art Archives ⋆ Savvy Mama Sprite Presents The Arts

yellow orange pink and blue coloring pens on white notebook

For The Love of Art Supplies!

By savvymamasprite | April 13, 2023

calligraphy tools on the white wooden table — Photo by Antoni Shkraba on Pexels.com

I often contemplate one specific difference between me and some of my friends that don’t participate in visual arts. These friends will buy a lunch, clothes, shop around for this and that to treat themselves to something small. I’ve been known to do that too, but my real enjoyment lies in the possibilities of getting a new book or maybe a new piece of art supplies. “Wow! Have you tried this pen?! The ink goes on the paper so smoothly. The color is fantastic!” “Yeah, I know I have one of these but it’s a different shade.” “These are double sided!” Oh, my reasons go on from there. I have lots of pens. Buckets of paints. Don’t even get me started on my yarn, fabric, pencils, wool, and so on.

Now I would like to say this, it is okay to have buckets and tubs full of art supplies stacked around your house. However, make sure they are items you use. A person needs to feel connected to and enjoy the process of creating Art. They also need to know the difference between organized clutter and chaos. Sorry all, cleaning is another part of the balance. Piles of unlabeled, uncared for, miscellaneous odds and ends just take up space that better things can be allowed to fill, things that can help you grow as a person rather than just bury you alive in “stuff”.

Here is my side story about clutter. You know what is clutter in your house. I’m not talking about garbage, that is easy, toss it/recycle it. Now. Put your sketchy papers in a binder if you are keeping them. Put treasures in a “treasure chest” or something. I have had well meaning friends come by in the name of trying to help me organize my “clutter”. Half of them asked if I really needed so many books or toys around the house. Yes. Yes I do. Just throw out half my kitchen, or my wardrobe, something. We all have our happy places. The boot worn through the sole? Toss it or make a flower pot if it’s worthy of that. Electric sandwich grill? Gift it or donate unless you are a sandwich fiend. Dead house plant? Dump it. Clothes you look awful in? Donate, not everyone looks bad the same way. Haha.

If you already have gobs of art supplies, as I do, don’t forget to do some Spring cleaning. Clear out pens that don’t work, paints that are past their prime, adhesives that have a foot in the grave, you get the idea. Upcycle whenever possible but get it out of your way. All artists, old and new, never stop experimenting! Work inside your current budget and discover ways to create. I’m not saying blow $60+ on those midrange watercolors if you don’t have it. What about trying some craft quality acrylic paint? Surprisingly those are still less than $2 a bottle around here. Buy a cheap pallet and start with some primary colors. You don’t have $$$+ for Copic Markers? Neither do I! Look for some other markers to learn with a little and see if you even like drawing with markers. Do you see where I’m going with this?

I tried out 3 new to me types of markers/pens to draw this picture from a favorite show today, and the average price was $1 each:

Learning doesn’t have to break the bank. I like to play around with hand lettering, in other words, turning writing into art. I don’t feel particularly skilled at this as of yet, but I experiment with it off and on. On that note I bought some calligraphy pens I thought I would like. They were NOT pleasant to use. As they scratched their way across my notebook I knew we would not be “friends”. My daughter liked the angles of the chiseled tips on them and was not as annoyed by how dry the tips of the pens were. I gave them to her. Within the hour my two year old found them and made himself extra colorful, he loves trying out new art supplies too. Moral #1, it’s okay to pass on supplies to others, we all have different tastes and sensory needs. Share and move on. Moral #2, two year olds are very good at finding not-exactly-washable ways to express their artistic selves.

Don’t be afraid to say you want to try something new. Don’t be afraid to say you don’t like it. While you’re at it, feel free to say, “Huh.” occasionally. Art is a way to test out your feelings, thoughts, and practice making choices. I venture to say that the type of results you produce might show you what priorities are in your mind. Creating something takes time. If you don’t wish to put time into a project ask yourself why. This also teaches you something.

I could drag this on but I think I’ve communicated what is on my mind today. If pens are your thing go ahead to the craft store and if they have those doodle pads test out a few sample pens. If you think wood carving, painting, felting, crochet… any of that might be your creative outlet, give it a go! Endless possibilities! Express yourself your way. Discover your senses. Keep creating!

Improvise A Comic -A Giggle Game-

By savvymamasprite | February 14, 2022

Family game time doesn’t always need a board game.

Today’s art exercise was lead by my brother. I think it is an excellent activity for a variety of ages to learn from and enjoy. Select a scribe to take down notes, grab some blank paper and your favorite drawing tools, you are ready to go. The challenge was to loosely write a three panel comic together, then split up and illustrate it separately. How would our different styles look on paper?

There are lots of great skills to learn here and it can even be a good party game if that’s how you roll. For starters you practice collaborative creative writing by thinking up a common story. Just say whatever comes to your mind. Make a list or whatever is easiest for you to refer back to as you draw. You can refine this part of the project as little or as much as you like. Try not to over think it though.

This is a nice freestyle project to use as a warm up for a bigger art project too. Get into the game, focus, relax, have fun.

For our comic we came up some random characters to put in our silly story; a dinosaur, a chicken, a shark, and Batman. Then it was decided that there would be a volcano. Everyone else in the group tonight chose to also somehow incorporate the dinosaur chewing bubble gum, they were on a tour, and Batman had to end up in the shark’s mouth somehow. I chose to skip those last elements but still tie in sweets, only differently.

Set a time limit and go have fun! During the unveiling we talked about ways to polish our work if given more time. I also highly recommend telling each person what you like best from their comic too. One thing that immediately came to our attention was that we like to draw on different scales. My daughter got around the size limitations of the paper by using a separate piece of paper for each panel in her comic. One of my boys chose not to draw panels. That’s okay. In this case, to quote a fun movie, rules really are ”more like guidelines”.

Keep scrolling to see all of our masterpieces!

Up above all the characters were playing hide and seek. Next to an active volcano. A volcano that is lobbing fireballs. Batman is tiny and hiding in the shark’s mouth. The green smudge is the dinosaur not realizing his bubblegum is visible and giving away his hiding spot. I think the chicken is hiding behind the volcano.

The picture below has a lot of different stories happening at once. Most notably something has gone very wrong while trying to throw a shark in the volcano and a dinosaur has a sweet tooth. I also love that the dinosaur is an ankylosaurus.

There is the 3 separate paper approach. (Sorry for the lighting differences in the frames. That’s on me.) This artist also chose to use known cartoon characters from different sources and bring them all together. Given more time this comic would have been even better but we had to cut her off or she would have been drawing all night.

Above, I decided that making s’mores sound like an emergency sounded funny. I wasn’t going to ink it but I had a little extra time so I went with it.

Below, I love my brother’s sketchy little comics! All I will specifically say for now though is check out the dinosaur’s face in the last panel.

There you have it. Now you give it a try.
Be creative and keep shining!

Warm up? Why?

By savvymamasprite | March 5, 2021

Why do we have warm ups? What is a “warm up” anyway? These are questions that on my part I just took for granted until recently. Drawing class, dance class, writing class, music class, theatre (and this list goes on), I always had a warm up exercise of some sort.

A little clarification for young readers. Warm up doesn’t always mean to be physically warm. Warming up when using your body does actually make your body warmer. A warm up for your mind doesn’t actually create heat but it does get that mental fire burning brighter.

In a drawing class we take about 10 minutes or so to do some kind of quick draw, or practice using a new technique we’d been learning previously. For music class we sing scales and simple sounds to get our vocal cords prepared, or play scales on our instrument. A warm up can save you from injury in a physical activity. Mentally (and that includes physical stuff, because they take thinking too), warm ups are a signal to get you ready to work/create.

We were watching a movie about dancing and one of my kids asked how all the children in the ballet class knew what to do when the teacher just said, “Go warm up for 20 minutes.” In ballet class there is a part that we call “Barre”. With some exceptions, ballet class will always start with barre exercises. These movements are done in a specific order and are the foundation of ballet. A ballet student will learn this early on so when told to warm up they know pretty much what to do.

An artist learns the basic skills of their trade and then we keep practicing them. Add harder things in with time and feel free to get fancy. The reason for a warm up is to get stronger, protect yourself from injury, and build a new habit.

Artists teach their body and mind to follow a well worn road, as they start. From there there are no limits. A wonderful quote used when teaching little kiddos to read I think applies well here, “Good readers re-read!” Great artists also repeat-repeat. Start making grooves and teaching yourself how get your engine going. Who knows where it can take you? Be creative and keep shining!

green rice field — Photo by Johannes Plenio on Pexels.com

Story time!

By savvymamasprite | January 30, 2021

Soon my “Imagining” posts will be filled with short stories and poems. In those posts you will find stories either written or retold by me, Mama Sprite. There may also be stories from guests. The stories and poems will be for fun, inspiration, and opportunities to practice your own art skills too. I can’t wait to share what we’ve imagined up with you!

Stop and Smell the Flowers!

By savvymamasprite | December 30, 2020

A bit about Georgia O’Keeffe.

I asked my girl if she knew who Georgia O’Keeffe was. The answer I got was, “Nope!” Let’s fix that. Georgia O’Keeffe is a 20th century artist, born in 1887 and died in 1986. She was best known for her work as a modern artist. By the mid-1920s (100 years ago. I know. It’s still called Modern Art) Georgia was one of the most successful artist from America at that time.

Georgia painted everything from flowers of the American deserts to mountains on the other side of the world in Peru, Japan, and so on. She traveled near and far from her home in America.

At age 10 Georgia had already decided to become an artist and so she went to art lessons, accompanied by two of her sisters, with a local painter. She was in the top of her class at the School of Art Institute of Chicago in 1905. Later she also became an art teacher and head of an art school.

Her personal life had many ups and downs. Much of her life would cause more emotional stress than she could handle on her own. Yet through out her trials and troubles Georgia enjoyed going for walks. She loved seeing sunrises and sunsets, along with other beautiful sights. She used painting to express her feelings. Her choice of media included watercolors, pastels, and oil paints. Often Georgia would not even sketch out a draft of what she intended to paint and just jumped straight to work putting colors into her creations.

There are a lot of other sources were you can find out more about the history of Georgia O’Keeffe. Look her up if you like. Most of all, I would like to say that what I learned from studying her life is to remember to take some walks outside. Stop and look at the flowers. Go and show yourself in your art. Put your heart and emotions into what you make. Be creative and keep shining!