

FACES & EXPRESSIONS

First let’s look at drawing some different expressions.  There are lots of ways to draw these, but these are just some. Maybe you could print these out to play with.

  

Can you see how the shapes of the eyes and mouth can change the expressions – and especially, the eyebrows!

OK – next I have printed out the first page  and had some fun adding hair, hats and other bits and pieces to them.  I had to decide whether they were girls or boys, what kind of hair they had and what they were wearing. Would you like to print out the first page and try it too? I’m sure you could make up some amazing characters!

Was that fun?  Did you make some great characters? You can email pictures of them to me if you like. 

How about you get a piece of paper, draw lots of oval egg shapes on it and sit in front of a mirror.   Then try drawing all the expressions you can make!!  Maybe you could ask a friend to pose for you – that would be funny. Wow – I wish I was there to see you!

How about you make up some really funny characters with a friend?  Would you like to learn a great way to do that?  It’s a drawing  game called “Head, Body & Legs”.   This is how it works…remember – no peeking until its time to open it up!!

 Did you make some crazy characters? Yes? Well now you can use them in your cartoon stories or comic strips! Here are some my family had fun drawing with this game:

CARTOON DOGS

The first thing we need to do to make up doggy characters is to think about what bits make up dogs.  Lets draw some different shapes of  EARS, FACES, TAILS, LEGS & BODIES. Actually the body shapes can be any shape you like because cartoons are meant to be funny and it really doesn’t matter! You can print out this page if you wish:

 Now we can have fun putting them together to make up different kinds of cartoon dogs.  Here are some examples to give you the idea – then I’m sure you will want to make up your own!

Now I will show you how I drew the dogs, one step by step – but you might find your own way to draw them.  You might like to draw a body shape first  and it can be any shape you like – the funnier the better!  Remember to leave plenty of space around it to add the head, legs and tail.   

 

Isn’t it fun?  I think we could do this with lots of animals don’t you?  What will we try it with next?  I know! How about FISH!

First of all, lets think of all the “Fish parts” and what shapes they are.  There are lots more of course, but here are a few to start off with. You can print out this page to have beside you when you draw if you like:

OK - are you ready to  make up your own funny fish?

 Here’s mine. This time I drew the fins  first - then joined them up to make the body with a wobbly line…you can join them up any way you like!

 

  

You can leave them as black and white drawings or add colour and patterns like this…

  

Hey!  Would you like to draw a cute little Nemo clown fish?

Here are the steps for you to print out if you wish…  More funny fish, this time drawn by Amelia, 14 of Australia:

  

Next I want to share with you a cartoon trick you can use. Have you ever wondered how Cartoonists make things look shiny?

 

Now what about drawing trees and houses in cartoons? There are many different ways – here are just some…

 Next is a really funny cartoon game…”Iggles”…

Perspective drawing for kids

Hi everyone!

This is a basic introduction to 1, 2 and 3 point perspective and ways to use these tricks in your drawings.

Don’t forget when you are an artist, you can do anything you like!   You don’t have to follow rules, but you can use  tricks like PERSPECTIVE to help you when you want.

I think you will find it really fun when you start to use it in your artwork and I’m sure your family and friends will think you are very clever!

First, let’s have a look at how powerful perspective drawing can be!  The two blue trees in the drawing below, believe it or not, are the SAME SIZE !  Check it out!  use a piece of paper as a marker to measure each tree from top to bottom!

 

Let me show you how this illusion trick works:

 This is the power of perspective drawing – just a few lines can make such a difference.  Maybe you would like to use this trick in your own drawing!  Here are some step by step sheets to print out if you want to try it…

 

   

 

You might like to draw your tree shapes on thicker paper or light cardboard so that they are stronger.  First draw one tree and cut it out.  Lay it on your card and draw around it. Now carefully cut out your second tree just INSIDE the line that you drew, so that they will be the same size.  Hold them one on top of the other to check. Colour them black or a strong colour.

 

A little blue tack will hold your trees in place and you can move them to see how they look in different places on your drawing.

Here is another picture to show you how perspective lines can trick your eye…Do you think the TWO SMALL MEN are the same size?   No?

 Well let’s check it and see…

 Isn’t that incredible!

Now let’s look at the perspective illusion in the  3D chalk art by Pavement Artists such as Britain’s Julian Beever below…  He is so clever! Do you think he gets a backache?

 

Another wonderful pavement artist is called Edgar Mueller. Here is  one of his creations…

Edgar Mueller Super Artist Great Crevasse Edgar Mueller. Hard work: Together with up to five assistants, Mueller painted all day long from sunrise to sunset. The picture appeared on the East Pier in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, as part of the town’s Festival of World Cultures

 

Isn’t that amazing? You feel as if you could fall into that hole don’t you? Can you see the joins between the pavers? That tells us it really is a flat surface doesn’t it?  This trick is all based on understanding how this thing called “PERSPECTIVE” works. Would you like to learn about it? Yes?

 OK – SO JUST HOW DOES IT WORK!! 

Lets see if we can figure it out.

First, lets look at the most commonly  used ”trick” for the eye – single point perspective. This is when the objects in a drawing become smaller towards one “vanishing point” to make them look further away.

Lets have a look at a train and a train track. The first thing to draw is the ‘horizon’ line because this tells us where your eyeline is.  The closer to the bottom of your page you draw it, the closer to the ground your eyes are.  If you are flying like a bird, the horizon will be high up on your page.

In this next one, the vanishing point is hiding off the page! Can you imagine where it might be?

 

Would you like to try drawing a box using a single vanishing point?  It’s not too hard if you do it one step at a time.  You will need paper, a pencil and a ruler.  A clear triangle set- square you can see through would be great too if you have one (to help you draw level with the sides of your page). Here are the steps:

  

Supposing your box is the shape of buildings going away from you to a single vanishing point…well here is an exercise you might want to print out and copy.  It will help you find the proper angles for the top a bottom of the house as well as the windows and door.  You will need to put the vanishing point right over at the edge of the page this time to make room for the buildings.

 

Just remember that you need to make the windows get thinner and closer together as they get further away. Of course there are all kinds of buildings and rooftops so this is just a guide to start you off.  If you draw your guide lines  very lightly in pencil, you can rub them out later. Then your finished drawing will look REALLY COOL!

Next is a drawing with lots of things all going to one vanishing point. See how they look smaller and closer together as they get nearer to that point?  It isn’t just the straight lines that do it, but the curvy lines as well!

Would you like to practise on this next page?  My friend Laraine has drawn half of a window view looking onto a patio. She would like you to draw in the other half. You will need a ruler, pencil and eraser.

 Here is a step by step guide to help you…

 

Attention teachers: Print out pages of the above steps are at end of this post. 

 Can you see how I have used PERSPECTIVE to help me in this next painting ? Look how far away the road seems to go!

 

 In this next country scene, perspective is used in the  bush track and the fence so that you feel you can ‘walk into the picture’. See how the fence posts are closer together the further away I want them to look?  Hmm it looks like a nice place to be. Would you like to be there to give the horses a pat on the nose?

 Sometimes it is hard to drawing something and imagine where the “vanishing point” would be.  If that happens you can pretend the angle is coming from the centre of an old fashioned clock or watch – then say to yourself “What number would the clock hand be pointing to in that angle?” Can you see how you could use this trick to draw this book?

 Yes that’s right, the main line of the book is a “4 o’clock angle”.  Here is another example using a book…

 

How about we try it to work out what angle the roof  is in this next picture…

What angle was that roof?  Did you say an “8 o’clock angle”? If you said ‘yes’ you are right!

 In some pictures there might be more than one vanishing point, like the corner of a building…

 

We call this “2 point perspective“. 

 Let’s try it using a box again, this time looking at the corner of the box.   This is much harder to draw.  Are you game enough to have a try?  Notice that the up-and-down lines stay level with the sides of your paper and don’t go to a vanishing point. That is a BIG clue to getting it right. 

 

How did you go with that?  Was it really hard? I’m really proud of you for trying.

OK now are you ready for something different now?

So far we have looked at straight lines in perspective – but what about curves?  Have a look at this chart…then hold a coin in your hand (or anything flat and round)  flat in line with  your eyelevel. 

Slowly turn it away from you and watch what happens to that circle…it becomes more and more elliptical like an egg  doesn’t it?  That means the sides of the  curves get more and more pointy and the circle becomes an oval…

 

Can you see how the top of the cup  is not a circle from this angle? It is more of an oval isn’t it?  When you can draw what you see instead of what you know, then you really drawing well – all you have to do is REALLY LOOK before you draw.  The rest of the curves in the cup and the saucer follow almost the same as the top of the cup. The same thing  happens in nature – where the bend in a road or river, or the curve of a bay becomes more pointy or “elliptical” the closer to the ground you are in looking at it. 

If you were a bird looking down and flying over, the curves would be much more round than if you were sitting on the ground looking at the same scene.

Now here is another trick or two to make things appear further away:

Things in the distance usually  become lighter in tone, with  bright colours kept to where things are ‘closer’ to you in the picture. This is because the mist in the air makes the colours softer the further away they are. 

 Can you see in this next picture how the details and colour in the far-away buildings is softer than the ones close to you?   You can use this trick when you paint or colour in.

 Another thing to realise is that as things become close to you they overlap what is behind them.  Here is a landscape to show you what I mean. First the initial sketch…

 Can you see how each thing coming towards you has another shape in front of it, covering up part of it? That is called overlapping.   

Here is the finished painting. Can you still see how the overlapping works?

 Now this next one is the really hard stuff!!! Are you ready? 

So far we have looked at 1 and 2 point perspective + some other tricks to make things look either close to you or further away…but…

have you ever wondered how the cartoonists create the illusion of huge towering buildings or massive chasms?  Well most of them use the illusion of  3 point perspective !   Yes, 3!

Have a look at these examples to see what I mean…

  Wow – this is getting pretty tricky isn’t it?  You might like to practise  this if you draw cartoons – or if you become a brilliant pavement artist like Julian Beaver or Edgar Mueller. 

ONE LAST EXERCISE NOW – and IT’S A FUN ONE!

How about trying to do a fun drawing of a Lolly Jar? You can choose from any of the pictures below – whichever angle you like. 

The lolly jar has curves as well as straight lines, so it’s a little bit hard – but I think  you can do it!  Would you like to have a try? 

Maybe you would like to do a print out to make it easier. Then you can put the page on the table beside you while you draw.

 It’s going to be a lot of fun – especially when you draw your favourite lollies in the jar at the end and colour it in! Just pick one of the jars to copy and when you have finished, add the candies!

OK kids – that’s all for now.  If you want to learn even more about perspective, there are lots of sites on the web including my other one http://www.artintegrity.wordpress.com which is full of free art lessons.

Happy arting!   Julie

 

    

OPTICAL ILLUSIONS

Hey there! Are you ready for some great optical illusions? Here we go then…what do you see here? A Horse or a Frog?

The 2 trees coloured blue in the picture below are THE SAME SIZE!  You can check it out by measuring them.

  Watch below to see how the illusion works…

 

Now look at the men either side of the big man.  Do you think they could be the same size?  No?  Well just have a look at this picture first, then we will move the little man in front back next to the other one and check it out! 

 Did you get a surprise that the 2 small men are the same size? I did!

This next example of how 1 point perspective works. The converging lines star out from a VANISHING POINT.   The things drawn closer to the vanishing point are smaller and gradually get bigger as they get further away from it.  Can you see how the trick works on curves as well as straight lines?

You can learn lots  more about perspective  by clicking on ‘PERSPECTIVE FOR KIDS” under Categories on this website and more still on  http://artintegrity.wordpress.com

 

 

In the picture below, which line do you think is longer? The A to A line or the Z to Z line?  Measure them and find out.

Now here is some pavement art by Edgar Mueller, Super Artist.   Together with up to 5 assistants, he painted all day long from sunrise to sunset to create this powerful illusion of a crevasse.

Julian Beever is a famous 3D Chalk Art pavement Artist too. Here is some of his work below…

OK now here is a funny one.   Sit in front of a plain blank wall and put your hands up like in the drawing below.  Move your pointing fingers slowly closer together in front of your eyes, while looking straight ahead at the wall.  See if you can get a “floating” finger not connected to anything in your vision!

Finally,  here are 2 very famous optical illusions that lots of kids love to draw…

 

 

Do you have any favourite optical illusions you would like to  share? Maybe you could email them to me as attachments.

Don’t forget, you can learn lots more about perspective  drawing on my free art lessons site http://artintegrity.wordpress.com

‘Bye now,  Julie

jduell@pnvr.com.au

YOUR DRAWINGS ANIMATED!

OK everybody – just look at what YOUR DRAWINGS  look like when they are animated! This is FUN!!!

If you would like to join in, just attach a picture of your drawing to an email to me at jduell@pnvr.com.au and I will colour- animate and publish it for you here.
When you see how great they look coloured and animated, you might like to learn animating yourself one day. First I will show the  drawing you send in, then show you how it looks with colour and movement…

This first one from Julia Claire, 10 Australia is ideal because it is a drawing about action.  Other ideas could be skipping, hide and seek, exercises like star jumps, animals or anything with repeat movement!

Now here is Julia’s picture animated – first slowly so you can see how it was done, and then sped up.

 

Next we have one from Joy, aged 12 – Australia. Good one Joy!

 

Now we have one from AJ – aged 7, Australia  … and it has a story.

SAVING THE BABY BIRDS

“Once upon a time there were two girls running along. Suddenly they saw two baby birds fall out of their nest.  One girl caught them just in time.  The bird mother was very happy they were OK.”

OK now here’s another great drawing from Tom, 11 of Australia. He says it is a Wind Sprite.


Now one from Amelia, 7  in Australia…A boy with a very powerful wand.  Amelia has already coloured her drawing.

Now here’s another one from AJ, 7, Australia of a fairy…

 
Wow! Here’s another lovely fairy one from AJ…

This one is from Julia, aged 6 of Australia. Thanks Julia, it is lovely.

LET’S PAINT

OK NOW – SO YOU WANT TO PAINT? 

FIRST MAKE FRIENDS WITH LOVELY, COLOURFUL STICKY GOOEY PAINT and MAKE SURE YOU USE PAINTS THAT ARE LABELLED NON TOXIC!!!  THAT MEANS THEY ARE NOT POISONOUS IF SHOULD PAINT GET IN ANYONE’S MOUTH!

WELL I DID SAY “MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOUR PAINT” BUT “NO NO GIRLS! NOT LIKE THAT! “     HELP!

Well at least they DID put aprons on, but you don’t need to cover your whole hands with paint to do hand prints do you?!    How about using some brushes eh??? Also, don’t forget if you make a mess, you have to clean it up!  Do messy stuff outside and have a bucket with some water and a sponge nearby to clean your hands and brushes in.

Actually after the hand printing, Amelia did a great painting after seeing a film called “Vincent and I”.  Having seen lots of Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings in the movie and in a book I have,  she couldn’t wait to draw with charcoal and paint with THICK paint.   When she had almost finished, I said to her “Now Amelia you need to make this painting really YOURS. What are you doing to do?”  When I came back, she had given the sun a happy face!  Well done Amelia!

Maybe YOU would like to “paint like Vincent” too. Just look up some of his paintings on the Internet and you will see how he used wonderful swirls and lines for the energy all around us.

If you are very lucky, you might be able to paint standing up at an easel. Smaller paintings are fine to do on a table though. Not all painting is done with brushes.  There are lots of other ways to apply paint, like… 

 MARBLE PAINTING

You can make a colourful abstract design like this next one by putting a piece of plain paper inside a shallow plastic container.  Then pour in a little puddle each of  3 colours of liquid paints or inks.

Next is the fun part! Put a glass marble in the box and roll it around over the paint so that it makes lines on the paper.  The trick is to STOP before you cover all the white paper or you will lose the pattern. Do you like this effect? I think it is really cool!

 

For this next one, Amelia used her fingers to put colours on like a bunch of flowers with leaves.  Then when it was dry, she squiggled black on with ink in an eyedropper.  I think it looks great don’t you?

Another really nice effect is when you slosh your liquid paint or ink on all over so that the paper is wet all over. Then screw up the paper into a tight ball.  Gently unfold it and lay it out to dry. The paint settles into the creases and makes nice patterns.When your painting is dry, ask Mum to iron it flat with a warm iron.  Here is an example – I think it looks cool!

Here is one where you draw with a light coloured crayon and then paint over with watercolour paint.

 

Next is one where you put little puddles of liquid paint or ink on the paper and blow air onto them through a straw…

With this next one, you draw with a light coloured crayon, then mix up some darker coloured watercolour paint and go over the top of your drawing.  The wax in the crayon won’t let the paint into the paper so it looks really cool, like this…

 

This next one is a painting from AJ aged 8 – Australia.  A buzzy bee in the centre of a flower and what a terrific design.  Well done AJ!

Now we have a lovely illustration of a country morning by Joy, aged 8, Australia…

Some of you might like to paint your favourite toy! Just put it on a table with only white around it (you could use a white cloth to put it on).  Then get your paints or coloured textas or pencils ready and see if you can draw the shape of your toy and then colour it in.  

Here are 2 favourite toys in my house… Clown doll and Rainbow boy… 

 and here is how we painted them:

You can draw or paint them too if you like.

Now here is a HAPPY SUBJECT - SUNFLOWERS!!!

Thank you to Artive Kids in Hong Kong for sending us this lovely paintings of a sunflower. Maybe you would like to try this at home too! First draw a big circle, then add the petals around it.  Next you draw the stem and leaves and it is ready to paint!   Notice how the background is really interesting because it is fully of lively daubs of paint put on with brushes. 

 

 

“FOREST SPRITES OF AUSTRALIA”

After writing and illustrating “Bush Sprites of Australia” with all the wildflower and seedpod sprites, I fell in love with Rainforests and was moved to create  “Forest Sprites of Australia”. I have recently animated this story, which was a lot of fun. Expressions of interest are invited for a printed 34 page A4 book version – just post a comment if you would like this to be available.

  My late husband John took me deep into rainforests where I photographed, sketched and painted all the wonderful life there. Here we are in Barrington National Park – John was a funny man and thought  up the idea of dressing up as  ”Old Man Lichen” with lichen and mosses stuck onto his face with honey!  After I took the photograph,  I had to wash all the pretend hair and whiskers off his face in the creek very quickly because little insects were crawling into his ears and up his nose! This is me looking at a big shelf fungi growing from the side of a fig tree. It is a very beautiful rainforest.

 

I’m Regie the Rock Sprite! I live most everywhere … from deep beneath the ocean waves to high on hilltops bare. 

Please remember when you find me not to turn me upside down. Just look at me in my reflection and you’ll see how it makes me frown!  For under me in hollow small, tiny creatures stay … and if you turn me over, then you take their home away. 

Right now, I ‘m in the rainforest – where ferns and mosses grow with many strange and lovely Sprites I think you ought to know.  So come and meet the Forest Sprites, very hard to see … living in their tiny world, so happy and so free!

 

Next we meet the Fern Sprites – so slender and so green … the daintiest of creatures that you have ever seen! They love it where it’s dripping … the love it where it’s wet … and catch the spray from waterfalls in silver droplets.

From underneath their leaflets green, tiny spores do fall … and grow up into frond babies, so tiny cute and small.  Then the babies grow and grow up into Fern Sprites fair … like ‘Filmy’, ‘Lush’ and ‘Lacey’ or gentle ‘Maidenhair’.

 

   Here are some funny fungi fruit to say hello to you … they come in many different shapes with caps of every hue.  Some live in a cluster and some live by themselves… some of them grow on a stem and some jut out like shelves…

      All of them are fungi fruit with tiny spores that blow…from underneath their funny caps down to the earth below.  Then after just a little while, the tiny spores take root… and grow and grow until one day, they too have fungi fruit!

    

Deep within the forest deep, the Orchid Sprites live free.  They grow on rocks  or on the ground, or high up in a tree.  Some flowers bloom all on their own and others in a spray … together they put on a very colourful display.  

When they get together they enjoy a little chat … they laugh and joke, then sing some songs and talk of this or that.

 Sometimes the little forest snail slides by to pay a call – he creeps along on one strong foot and never seems to fall!  As he glides he leaves behind a shining silver trail … so you can see where he has been, this funny forest snail!

   

 Here’s  little Nodding  Greenhood, the sleepy Orchid Sprite … who keeps on nodding off to sleep all through the day and night.  She has such wondrous dreams you see, inside that hood of green … so when it’s time for waking up, she’s really not too keen!  The Fungi Sprites keep very quiet and wait until she wakes … they love to hear about her dreams, however long it takes! 

   

Here lives Old Man Lichen – you can see where he has been, draping every branch and rock with beards of grey and green! He’s very very old you see, and needs a walking stick … but should a human frighten him, he takes off  “double quick”!   

Really he is very shy, although he looks quite scary – and he’d really be quite handsome if he weren’t so very hairy!   

Far down in the forest deep lives Gully’, Sprite of the Creek. He streaks through crystal running pools with movements smooth and sleek!

All the water creatures here love Gully, brave and true.   He’s very fair and very strong and watches all they do.

He takes good care of frogs eggs until they hatch and grow … into funny tadpoles, wiggling to and fro.  Then Gully guards them as they sprout their big strong legs for hopping… until one day, they jump away, without so much as stopping!

 On cool soft furry cushions of deepest velveteen, the Moss Sprites live and laugh and play … in their lush world of green.  When they tire of chasing the raindrops pure and sweet, they curl right up and slumber to rest their tiny feet.

 

  

Where is Cooee Echo Sprite listening for your call?  Shout “Cooee” and she’ll answer you when you’re on clifftops tall. She likes to mimic sounds you see, just like this lyrebird. They both live in the gullies deep and copy sounds they’ve heard.

 

  The gentle giant Fig Sprite sends his vines up high, to grow around the big old trees that tower towards the sky.   After he has hugged the tree with vines joined right around, he looks just like a tree himself – growing from the ground.

All night he guards the forest glades ’til rising of the sun … the joined the small Sprites at his feet for gossip, games and fun!

   

Sheena and Veil are Waterfall Sprites, dancing in the spray … leaving rainbows in the mist where they have been at play!  Regie Rock Sprite and his friends all come here to keep cool. They have a happy party by the clear cascading pool. 

    

Now its time to say ‘Goodbye’ to the Forest Sprites!

As  you can see, poor Regie Rock is sad to see you go … but he’ll be back another day with lots more Sprites to show.

   

Just before you go now, there’s one last thing to say…

“PLEASE LOOK AFTER THE FORESTS, SO ALL THE SPRITES CAN STAY!”

 Now as you tip-toe quietly out of the rainforest, you might see Mrs. Rufus Fantail  feeding her babies in the nest.  She needs to give them names – can you help her think of some? You can write them in the Comments Box and I will publish them here.  That would REALLY help Mrs. Fantail! The Fern and Orchid Sprite are thinking too and so is ‘Hoppy’ the Frog.

   

*********************************

The End

 If you are a good reader you might like to read this poem about the Rainforest.  I wrote it a long time ago and it won a Poetry award at the time.

  Do you like writing poetry?  Perhaps you would like to send one in that you have written so I can publish it here for you.

DRAMA – “FRIENDS OF THE BUSH”

Do you like writing stories? Perhaps you could write a Play too.  This might give you some ideas as to how to go about it“FRIENDS OF THE BUSH”.

Above: “Bushie” the Storyteller.

Some time ago, I wrote a play for Infants Schools to perform and called it “Friends of the Bush”.  I planned it so that the children could just have fun dressing and acting out the play while I told the story. 

 Because they didn’t have to learn any lines, they learned the acting in the morning and performed the play for the rest of the school in the afternoon. The shy ones could hide behind the animal masks.

It took me a long time to make all the costumes, but they look terrific when the kids wear them. Usually other people make the costumes, but I had lots of materials and a lovely sunny winter sunroom to sew in – so I enjoyed doing it myself.

 

The hardest prop to make was a BIG model of Regie Rock Sprite.  Tony and I made him out of paper mache on a chicken wire frame…

 

When things in the play were not going well, Regie would be turned upside down with a frown.  Then all the audience would say “OH NO!” When everything was fine again, he would be turned happy side up and they would clap and cheer. 

The story is about 2 children who are careless campers, dumping rubbish everywhere, then leave their campfire unattended so that it starts a bushfire!  This wakes up the FIRE SPRITES and they dance like leaping flames until Fireman John comes to put them out.   Here are some pictures…

These are some of the costumes the Fire Sprites wore – there were about 5 children leaping and dancing about looking like a bushfire. Here is a close look at the campsite.  We had funny sausages with faces and everyone sang a funny song about them.

Now here are some more of the costumes, some modelled by Julia and Amelia…

 

 I still have all the costumes and props – so if you know of a Central Coast (Gosford area NSW) school who would like to put this on for drama in Infants School, please let me know.  The costumes fit from 5 to 8 year olds.

There is also a short 30 to 40 minute Pantomime with 5 speaking parts and lots of non speaking acting and dancing parts- complete with script, full costuming and props available. This is called “The Enchanted Forest” and I call for expressions of interest from drama groups.

I hope you enjoyed looking at some of “Friends of the Bush” – it has some great little bouncy songs recorded in it to get everyone clapping and singing along.  So as not to infringe on any copright, I composed and recorded these on my small keyboard.  

Maybe one day you might get an idea for a Play or a Pantomime too! Now you will know some of the preparation needed.  If you write a play or story, remember you need a good start, a problem to solve and then a solution to the problem for a happy ending.  Try to be original and invent a story you haven’t heard before. That’s the secret!  Good luck!

LET’S DRAW!

Hi there! Thanks for visiting “Let’s Draw”.

To start us off, here are some lovely drawings by Amelia of fairies…

Liam, aged 8 – Ireland – drew these wonderful leprochauns he saw in a green mossy forest in West Cork.

 

Jenovevah, 7 – Tanzania is our little World Vision girl. She sends us beautiful drawings from time to time.

AJ – 8 years – Australia

Wow! That fairy had better watch out for the helicopter AJ!

Next – Marijke – age 7 - illustration of Jack and the Beanstalk. That giant looks pretty scary doesn’t he calling “HOOOO ARE YOU?” There’s Jack half way up the beanstalk and his frantic mother down below.

Marijke visited me and we put our noses together so that we could only see one eye.  Have you ever done that with someone?  Well that is the way she drew me in her picture!

Do you ever get stuck as to what to draw?  

A fun way is to get a big sheet of paper, tape it down so it doesn’t slide around (better put some newspaper down on the table first in case you go off the edge!) the close your eyes and SCRIBBLE!!!  When you open your eyes, turn the page around and see if you can see a pattern that you like.  You might get a surprise to see an animal, fish or bird in there!  

Here’s one by Julia of a dolphin in her scribble… 

Here is another one from Julia…she saw what looks like an angler fish then coloured it in. Notice that she added some dots, checks and other patterns to make it more interesting..(I added the little crab)

 Now I want to tell you about a REALLY COOL DRAWING GAME you can play with 2 or more people.   Here are the steps to follow after giving each person a strip of paper and the same coloured pen (a strong dark colour or black is best)…

 Below is a print-out page of directions in case you need it.

 Here are some more strange characters my family drew together. I wonder what you and your family or friends will come up with?

 They always turn out funny because nobody knows what the others have drawn before them!   It’s so easy because the crazier the drawings are, the funnier they are when you unfold them and open them up.

Artive Kids in Hong Kong had fun with this game. They drew their very BIG and after they opened them out, they painted them. Have a look…

One time Julia and I made a book out of a few of the funny characters that came out.   We coloured the drawings on the computer program Photoshop and added some effects with a click of a button. Here it is…

Most animals can be drawn by combining simple shapes. Here is an example:

 Another little drawing trick is one the cartoonists use…

Did you enjoy that?   Like some more about drawing?  Go back to Categories and click on “Draw Cartoons” for some really cool ideas!

Julie