Artists For Kids

Contemporary artists should be a part of any art education program. Melanie Smythe is an artist from Texas. She is a botanical illustrator who loves to draw flowers. She uses many techniques including pencil, pen, ink, graphite crumbs on mylar, watercolor, colored pencil, computer drawings, etc. Her work is called scientific illustration, which accurately depicts plant life found in nature. Scientific illustrators are always telling a story using drawing and composition to visually explain the structure, organization and relationship of an object. Smythe works together with scientists to be able to interpret and reconstruct her images with accuracy. Her art work is a great addition to art education since she applies creativity to science. Smythe brings art to kids by participating in Abrakadoodle’s Artist of Distinction program.

What Kids Can Learn From Smythe
(Art for Kids)

Melanie Smythe studies each flower before drawing it. Children can learn so much about nature while observing a flower. They can learn about the flower’s structure while using different techniques to represent it. Children can learn to use watercolor by blending colors, creating value with thin overlapping strokes, drawing lines, texture and more while painting a flower. Melanie’s art helps children appreciate nature by representing it through her unique style – a blend of creativity and science.

Smythe inspires creativity in children with her style which uses dots instead of lines. She teaches children to use this technique of applying hundreds of dots in a pattern to produce a flower. The dots are put closer together to make the image darker, and farther apart to make it lighter. This technique is called stippling, and children learn how to represent light and shadows. Her style lends itself to art education at its best!

Learn more about her work at:

http://www.naturalselections.us/

Creativity for Kids

What color was your day?

Art can be introduced into your child’s life in so many fun ways! Color evokes powerful emotions in us all, and each of us perceives color in different ways. What’s fun is to find out how your child reacts to color as an individual. Forget the preconceived notions of what people are supposed to think about a certain color, which is commonly known as the psychology of color.

Co-create a color wheel, chart or box with your child. You can use the basic colors or add lots of additional colors, depending upon your child’s age and interest. Perhaps your child will want to color white paper to create a personalized palette. Once you have your colors organized, you can have some fun exploring them.

We traditionally greet our child after school with a “Hello, how was your day?” What if you changed this up and said, “Hi, what color was your day?” Instead of hearing the typical, “Fine,” “Ok,” “Boring,” “Hard,” etc, you could engage in a colorful conversation. Your child could use the color palette to express the color or colors of the day that best suits his or her experience. Maybe it was a purple day. The question is: what does that color mean to your son or daughter? So, you’ll have to ask questions, such as: “What made today a ‘red’ day?” Perhaps the day was more than one color, and that’s okay, too. As long as your child does not feel judged for his or her feelings about colors and emotions, then you can give your child yet another way to colorfully express him/herself and expand visual perception. It's also an imaginative way to show interest in your child.