So I went and asked the girls that use Ambleside Online's facebook group. And they helped me out with tips, instructions, tutorials, and sample journal pages. There are some really lovely people using Charlotte Mason's methods.
They gave a number of tips, and also some links to various tutorials. Like this one. Which helped me to understand better what to ask for when I'm trying to get my kids to do nature journals. That was really helpful, and when I did it that way, I immediately started to see cool things happening with Hero's journal.
They also showed me some a couple of great video tutorials. I have watched some (and seen fantastic progress in my paintings!!) but not all of them, yet, and I want to keep track of them so that I can continue to improve my work.
This one isn't a video tutorial, but it does have some really interesting bits on doing a drybrush technique - I hadn't even realized that was possible with watercolors.
Next, they shared a whole YouTube channel with me full of watercolor tutorials. I'm really looking forward to digging into that a little bit! Looks like there are some fun things to learn there.
Then, I started trying out some of the things I'd learned, and the directions we had were so good that, even without someone here in the kitchen showing us what to do, both Hero and I showed marked improvement in our work on the very first try. We get the paints out regularly; Hero knows how to do it on his own and starts painting independently on a regular basis, as well as the work that we do together as an official activity. I'm excited to see how we can improve over the next few months, messing around. This is some cattails that we saw, though I didn't paint the whole stand of them. There just wasn't time for that much, so I simplified it down to two stalks. It was so exciting to see a real picture, even if it wasn't much. You can see from the way the paper has buckled that I'm still using a lot of water in my "dry" brush. I'll be working on that, especially since this is just a sketch book, and the paper isn't really excited about being that wet.
Hero(8) did this one of a Black-capped Chickadee. We had seen a chickadee at the park, so we found a picture on the internet, and he copied it. He just grabbed whatever pen was handy, so he ended up with a blue outline, but I still was pleasantly surprised by how nicely he did.
I was cooking lunch, so I didn't get to play, much, this week, but Dragon loves to mix up colors on his mixing tray, and wanted me to use them, so I drew a quick flower-like object. I didn't have any particular type of flower in mind, just "flower," so the shape isn't so hot. But I was really excited about what I was able to do with the colors on the petals and leaves!
I can't wait to do some more!
They gave a number of tips, and also some links to various tutorials. Like this one. Which helped me to understand better what to ask for when I'm trying to get my kids to do nature journals. That was really helpful, and when I did it that way, I immediately started to see cool things happening with Hero's journal.
They also showed me some a couple of great video tutorials. I have watched some (and seen fantastic progress in my paintings!!) but not all of them, yet, and I want to keep track of them so that I can continue to improve my work.
This one isn't a video tutorial, but it does have some really interesting bits on doing a drybrush technique - I hadn't even realized that was possible with watercolors.
Next, they shared a whole YouTube channel with me full of watercolor tutorials. I'm really looking forward to digging into that a little bit! Looks like there are some fun things to learn there.
Then, I started trying out some of the things I'd learned, and the directions we had were so good that, even without someone here in the kitchen showing us what to do, both Hero and I showed marked improvement in our work on the very first try. We get the paints out regularly; Hero knows how to do it on his own and starts painting independently on a regular basis, as well as the work that we do together as an official activity. I'm excited to see how we can improve over the next few months, messing around. This is some cattails that we saw, though I didn't paint the whole stand of them. There just wasn't time for that much, so I simplified it down to two stalks. It was so exciting to see a real picture, even if it wasn't much. You can see from the way the paper has buckled that I'm still using a lot of water in my "dry" brush. I'll be working on that, especially since this is just a sketch book, and the paper isn't really excited about being that wet.
Hero(8) did this one of a Black-capped Chickadee. We had seen a chickadee at the park, so we found a picture on the internet, and he copied it. He just grabbed whatever pen was handy, so he ended up with a blue outline, but I still was pleasantly surprised by how nicely he did.
Dragon(4.5) doesn't do a nature journal, yet, but he does like to paint. And the lines (he tells me it's a transporter) are a new addition. He's been making "Pegasus eggs" a lot lately - little ovals of color. This was the first time he'd tried drawing and painting it.
A week later, we stayed canceled Nature Study because it was all of 3F outside (and windy), and we have a toddler. This is pretty typical of our winters, but the birds helped us out. We had some House Sparrows show up at our (empty) feeders, so we watched them a while, and then Hero filled the feeders. We looked online at the All About Birds entry for House Sparrows, and found an internet picture to use as reference.
Hero's completed drawing turned out fantastic - easily the most realistic art he has produced to date, and a marked improvement over last week. I have no idea what was different this week, but I love it.
Dragon loves to paint, too. We were listening to Thomas Payne's Common Sense while we did this, so he drew a "Liberty Cannon" and a "Liberty Bow" (with arrows). You can see the "cannon" next to him; it's the orange and green splot.
I was cooking lunch, so I didn't get to play, much, this week, but Dragon loves to mix up colors on his mixing tray, and wanted me to use them, so I drew a quick flower-like object. I didn't have any particular type of flower in mind, just "flower," so the shape isn't so hot. But I was really excited about what I was able to do with the colors on the petals and leaves!
I can't wait to do some more!
1 comment:
Awesome! They look great! Watercolor is probably my least favorite medium; it never seems to want to do what I want it to do. (I'll have to look at those links) Nice job getting it to cooperate :)
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