Dry what? Brush drawing in a Charlotte Mason Education part 2

Put in the Time.
I did a quick search of my own blog to see how I've improved in my own brush drawing over the years.  I found a post about my first foray into intentional nature notebooking.  My own habit of keeping up with journaling has waxed and wained over the years.

People ask me how often they should include brush drawing in their weekly schedule.  I usually respond with a question myself.  How soon would you like to feel comfortable drawing with a brush?  Would you like to slowly learn over 10 years?  Would you like to have a noticeable increase in confidence at the beginning?  Let that help you decide how often to pick up your brush. 

If you were in art school, you might be painting everyday.  You might be looking at putting in several hours everyday to become great at something.  So if you wanted to be mediocre,  perhaps you would only put in an hour a week? 

If you haven't read Outliers already, I highly recommend it.  I have decided that I can now call myself a professional reader.  I have put in the 10,000 hours reading aloud by now.  That doesn't stop me from continuing to improve!  Consider this when nature journaling or brush drawing.  Be willing to put in the time and you will see great results! 

My children have improved much quicker than I in brush drawing.  Why?  I wonder if it's because they don't have mental distractions to complete other tasks?  Or is it because it's on their weekly schedule several times a week.  There's my hint.  Schedule the time to do dry brushing. 

more to come...

Dry what? Brush drawing in the Charlotte Mason education Part 1

We've been finding our own way with brush drawing in this house for many years.  I continue to learn.  It gets flung around as "drybrushing" in some circles.  No matter what you call it, the idea of creating an image on paper as a narration of sorts using only a paint brush is called BRUSH DRAWING in the simplest way.

For the past 13+ years of homeschooling my children, we have been slowing trying to incorporate more and more brush drawing and sketching. 

Sketching is done with pencil. It allows for shading with one color OR with the modern invention of inexpensive colored pencils with many colors!  It is one of many ways children narrate in this house.

Brush drawing is done with a brush and one or many colors.  Usually we find watercolors to be the easiest way to have many colors.  If wanting to only use one color, a brush can also provide some depth of colors.  Both with layering more and more paint, or by diluting the color you've picked.

SO how do you begin with Brush drawing?

In the beginning, I don't offer my children expensive paints.  When they are learning to hold a brush and getting more confident, I use the lesser quality brushes.  I don't buy the $.99 kind, but I don't spend hundreds of dollars.  Somewhere in the middle in which the paint is quality and the brushes have to be taught how to be used.

If a child has only been working with crayons and pencils up to this point, the pressure they offer to a brush can easily ruin the tip.  It requires some basic first instructions and much follow up as they learn.   Much time must be spent helping them to have a light hand with a brush.  Encourage acknowledgement of the tip of the brush.

We have practiced touching the top of our hands with our paint brush.  This allows them to feel what the paper might feel.  It's a very gently stroke. Try it.  Take a simple paint brush and use it to brush with no water or paint on the top of your hand.  See if you can keep only the tip of the brush having contact with your hand.  Now try "dry painting" on your neighbors hand.  See if they notice when you push to hard or too light!

We also have experimented with only water in the beginning.  Rice paper allows a child to paint over and over with a wet brush until they see how gentle to be.  This Japanese painting set has been a way to slow a child down and increase their attention span.  The rice paper slowly dries to extinguish the painting.

Here's what we have learned.  Good quality paints are great.  If you are beginning a child on dry brush at age 6, perhaps you can begin with some acceptable paints.  I like to use this one.  Buy quality paper.  But cut it into smaller squares/rectangles.  Trying to brush draw a 8.5 x 11 page is overwhelming (even for this mother).  A 2 inch x 3 inch is much easier to begin.

 

Here are some Parents Review Articles that might help you:
Vol 2, pg 337+
Vol 3, pg 348+
Vol 14, pg. 21+
Vol 14, pg 277+

Mother Culture

Mother Culture is the term that Charlotte Mason used to describe how teaching mothers keep what they are learning for themselves stimulating and fresh.  Of course as mothers teaching the Charlotte Mason way, we are joyful and inspired by the same things our children are...but we have deeper learning to do as well.  There are things this mother has never done that would be fun to do.

Do you find your day of teaching school (or working or being a mother) drudgery?  What are you doing to keep the life of mothering interesting and new?  Are you falling into the groove of just being the same person you were when you graduated from college?

Here's what I do:  READ
3+...I always have at least three different books that I am reading at a time.  I tend towards books that are helpful for parenting, but I try to have at least one novel going at all times.  I enjoy authors Elizabeth Goudge, Rumer Godden, Miss Read to name a few.  I also try to find a specific passage in the bible to read in an ongoing basis.  I also pick one spiritual type book to read alongside our school year.  This year I'm reading Elisabeth Elliots Keeping a Quiet Heart.

So my stack looks like this today:
Bible bookmarked to the gospel of John
China Court  by Rumer Godden
Keeping a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot
The Mindful Child  by Susan Greenland
Ina May's Guide to Childbirth  Ina May Gaskin
Family Cloister by David Robinson and some other Benedictine rule books....

Some of the books I've found inspiring in the past year include: Unbroken by Hillenbrand, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey by Fiona Carnavon, The Bird in the Tree by Goudge, Jungle Pilot by Russell Hitt.

Besides reading, I also try to add some other culture type things to my plate.  We listen to quite a bit of classical music in this house (four violin players), so I am always on the look out for new music that might bring a variety of sound into our home.  With our study of Handel this Term, I'm putting all sorts of things on our play list and humming about as we nest for the baby to come.

I also try to learn new HANDICRAFTS.  I'm spending time working on water coloring.  I do enjoy calligraphy, but can't seem to get children to stay off my lap for my hands to be steady.  I spent time this month with some friends doing Pysanky egg work in anticipation for Easter (yes, already!).  I'm working on a goose egg this time.  It will be an egg in shades of blue and white.

What do you find to grow in your learning as a person?  Are you picking up any new ways of learning for yourself as a mother and wife?

Gingerbread House edition 2011

and the Mother who learns to dry brush...

As we began to incorporate more Charlotte Mason techniques into this homeschool, I introduced nature journals to the students.  This mother has begun to keep one too.   I've tried my hand at pencil drawing and charcoal, watercolor palettes and liquid watercolors,  and new colored pencils that change into watercolors.   It can be hard to decide what medium to take on a nature hike.  But above all it's been a discipline to keep a nature journal going.

In the area where I live, a growing number of mothers meet on a monthly basis to talk about using Charlotte Mason techniques in the home.  In July of 2010 we decided try some Mother Culture of drybrush painting.  We began by watching a DVD by Eve Anderson.  She teaches the children how to observe in nature and then returns them to the classroom to demonstrate the  "dry brush technique" of watercoloring.

So we, too, went out to collect specimens

I found a birch tree similar to the one in my front yard.  A small portion of a branch was collected.  

Then I spent about 10 minutes looking at my branch.  

Determining the colors of green and brown.  

Considering the leaf shape and the vein directions.  

Then I layed my specimen next to my empty sheet of watercolor paper.  

I used a basic set of 8 watercolors.  Basic watercolor brushes.

Upon Eve suggestion, I spent some time mixing the colors to find the correct shade of greens.   She said that the one green color that comes in the set is not a natural green and should not be used.

 I took some yellow and some blue to make these greens. 

To mix the colors, I filled one medium brush with water.  Choosing yellow or blue, I collected a lot of color on the brush.  I moved the color to the side palate of the watercolor container.

 I also added some white and brown.  Each time a color was added I cleaned my brush with water.  

With the basic colors created, I dried my brush on a paper towel and collected the color onto the brush...just a little at a time almost as if the brush was completely dry.  Using small amounts, I put color down onto my dry paper.  

After quite a bit of time I found it much easier to make the colors and shapes that seemed similar to the tree branch.  

You can see at close up that I used some yellow greens and some darker greens to create a shading effect as well as some empty spaces.

We mothers were very pleased that the discipline of learning dry brush painting came as easy as it did.  Now to the discipline of keeping up the practice.... 

this post is also found at educating mother

Let's make some art

We are preparing for our 2nd annual Art Trading Card Swap.  Will you join us?

We had such a fun time doing this last year in May as well as joining in on the All Saints Swap.  

Pysanky Egg Making

a finished egg

reading the directions

laying down some wax with a keiska

dyeing the eggs

more wax, more dying

Candling the wax off.

ETA: Finished eggs from this year (and one in progress)

Artist Study: Michelangelo

So we studied Michelangelo last term.

As with our deepening Charlotte Mason style, I did a lot of reading aloud to the kids.  We had a nice table picture book of his major works.  As I read the chapter book Wings of an Eagle, we could find the works that we learned about.  

We spent time parousing the Sistine Chapel online. 

 We found this site about him full of great info.

The Venezia book was good review for the readers in our family.

We included sketching of parts of the Sistine Chapel or other works by Michelangelo.  The kids put him in their Century books.  

I'm so glad we got to see a traveling exhibit of the Vatican Museums that included a replica of the Pieta.  

Here's a glimpse of one students sketching response to our study.

Artist Trading Card Swap

We participated in a swap for All Souls month.  Well actually only three of us did, but it was great fun!

These are the 5 cards made by the 6 year old boy here.

The cards received by the 6 year old.

Made by the 8 year old girl.

Received by the 8 year old girl.

The cards I made.  

The ones I received.

We really enjoyed thinking about how to covey each saint on a little 2.5 x 3.5 card! It was also great to connect with other homeschooling families and moms this way!

Two of my cards were from these homeschooling moms.  Here and here.

Artist Study: Audubon

We have been studying John James Audubon.  

We loved the picture book about him---The Boy Who Drew Birds. 

We've been visiting a local museum that has an exhibit about him currently.  

This week we memorized a poem about birds:

Do you wonder, do you wonder 

what snow birds find to eat

when seeds are buried 

under scratchy, tiny feet

and branches are all snowy

in the yards along the street?

Shall I tell you, shall I tell you

what snowbirds think a treat

crunchy crumbs and suet

and corn that's cracked and wheat 

and someone at the window 

to be watching while they eat.

Book review: Appleseed Farm

What a great find in this book Appleseed Farm! written in 1948.  Sometimes I find things at antique book stores or used book sales that make me SO happy.
Her book is told as a memory of a grandmother and her experiences on the Prairie.  Through the story of loneliness in the country, she meets Johnny Appleseed and what a gift to the family a bag of seeds can be.  We saw the family grow in it's connection with each other as this story unfolds.

Some side notes:
This book was written by a daughter to Lorado Taft. We had recently seen some sculpture work by him in Chicago at the Garfield Conservatory.   

Upon more research about Mr. Taft, we discovered that he was homeschooled...and then went to the University of IL and finished both a bachelors and a masters there!
His daughter was struck by the conflict in Europe during the 1930's and this propelled her to get involved in politics.  She became a senator (Democratic)for IL.  I'm looking for her other books she wrote.   Mr. Taft has a museum in IL.  We might try to visit it over the winter months.