Art Medium: Watercolor

Okay I am trying something new.  I thought it would be interesting to learn a little about different types of art mediums.  So today I did some research on Watercolors.  I found it very interesting to learn about something I thought I new a bit about and found out I didn't.  I hope you enjoy!

Art Medium Study #1

Watercolors

What do I know about Watercolors?  I know that Crayola has a great set that my students use on projects all the time. I know that blue is the color kids like the best.  Why?  It’s the color that runs out first!  I know that they are dry and you add water to them.  I know that watercolors are easy to clean up after 20+ students have been using them. J  In other words I don’t know a whole lot.  So in classic teacher voice, YEAH we get to learn!

Let’s begin with a definition from Wikipedia.

Watercolor (US) or watercolour (UK and Commonwealth), also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water soluble vehicle. The traditional and most common support for watercolor paintings is paper; other supports include papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum or leather, fabric, wood, and canvas. Watercolors are usually transparent and it allows light to reflect from the surface of the paper. This gives a luminous effect. Watercolor can also be made opaque by adding Chinese white. In East Asia, watercolor painting with inks is referred to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese painting it has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns. India, Ethiopia and other countries also have long traditions. Fingerpainting with watercolor paints originated in China.

Interesting to note that different cultures use this medium more than others.  Why?  Well let’s day I am writing a picture book set in China, wouldn’t it make sense to use watercolors?  See what I mean.

Okay now more information, Types of Watercolors.  (Yes I learned that there are different types!) Taken from: http://netnet.net/~cloud9/tips/tips_watercolors.html

TYPES OF WATERCOLORS: There are many types of watercolors on the market. You have watercolor crayons, watercolor pencils, powdered watercolors, liquid watercolors, pan/cake watercolors (those are the ones in a dried little disc like crayola makes), and the tube variety of watercolors. And for as many types as there are, you can estimate at least 10 times that many brands. When you choose the type of watercolor you want to learn...try thinking of it like this. Let's say..you are a person who likes to paint...(maybe as a child you LOVED paint by number sets, I did)....You've painted enough to be comfortable with a paintbrush. In this situation, I would suggest buying ANY of the types of watercolors. Now...let's say you haven't ever tried watercolors...but you ARE familiar and comfortable with crayons and pencils...then I would tell you to buy either watercolor pencils or crayons.

My personal reaction: HOLY COW!!!!  I had no idea there were this many options when it came to watercolors!  Like I stated earlier, I know about Crayola.  Oh wait I know seem to recall some watercolor markers I have stashed away with my stamping stuff.  J

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Okay we know the history, we know the types but how do we do it?  Let’s learn about Watercolors here are some basic tips from the following web site.      http://www.ehow.com/how_2104020_use-watercolors.html

·  1 Set up your workspace. As you will often need to change the water you are using, you should find a workspace that is convenient to a water supply. Lay out your brushes and watercolors.

·  2 Pick your subject. Watercolors are ideal for landscape painting, so consider some outdoor scenery or a still-life setup.

·  3 Apply a broad background wash to your paper. Mix your chosen background color with plenty of water. Dip the wash brush into the watery mixture and sweep across the paper. If you would like a fade in your background, add more water to the mixture as you approach the top or bottom.

·  4 Allow the wash to dry on the paper before proceeding.

·  5 Use less water and thinner brushes when painting the actual picture. To provide opacity to your painting, simply dip a brush tip into the water and circle it on the watercolor cake until your desired shade is reached. You can also paint over areas that have dried slightly to increase opacity.

·  6 Tint areas of your painting if desired. Allow the sections of the painting to dry completely. Mix a watercolor shade with plenty of water and sweep over the desired area. This is mostly a trial and error process, so keep playing until you find shades and tints that work for you.

·  7 Allow the finished product to lay flat and dry completely before matting and framing.

My personal reaction: Mixing paint, of course I know that mixing paint is like breathing when it comes to art work.  But how do you keep clean paint sets in a classroom?  So often in a classroom setting we are limited on time.  But allowing the time for watercolors to dry before adding more, this is another lesson I am learning.

If you want more information about watercolors here are a few links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watercolor_painting

http://www.kimengyeo.com/about/watercolors.shtml

http://www.watercolor-online.com/

This really is only an ice flake off of the top of Mt. Everest, there is so many other things that go into play when you are an artists, I read about brushes, types of papers, etc….  For now I will move on but perhaps return to this in the future.

So here is my first attempt to better understand illustrations in picture books.  Is there a medium you want me to post about?  Let me know!  I am excited to learn new techniques and perhaps even try some of them.  If you try them please post a picture or comment and tell me how it went!

1947-UFO's in Washington State!!!!

1947

All facts came from Wikipedia.

January and February 1947 are remembered for the worst snowfalls in the UK in the 20th century, with extensive disruption of travel.

January

• January 1: The Canadian Citizenship Act comes into effect.
• January 3 – Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
• January 25 – A Philippine plane crashes in Hong Kong, with $5 million worth of gold and money.

February

• February 3
• The lowest air temperature in North America (-63 degrees Celsius) is recorded in Snag, Yukon Territory.
• Percival Prattis becomes the first African-American news correspondent allowed in the United States House of Representatives and Senate press galleries.
• February 12
• A meteor creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.
• Christian Dior introduces The "New Look" in women's fashion, in Paris.
• February 20
• U.S. Army Ordnance Corps Hermes project V-2 rocket Blossom I launched into space carrying plant material and fruitflies, the first animals to enter space.
• February 21 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", his Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
• February 25 – John C. Hennessy, Jr., brings the first VW Beetle to the United States.

April

• April 1: Jackie Robinson, the first African American in modern Major League Baseball, signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
• April 15 – Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play modern Major League Baseball.
• April 26 – Academy-Award winning Tom and Jerry cartoon, The Cat Concerto, is released to theatres.

May

• May 2 – The movie Miracle on 34th Street, a Christmastime classic, is first shown in theaters.
• May 22 – The Cold War begins: In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, President Harry S. Truman signs an Act of Congress that implements the Truman Doctrine. This Act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece.

June

• June 10 – SAAB produces its first automobile.
• June 21
• Seaman Harold Dahl claims to have seen six UFOs near Maury Island in Puget Sound, Washington. On the next morning, Dahl reports the first modern so-called "Men in Black" encounter.
• June 24 – Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely-reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.

July

• July 7 – A supposedly downed extraterrestrial spacecraft is reportedly found in the Roswell UFO incident, near Roswell, New Mexico, which was written about by Stanton T. Friedman.
• July 11 – The Exodus leaves France for Palestine, with 4,500 Jewish Holocaust survivor refugees on board.
• July 18 Following wide media and UNSCOP coverage, The Exodus is captured by British troops and refused entry into Palestine at the port of Haifa.
• July 26 – Cold War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947 into law, creating the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
• July 29 – After being shut down on November 9, 1946, for a refurbishment, the ENIAC computer, the world's first electronic digital computer, is turned back on again. It then remains in continuous operation until October 2, 1955.

August

• August 27 – When the French government lowers the daily bread ration to 200 grams, that causes riots in Verdun and in Le Mans.

 September

• September 18 – National Security Act of 1947 becomes effective on this day creating the United States Air Force, National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency.
• September 18 – War Department becomes the Department of the Army, a branch of the new Department of Defense.

 October

• October 14 – The United States Air Force test pilot, Captain Chuck Yeager, flies a Bell X-1 rocket plane faster than the speed of sound, the first time it has been accomplished

 November

• November 2- In California, the designer and airplane pilot Howard Hughes performs the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose, the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built. (The flight lasts only eight minutes, and the "Spruce Goose" is never flown again.)
• November 24 – Red Scare: The U.S. House of Representatives votes 346–17 to approve citations of Contempt of Congress against the so-called Hollywood 10, after the ten men refuse to co-operate with the House Un-American Activities Committee concerning allegations of communist influences in the movie business. (The ten men are blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios on the following day.)
• November 27 – In Paris, France, police occupy the editorial offices of the communist newspapers.

 December

• December 3
• French communist strikers derail the Paris-Tourcoing express train because of false rumors that it was transporting soldiers. 21 people are killed.
• The Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Marlon Brando in his first great role, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway. Jessica Tandy also stars as Blanche Du Bois.[1]

 Date unknown

• The Doomsday Clock is set.
• Cambridge University begins to admit women as full students.
• Raytheon produces the first commercial microwave oven.
• In a cave in and around the Wadi Qumran (near the ruins of the ancient settlement of Khirbet Qumran, on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea), several tall pottery jars containing leather scrolls are discovered, which later become known as the Dead Sea scrolls.^[4]
• By discovery of Promethium in products of nuclear fission, the last gap of the periodic table is closed.

Classic Rhymes Wins Big!

1946 Caldecott Winner: The Rooster Crows

A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles

By Maud and Miska Petersham

Second Caldecott Award for this couple.  They also got a Caldecott Honor in 1942 for An American ABC.

Maud (1890–1971) and Miska (1888–1960) Petersham were an illustrating husband-and-wife team who are most famous for writing and illustrating The Rooster Crows, a book of American songs, rhymes, and games in the tradition of Mother Goose, which won the 1946 Caldecott Medal. Their first book was called Miki (published 1929) about their son.

Maud was born Maud Fuller in Kingston, New York on August 5, 1890. Her family traveled extensively, from Kingston to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Newburg, New York, and finally to Scranton, Pennsylvania. She was graduated from Vassar College in 1912, later studying at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art. She worked at the International Art Service, where she met her future husband, Miska Petersham. When Miska died in 1960, Maud sold the Woodstock, New York, house in which they had lived.

Miska was born Petrezselyem Mikaly in Torokszentmiklos, Hungary, on September 20, 1888, the son of a carpenter and blacksmith. He moved to London in 1911 looking for a job. When he didn't find one, he moved to America in 1912 — anglicizing his name to "Petersham" — and obtained a job at the International Art Service, where he met his wife, Maud.

Bios from Wikipedia

Book Summary

This is a collection of classic rhymes we grew up with.  There are familiar ones as well as ones I have never heard of before.

Illustrations

Do the illustrations bring the rhymes to life?  Yes they sure do.  Each portion of the rhyme has an illustration to accompany it.

Do the illustrations capture my interest?  Yes, but not for a long time.  There are a few that really stand out to me.  For example I love the Little Piggy’s page.  Each of the 5 pigs is featured with their own snippet picture.  Very fun to see each picture to life.

Overall I would have to say that I find the illustrations good with some wonderful sprinkled around.  This book is filled with illustrations.  They are all individual pictures to with a small rhyme so they tell a short story.  Different than picture books that are filled with illustrations along the same story line.  They give the mood of classic images, warm and good natured.  Children are often the main focus, although there are times when adult images are used.  Animals and children are defiantly a talent of this couple.

Final Thoughts:

1. Would this be a book I would pick up again? Not sure

2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at? maybe

3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book? For a good price

4. Where did I get the book? Pierce County

Want to learn chinese this summer?

1946 Caldecott Honor: You Can Write Chinese

By Kurt Wiese (Bio from http://www.michenermuseum.org/bucksartists/artist.php?artist=302 )

NONFICTION WRITER, PAINTER
BORN: April 22, 1887, Minden, Germany
DIED: May 27, 1974, Idell, New Jersey

Illustrator Kurt Wiese was incredibly prolific, illustrating over 300 children's books, by authors such as Zane Grey and Rudyard Kipling. His most well known work are the illustrations for the original Bambi book. Wiese wrote and illustrated many children's books himself, winning the Caldecott Medal for Children's Literature twice. German-born Wiese traveled in China selling merchandise as a young man. On the outbreak of WWI, he was captured by the Japanese, and turned over to the British. He spent five years as a prisoner, most of them in Australia, where his fascination for the animal life inspired him to start sketching. Completely self-taught, upon his return to Germany he worked for an animated film company for several years, where he developed the innovation of completing drawings on transparent material to avoid redrawing the background with every frame. He credited this work with teaching him quick and accurate draughtsman ship. He began his own story writing and illustration during this time, and continued with it during three years in Brazil before coming to America. All ready well-known, his career burgeoned here, his travels serving as the basis for many of his works.

Also, Mr. Wiese did the illustrations for Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book.

Book Summary

Set in a Chinese classroom, a young American boy sits among his Chinese classmates waiting for the teacher to enter.  The young American boy and his family moved to China for his dad’s job.  He is eager to learn the language so he can understand the world that surrounds him.  The teacher enters and begins to explain that there are no letters in the Chinese language, symbols are used instead.  Stories are told with symbols.

Illustrations

Simple lines used to show symbols.  There are only three colors used in the book, black blue and orange.  What I found great and useful was that with every Chinese symbol there was a corresponding picture of the object the symbol represented.  I found this very easy to learn from.  I could see where the symbols came from.  The Chinese symbol was intertwined with the common picture.  I really enjoyed this book and the pictures.  It is very easy to see why this picture was awarded a Caldecott Honor Medal without the illustrations this book would not work.  The illustrations are the book in this case!

Illustrations that are critical to the book and are designed for children!  This is what the Caldecott is about!  This book is a perfect example of that!

Final Thoughts:

1. Would this be a book I would pick up again? Yes

2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at? Yes

3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book? Yes

4. Where did I get the book? Pierce County got a copy from Timberland Regional Library.

http://www.wiese.pagebooks.net/

Sing Mother Goose-Classic!!

1946 Caldecott Honor: Sing Mother Goose

Music By Opal Wheeler                 Illustrations by Marjorie Torrey (or Torrey Chanslor)

Fame is a funny, fickle thing. Marjorie Torrey, who as Torrey Chanslor wrote Our First Murder, was one of the major illustrators of children’s books in the mid-twentieth century, achieving back-to-back Caldecott Honor awards, but today she is virtually forgotten. She was born in New York in 1899 but somewhere in the late 1950s, she seems to have quietly passed from the scene.

She wrote a few children’s books herself but she was primarily an artist, whose old-fashioned style was ideally suited to illustrating books for young people. She also did the covers for the two mysteries featuring the Beagle sisters, Our First Murder (1940) and Our Second Murder (1941). Although these covers were uncredited, there’s absolutely no doubt whose work it is when one compares the playful, yet extremely accurate, cover of Our First Murder (reproduced for this edition in a slightly enlarged form) with the delightful illustrations in her 1946 Caldecott Honor book, Sing Mother Goose.

All of her books are out of print today. Even her Caldecott honor books are difficult to find, often confined to rare book rooms or the special collections section of larger libraries. Ironically, she’s perhaps best known today for her two mysteries, which have been mentioned in Carolyn G. Hart’s popular “Death on Demand” mystery series and are sought after by collectors specializing in the evolution of the private eye novel, especially those featuring women sleuths.

The above taken from: http://www.ruemorguepress.com/authors/chanslor.html

Book Summary

A collection of music and rhymes from traditional Mother Goose.

Illustrations

Young children are portrayed in classic Mother Goose settings.  They children for the most part seem happy and enjoyable.  There are also many animals scattered about.  I found the pictures to be enjoyable to look at.  I would recite the common rhyme, or at times not so common, and then gaze at the pictures.  I enjoyed finding the same animal’s throughout the book as well as the details to the clothing on the children.  I would like to play dress up in some of these clothes.

Final Thoughts:

1. Would this be a book I would pick up again? Probably Not

2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at? If you play music.

3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book? No

4. Where did I get the book? Pierce County got a copy from Livingston-Park County in Montana.

Black Sheep Wanders Off!

1946 Caldecott Honor: Little Lost Lamb

By Golden MacDonald (pseudo Margaret Wise Brown)

Illustrations by Leonard Weisgard (bio from Wikpedia)

Leonard Joseph Weisgard (December 13, 1916-January 14, 2000)^[1] was an award-winning American author and illustrator of more than 200 children's books, most famous for his collaborations with Margaret Wise Brown. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and spent most of his childhood in England.

Weisgard studied art at the Pratt Institute. His first book, Suki the Siamese Pussy, was published in 1937 and his first collaboration with Brown was two years later with The Noisy Books. The Little Island, written by Brown and illustrated by Weisgard, won the Caldecott Medal in 1948. They collaborated again on The Important Book, published by Harper & Brothers in 1949.

Weisgard married Phyllis Monnot in 1951 and, with her and their three children, moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1969. He died on January 14, 2000, in Denmark.

Book Summary

A young shepherd boy takes a flock of sheep to the mountains to graze on fresh green grass and flowers.  While the shepherd falls asleep the black lamb of the flock wanders off.  The young shepherd boy returns the rest of the flock in the evening, but is unable to sleep.  The Young shepherd boy returns with his dog to search for the Black Lamb.  They end of rescuing the lost lamb just in time.

Illustrations

His interest in the quality of children’s books began after his family moved back to the USA when he was 8. As a schoolboy in New York, he was dissatisfied with the books supplied by the public schools he attended. He found the illustrations monotonous and thought that the world could not be all that dreary and limited to only one color.

He went on to study art at the Pratt Institute and the New School for Social Research, where he was influenced by primitive cave paintings, Gothic and Renaissance art and avant-garde French illustrators of children’s books of the 1920s.

He used a wide range of colors and media in his books, including gouache, poster paint, crayon, chalk, decoupage, stenciling and pen and ink. 

Taken from http://www.leonardweisgard.com/biography.htm

My impression and thoughts (all personal and unprofessional)  J

The use of color and black and white in the stories is wonderful.  During the day we see full color and details.  Then when night time falls the colors change to black, grey and white.  Very interesting way to show time passing in the story.  I can see the influence of cave paintings throughout the book.  Hard pointy edges, no shading just strong colors to fill in areas of space.  Not my favorite but not my least favorite either.

Final Thoughts:

1. Would this be a book I would pick up again? Yes

2. Would I recommend it to others to search out and take a look at? Probably not

3. Would I spend my hard earned money on the book? No

4. Where did I get the book? Pierce County Library

http://www.leonardweisgard.com/index.htm