Art Lessons: Vincent Van Gogh

This Fall I am going to do a few art lessons for my girls. 

Here's our first:

VINCENT VAN GOGH

These are simple lessons and the object is to have fun while exposing the girls to artists and different art techniques. 

I'm not really worried how their projects turn out.

Here are some links to his art or you can check out a book at the library.

Starry Night

Sunflowers

Self-Portrait

If you want to find more easy art lessons, I got mine at artprojectsforkids.org.

Watercolor Pencil Coloring Pages

I saw this watercolor pencil idea on a blog a couple of weeks ago and thought it would be a great activity for our upcoming LONG airplane ride. Today I was able to test it out and it was SO much fun (for me :). Hopefully it will entertain Lucy as well.

What you need:

watercolor pencils

watercolor paper (I bought a cheaper kids version. Watercolor paper holds the moisture better)

fine tip permanent marker (unless you use a printer ink that won't bleed. Alas, we do not have a laser printer so I improvised).

First, I cut my paper to printer page size. You could just draw your pictures directly onto the watercolor paper if you prefer. I didn't trust my freehand artistic skills, so I went for lightening the images to a light gray (to minimize the ink running when water is applied) and then printing them directly onto the watercolor paper. Next, trace with a sharpie and then outline with the watercolor pencils. Last, using water and a paintbrush, apply water and Ta Da! You have fun art project.

For our trip, I'm going to have everything done except the water part. I'll pack a paintbrush in our carry-on and make sure I fill a water bottle before we board the plane.