Connecticut Art School Joins the Fight Against Germs

Artists at Connecticut Art School have become germ fighters with a creative twist. The flu, specifically H1N1, has effected just about everyone and has become a dominant topic of conversation at home and at school. Students are continually reminded to sneeze into their sleeves and wash their hands.

We decided it was time for a creative approach to fight the flu so we challenged our students to become germ fighters. Their mission was to create an original germ that would work to wipe out disease and keep cooties under control. They had complete artistic license and could design their germ with any combination of features: eyes, hands, feet, hair, horns or teeth. They had to consider how their germs would move and whether they should look friendly or scary.

Proudly showing off the finished germs

Brian working on his germ outline

Emma completing the 7 legs on her 7 leg plague germ

Once the preliminary designs were complete the germs were drawn on 9x12 paper filling the page. Outlines were painted with black tempera paint. We talked about colors combinations that would work for the germs. Every inch of the paper was painted making the germs adorable, scary, interesting and sometimes a little gross.

Personalized hand sanitizers ready to fight germs

 We wanted our germs to make an impact in our lives and our community so each painting was reduced on the color copier to make a label. The labels were affixed to 2 oz bottles of hand sanitizer and each student was given 2 bottles. One bottle was for their personal use and the second bottle was given to a teacher, friend or relative.

With all the illnesses going around it was fun to take control of the germs. The students had a blast designing and bringing their germs to life. Being able to share them by sending the creative germs out into the world to fight bad germs felt great.

Katelyn adds great colors to make her germ come alive

A great group of germs!!

The painting process

The painting process continues

Ryan's germ - lots of blue

Ryan and Jason - hard at work

Lots of bright pink paint -

GERMS!!

Summer 2009 Mini Camps

Mini Camps Just for 5 and 6 Year Olds

Mini Camps are special one-day camps for our youngest campers. Each day has its own theme - we read a story and create a drawing based on the book. We also played some games and sometimes fit in a quick craft. Check out the making mud photos from the Down on the Farm camp.

During the school year we offer both Beginning Artist and Level 1 classes. These classes are specifically designed for the young artist. Aside from the excitement of learning how to draw what they see these young artists 

gain the added benefit of increasing their fine motor coordination, problem solving skills, and concentration all while having a great time. All of these skills will be an asset in the classroom (or homeschool) setting.

Beginning Artist's will be able to:
	Recognize and identify: line, shape, and color (elements of art)
	Understand, interpret, and create guided drawings
	Distinguish vertical and horizontal compositions
	Use materials appropriately Level 1 students will be able to: Recognize and identify: line, shape, color, texture, value, space (art elements) Identify and name primary and secondary colors, warm and cool colors Develop a vocabulary of art terminology Understand, interpret, and create guided drawings. Begin to make personal creative choices Distinguish vertical and horizontal compositions Identify foreground, middle ground, and background placement Use materials appropriately Email: ctartschool@cox.net and ask about a FREE Trial class (new students only)

Finished art from Playful Puppies

Lots of different colors

Cute little puppy faces

Carefully adding mud paint

A work in progress

Down on the Farm - finished Pigs with Mud

Making our own mud

Take home bags of mud!!

Art Safari

Watercolor painting

Pink backgrounds look great

Focus, concentration, fine motor skills

Where are the spots?

Ready to paint the background

Finished painting!

Since it was Art Safari camp we reduced the original drawings on our copier and put them in fun frames.

Camp 10 - Pokemon, Camp 9 - Pacific Northwest

Camp 10 - Pokemon, July 20 - 23

This was another high energy week - we had one brave girl in this camp filled with boys. She did great and everyone had fun. We drew Pokemon characters, made our own version of Poke Ball mobiles and brought Turtwig to life with Sculpey clay. All we long we tested our knowledge of Pokemon characters and the kids always knew more facts than the teachers.

Meet our clay army of Turtwigs!

Working on Diagla

Outlining Diagla - before adding color

Diagla in space

Completed Diagla - awesome

Another awesome Diaglia

Adding background details to Pikachu

Painting Pikachu

More Pikachu's

and more

Great colors

Pikachu is electric!

Painting the Poke Balls and Master Balls

Finished Poke Ball and Master Ball mobiles

"Quick draw" characters - Shieldon, Geodude - I need my Pokemon guide to name the other too - help

Celebrating a great week

Pokemon fans

These guys know their Pokemon facts!

The end of a fun camp

Camp 9 - Pacific Northwest, July 20 - 23

Pacific Northwest art is built on tradition and symbolism. Stories are passed on from generation to generation. This week we drew animals in the Pacific Northwest style, created Totem poles representing our personalities using Super Sculpey clay, made dream catchers, drew Mount Rainer with chalk pastels and ate chocolate slugs. These campers also decided to declare a crazy hat day which was a blast.

Northwest Pacific art drawings

Check out this hat!

Drawings were created by combining specific shapes - ovoids...

... u-shapes and split u-forms

Starting with the lion's mane

Finished drawings - the main drawing was done with red and black markers on watercolor painted backgrounds. White colored pencil was added as the finishing touch.

Chalk pastel drawings of Mount Rainer

Finished dream catchers and chocolate slugs

Sweet dreams

More chocolate slugs

 

Totem Polls with animals that relate to our personalities.

 

More examples

 

and a few more

Camp 12 - Fiesta, Luau, Party (older), Camp 11 - Fiesta, Luau, Party (younger)

Camp 12 - Fiesta, Luau, Party (older), July 27 - 30th

This week was a celebration of art, music, traditions and fun. We learned about celebrations all over the world and used this as an inspiration for our work. We also sampled a variety of different foods.

Concentrating ...

Mardi Gras masks

more masks

masks and attitude

masks and beads

Celebrating Kodomono-hi - Children' Day in Japan

This is a special day for boys

Celebrating Hina Matsuri in Japan - a special day for girls

Dolls for Hina Matsuri - some were painted

Some had fabric embellishments

Extra height was added to this pair

A procession of elephants - celebrating Wesak or Buddha day

Rangoli decorations

Another Rangoli pattern

Camp 12 - Fiesta, Luau, Party (younger), July 27 - 30th

Our morning party camp had a lot of fun - it was a busy week. We worked on drawings, made beautiful masks and flowers, tried making sun prints but the cloudy rainy week didn't cooperate - we also tried a variety of foods from around the world.

Finished Mardi Gras masks - check out the party beads too

Decorated with feathers, Sweet Tarts, Runts, and gems

Kali - part of the Indian Divali festival

Kali has two sides - one good, one evil

Trying different food was fun

These drawings combined two celebrations in Japan - they aren't celebrated together. We were short on time so we used some artistic license and combined them.

The dolls in the boat are part of Hina Matsuri - a day set aside to honor girls and hope they grow up healthy, happy and beautiful

The fish kites are part of a special day for boys called Kodomono-hi.  Families of boys fly colorful streamers and enormous kites in the shape of carp the carp represents strength and determination and flying the kites remind boys of the importance of these qualities.

Watercolor painting

Painting the base coat for the Mardi Gras mask

Drawing the fish kites

Friends with Cinco de Mayo flowers

Dragons!

More flowers

Making flowers and friends

Flowers and food!

A few more dragons

These were our Cinco de Mayo sun prints - when the sun didn't shine we came up with an alternative solution and used chalk pastel. They turned out much more colorful this way.

Friends at party camp

Camp 14 - Big Cats Little Cats (older), Camp 13 - Big Cats Little Cats (younger)

Camp 14 - Big Cats Little Cats (older), August 3 - 6th

This week was all about cats - cartoon cats, domestic cats and wild cats.

Tigers  - chalk pastels and white charcoal pencils on Mi-tienes paper

Another tiger

Working on a panel of cats

Painting with gouache

Almost ready to start painting

Hard at work - music playing.....

Camp friends

Some of the finished cat panels - they had to have 3 original cat drawings and nine textured paw prints

Working on clay kitties

Look on the lower left side - you can see the clay kitty hanging on

Clay mice

Camp 13 - Big Cats Little Cats (younger), August 3 - 6th

Domestic cats and wild cats - magnets on plastic, painted with acrylics

Whimsical cats with moveable tails

Whimsical cats

More whimsical cats and big smiles

Tigers - markers and watercolor pencils

Another tiger

Painting the magnets

Hard at work

Very strange cats

I can't remember their names (can you?) - I'll look it up

Camp 16 - American Girl Doll, Camp 15 - Littlest Pet Shop

Camp 16 - American Girl Doll, August 10-13th

This was the final camp week of the summer. The school was filled with campers and lots of American Girl Dolls.

Coconut

 

Sisters

 

The campers drew themselves as American Girl Dolls and designed clothes to match their personalities.

Finished self portraits in custom frames displayed on painted easels

More finished self portraits and dolls

and a few more....

Camp 15 - Littlest Pet Shop, August 10-13th

This week we drew and painted Littlest Pet Shop pets - the littlest pets with the biggest eyes.

Bunnies

Lizards

 

Kitties

More bunnies

Break time with little friends

More kitties

Seriously working

 

Pets with comfy blankets

Custom designed houses for our Littlest Pet Shop friends

Monkeys

 

Our only morning and afternoon afternoon camper - 7 hours of art a day and still smiling!!!!

Art Camp updates - finally

Since today is August 31, 2009 and many public schools don't start classes until later this week I've decided to still consider this summer and I'm finally going to get the photos from this summer's art camp posted.

Summer was amazing!! We had camp after camp of fun, energetic, creative kids and it was a blast. We held 16 sessions of camp and my goal is to post them 2 at a time. I'm going to work backwards from camp 16 to camp 1. There will be more photos than text so hopefully you'll be able to see what the camps were like.

Regular classes start Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - there is still time to register for a class. Creative thinking starts with art! Connecticut ART School