Wandering Pen Art
Some people think that drawing is difficult and they say that they can't draw. We're going to learn how you can do a really interesting drawing without even thinking about HOW you draw!
First we need to learn how to let our pen or pencil wander. Get yourself some paper - old printing paper is fine. This is just for practice! You'll also need some felt tips or colouring pencils. Any you can find!
Use a pen or pencil, hold it really lightly and try doing swirly round and rounds across your paper or up and down your paper.... something like this, although it doesn't have to look exactly the same! there's no right or wrong way of doing any of this!
On the same paper using the same or a different pen or pencil, have a go at doing swirly round and rounds in different directions. Something like this...
Now try changing swirly directions as your pen wanders over the paper. You can turn the paper round or change the direction of your drawing. Don't worry what it looks like or if you have to have some straight lines to get you to a different place on the paper.
You will end up with something like these - though not
exactly the same!
Change direction! See if you can do zig-zags all over your paper. It may look a bit like this...
Now have a go at doing zig-zags. Start doing them in the same direction. Don't try and get them to be all the same. Let your pen decide! Something like this...
Once you get the idea, have a go on a clean piece of paper and do a swirly, zig-zaggy, wandering pen. See if you can do the whole drawing without taking your pen off the paper!
Now to start the fun! You are going to find things to draw in your scribble. Look at the shapes your lines have made and see if you can find any of the following:
a face, a mouse, a fish, a sea shell, a flower, some leaves, a moon, a star, a ghost, a monster, a pizza slice......
Use the same pen or pencil - or a different one if you want, have a go at drawing in some of the detail.... add ears, eyes, noses, dots, lines, spirals.... whatever you want.
You may get ideas from this one I've done! But don't just copy.... see if you can find YOUR drawing ideas.
When you think there are no more things to find, why not colour it in and see how beautiful your drawing becomes!
Ideas you could try...
Do a Wandering Pen Art where ALL the things you find are connected to each other...
You could do the Sea, My Family, Food, Holidays, and lots more! Have a go and send me photos of your Wandering Pen Art!
Dotty Art
What is Dotty Art?
Nearly 150 years ago, two artists George Seurat and Paul Signac produced painting that were made from dots of different colours. The dots were different colours and sizes with some very close together and others further apart. This way of painting was known as Pointillism.
They used the idea that our eyes will combine the separate colours to produce different shades. We use this idea today in our computer printers that only have the colours Magenta (bright pink), Yellow, Cyan (turquoise) and Black.
Activities and Worksheets
This is one of the most well known dotty painting. The two below show some of the details and you can look carefully and see the separate dots.
Dotty Art (Pointilism) examples
Dotty Art - Mixing primary colours
Can you name three Primary Colour?
We're going to use three colours to fill the three circles with dots and find out what happens when they mix
Red
Blue and
Green
Computer Printer: Magenta, Yellow and Cyan
3. Do the same with GREEN and then with BLUE. They should look something like these...
1. Download the circles worksheet - or draw your own. We're going to use the drawing of the 3 overlapping circles for this activity.
2. Using a RED felt tip or paint, fill the outside of one circles with red dots. Be careful so that they are evenly spread out.
4. Find the part of the drawing where the RED circle overlaps with just the GREEN circle. Very carefully fill this area with the same number of RED and GREEN dots. Count 10 Red, then do 10 Green... then another 10 Red.... then another 10 Green. Try to do them in spaces so the colours don't mix.
Repeat the same with the area where Red and Blue overlap.
Then do the same in the area where Blue and Green overlap.
It will look something like this....
5. Finally, there should be a curved triangle in the middle. You are going to fill this with dots in all 3 colours. Do 10 at a time of each colour, being careful not to let them overlap each other.
If you look at your drawing from a bit further away, you won't be able to see the dots and your eyes will mix them so they look like other colours. What colours can you see?
Try it with three different colours
Dotty Art - Mixing the 'opposite' colours
2. Look at this colour wheel. Colours that are on the other side of the wheel are called Opposite colours or Complementary colours.
See if you can pair your felt tips or paints with their Opposite colours.
When you paint these colours next to each other, it makes them much more bold - some people say they SHOUT at each other!
1. Download the circles worksheet - or draw your own. We're going to use the drawings of the 2 overlapping circles for this activity.
3. Use pairs of Opposite colours and fill ther pairs of circles with dots. When you do the overlapping area, be careful that you do it carefully and try not to do dots on top of each other. It may help to do 10 dots of each colour at a time so you get roughly the same number of each.
Dotty Art - shading with dots
If we want our drawings to look real, we need to use shading. There are three ways of doing this with dots.
Method 1. You can draw your dots closer together to make an area look darker and draw dots further apart to make the area look lighter.
Look at the picture of the Giraffe and the close-ups below, and you can see how this works. Which part of the giraffe are shown below?
4. Stand back from your drawing and look at the circles and see what colour your eyes turn the mixed areas into.
TRY THIS! Here's an image showing Opposite colours SHOUTING at each other! If you stare hard at one of them for a minute, then close your eyes, what do you see on the inside of your eyelid? WOW!
Activity: Using a shape from the worksheet, or drawing your own, fill a shape with dots of ONE colour and the same size. Draw your dots really close together in some areas and further apart in other areas. Take your time to get it right.
When you've finished, stand back from your drawing and see whether you have produced shading in the way the artist did when they shaded the giraffe.
Method 2. In the dotty drawing of the jug and bowl, the artist has also used dots of different sizes to show shadowed and light areas.
Can you see where the two close-ups come from?
Activity: Using a shape from the worksheet, or drawing your own, fill a shape with dots of ONE colour, with small dots in some areas and larger dots in other areas. Take your time to get it right.
When you've finished, stand back from your drawing and see whether you have produced shading in the way the artist did when they shaded the apple and bowl.
Method 3. You can use dots of different colours to show shaded and light areas. As the different colour dots are added to the picture of the cat, you can see the shape of the cat more clearly. You can see the three coloured dots in the close-up of the cat's ear.
Activity: Using a shape from the worksheet, or drawing your own, start by filling one area of the shape with dots of the same colour. Change colour and fill another area.
When the whole shape is covered in dots, start adding dots of different colours in each area to make the shape appear. Take your time to get it right.
When you've finished, stand back from your drawing and see whether you have produced shading in the way the artist did when they shaded the cat.
