Jellyfish Bloom

Time for another freeform! This time my 4 year old drew freeform and I turned it into an underwater ocean scene, called "Jellyfish Bloom." We apparently have an ocean theme going now. :)

I love finding little shapes and putting together a scene. It's getting harder for her to do freeform, since over this summer she has evolved to be able to draw intricate scenes involving concrete objects, but she still has it in her and we will keep having fun! I love the contrast of yellow/orange with blue, and the first thing that jumped out at me from her freeform were the jellyfish, so that's how it got its name.

Turning scribbles on watercolor paper into a lively scene

It's been an intense week of work, and I needed to unwind my brain. I found a way to do it - a new collaborative art project with my girls!

My latest project with my 4 year old (and hopefully soon with my 2 year old!) was to have her scribble free-form on a large watercolor paper, and then to see a scene emerge, and paint in the details. She scribbles, I paint. She's in this interesting space right now where she can draw animals/shapes etc really well, but she's still able to draw very freeform and in a non-object oriented way when tasked to do so. It's a little harder for adults - we're so trapped in our minds of regular shapes and relationships. It's a great exercise in freeing the brain!

So, I asked her to draw freeform on watercolor paper (we used a water-based black ink):

When she was done, I had a look and within 5 seconds saw a "sea scene" emerge - I saw the big circle as a setting sun, I saw fish, even a little swan at the bottom. Sails of a boat. Another whale in the distance. Birds in the sky. And so I painted it in - she wanted the whale on the lower left to be purple. :) And so we have, "Whales at Sunset":

And here's how they look side by side: 

She was so excited with the result, she wanted to do another one right away... so I'm sure we'll be doing more of these. It was very fun and fulfilling for both of us! 

Collaborative painting/drawing

I've started a new project with my girls - collaborative art. It's been a wonderful way to deeply relax (engage other neural pathways) while connecting and collaborating creatively. We all enjoy the results and have so much fun working together.

Our first project was "painting drawings". My 4 year old drew a lovely peacock, and I was inspired to paint a copy of it.

Children aren't bound to rules of symmetry and "the way things should be." It's ok and lovely in her mind for the wings to be asymmetric in shape, size, and pattern. And next, a cheetah:

I could never have created such a character-filled cheetah on my own. the asymmetric of the ear sizes, the arms, the legs, the shape of the head. I'm tempted to turn these drawings/paintings into a stuffed animal!

Looking forward to more of these adventures to come.