Mommy and Sons Art Time

Today we took a creative day after lunch, and decided to finish up Ethan's art project from a few months ago.  The lesson was one-point perspective (inspired by Deep Space Sparkle) that we did with our monthly HUGS art class.  He didn't get around to doing the watercolor portion of the lesson because we ran short on time, so we worked on finishing it today.  

It was all spurred from our morning, while we waited for Ethan to finish up his enrichment classes.  I brought along my paints and sketchbook while the boys played at the community center to see if I could get a project done that I've had on my list of things to do.  They couldn't focus on playing because I had my paints (even though all I accomplished was sketching out my drawing), so you can only imagine their excitement when I filled the table with watercolors and paint brushes and let them go wild with the paints this afternoon.  

Everett was very creative, painting an colorful, abstract piece, drawing a scene with people and trees (complete with branches and roots), and also a rainbow scene where he experimented with various colors.  

Everett's first masterpiece.  He said "I really like the swirl!"

Here he pointed out the roots of the trees to me.

This was his experimentation paper.  He wanted to make sure we saved the rainbow.

Elliot was focused on mixing water with paint, paint with water, and more water with paint (over saturating his paper) and was very happy with his completed project.  I think more paint was in his water than on his paper, but he was happy, so that is all that matters.  

Ethan did a great job working on mixing colors, discussing how to use water to make his color spread faster, and also deciding how to use his brush (and what size of brush) to accomplish the strokes and effect he desired.  He requested I stay with him, so he could learn the best way to fill it all in with color, and it was nice to have a 1:1 lesson with him.  I don't know that all the techniques he learned will stick, but maybe next time he uses watercolors he will remember a little bit and we can try a few new techniques.  

Ethan did a great job and took his time.

He was very proud of his finished product and insisted he didn't want to add anymore detail, as it was "just right".

I really enjoyed this afternoon, it was pretty relaxing and the boys had a fun time.  It is nice to take time out and enjoy being creative.