It's Never TOO Early or Late. . .

 It's Elementary!

That's who I painted with last week.

Elementary students.

I was asked to teach 3 classes of elementary students in one day in an enrichment program here in Carroll County, KY.

I had about 20 students in each class.

I had one class of younger students who I had never taught before and then in each of the other two classes I had a few students I had taught.  

The goal was to paint and 8" x 10 piece on a canvas panel,

teaching color and some techniques like blending paint.

In this simple painting students learned to make the heart shape by starting with 2 dots, how to select colors that work together, use light and dark colors for effect, how to make the lace edge, how to get the arrow to go through the heart, how to use both ends of the brush as they made the dots, and so much more.

Our class was held at Camp Kysoc in Carrollton, KY a former Easter Seals summer camp.

I used a Valentine subject as I taught why some colors work together and others don't.  We also talked about why you need to use light with dark colors in order to achieve contrast.

It's one of the things new artists struggle with, creating depth with color.

I've created 7 Tips for Mixing Color that you can download and print out and keep where you paint.
Click HERE to get the printable.  

Me and this great group of artists in the first class of the day.

These are all the paintings from the first group.

Not one like another one.  

I'm trying to teach a method and 

then let them run with their own creativity.

In the other two classes we really went abstract as we tried to make loose flowing hearts and shapes around the heart and then added curly-q's.  

My two demo paintings from the next two classes.

Showing shading, blending, use of color, and how to play in the paint.

In this painting we learned how to think outside the box in creating the shape of the heart.  We were also able to explore how light and dark colors affected the painting.  Painting the curly-q's helped loosen up the students as they learn to manipulate the paint and the brush.

Again I was just teaching a method, and then I hoped they would infuse their own personalities into their work.

I was not disappointed.

Look at all the variety in these paintings. 

This was the final class of the day.

One thing I learned again, is that there are always those students who are fearful of anything where they have to use their own creativity.  Others dive right in and go for it.

I always try to reassure all that there are rules and best practices, but once they understand them, they can successfully break them for some interesting results. 

This group was very brave and really pushed themselves.

It was also interesting to see how each group had their own personality as well as the individuals in the group.

I had a great time and I hope they did too.

We created a ton of colorful art 

and I think we all learned a lot.

Click HERE to visit my YouTube channel where I teach art concepts and classes for free.

Click HERE to visit my website.

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