Some of the live caricatures drawn at the Art Festival

My live caricature tent at the Downtown Naples Festival of the Arts.
View from the models' chairs.
Brought my set of 30 Faber Castell Albrecht Durer aquarelle sticks as a convenient source of watercolor.
The base skin tone was laid down with PanPastel Red Iron Oxide Tint. The light facial shading for this sample ninja cartoon was colored with Derwent Graphitint. Before and after blending with a waterbrush.
This Jedi portrait was also colored, but only managed to photograph it in its black and white stage.
At most events with children in attendance, the mermaid portrait is a common favorite of young girl models. We also had an angel and a mermaid-fairy portrait requests, but things were too busy at the time to get a picture of them.
I really enjoyed drawing this particular caricature, for the originality of the request and degree of input provided by this young model that loves parrots.

Making Holiday Cards int he After School Program

With a selection of blank coloring cards and assortment of coloring tools the students had a chance to start building their collections of greeting cards for the upcoming holidays.
Coloring with Crayola Super Tip Markers and Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils.

Lead teachers monitoring a group of students as they try out the coloring tools and card templates.
Some whimsical coloring choices.
Coloring with Derwent Watercolour pencils and using some of the finished samples for reference.
Watercolor pencils used dry.
Sprinkle of glitter for finishing touches.

Spending an afternoon doing art with my Nieces

Had the chance to conduct a few art activities with my nieces during the weekend.
Reference shot.
While using dry media, the girls drew and colored in the living room.
Finished butterfly drawing.
Tackling the Sketchbook Scavenger Hunt Project that I have been using in November with 6-8 grade students.
Also wanted to see what Nicole might do with the references I have been using at the Middle School After School program this past week.
Quite impressed that a second grader could draw this illustrations at the first try by simply studying the reference materials that we had on hand.
Fashion design has been a popular subject lately.
We moved to the kitchen, so the girls could use the potentially messier watercolor kits
Picking some color from the pre-moistened Faber Castell Aquarelle Sticks.
Doodling a puppy in a Cachet watercolor sketchbook.
Just finished replicating the coloring pattern of the sample turtle.
Both girls were quite happy to try my newest watercolor kit.
Camila making another happy heart.
Ta-da! it's finished.
One happy Tulip girl.
Drawing additional coloring outlines with a Staedtler Mars Technico 780 2 mm leadholder.
Wiping the waterbrush clean on a paper towel.
Doing watercolor pieces is always a big hit with the girls. Just make sure you protect the table from accidental spills and remind the kids to properly wash and rinse their brushes. The Sakura Koi Pocket Field Sketch Box proved to be quite efficient and a likable coloring kit for both of them. Colors were quite bright and pans readily release saturated washes.

Spending Quality Time with Tato

Spent the last few days with my nephew in North Carolina. Here he is trying to make Origami planes.
Watermelon break.
Made these custom coloring sheets for Mateo given his love for trucks.
Used my trusty sets of Faber Castell Pitt Artist pens to color a few pop-up card backdrops for Tato's playtime. This one was done right after watching "Clash of the Titans" which turned out to be a pretty entertaining movie.
Every morning a couple of new pop-up cards would be waiting at the breakfast table.

"Oh no! no more filling left!", and Tio Pork Bun already finished the other two buns.
Checking out the dragon pen we found at Target.
Doodling with the ballpoint pen.
Enjoying my travel set of Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watersoluble crayons.
Coloring some truck drawings.
Train ride at the park.
Taking a Faber Castell Albrecht Durer watercolor pencil for a spin.
So long as they are non-toxic, I have no qualms about sharing my artist grade art supplies with the little one. Of course one must remain alert to avoid accidental staining of the surrounding area. Keep in mind though that once you get kids to appreciate the performance of artist materials, they might come to prefer them over the more inexpensive kid grade tools. I would recommend keeping the good stuff at home and using the easily replaceable more affordable stuff in take-along travel kits

Observations on the Crayola Watercolor Colored Pencils Classpack

Having reviewed the Crayola watercolor pencils already, we'll just take note of a couple of details on this sturdy classpack box. According to the labeling, the pencils were manufactured in Brazil with reforested woods and contain no tropical rain forest wood. There is also a warning that some of the pencils contain colorants that might stain.
To save class time and facilitate their distribution and collection, I bound each set of 12 pencils with rubber bands. So we ended with 20 individual coloring sets in each classpack box.
The bottom of the classpack box features a handy Color Wheel that works well as a teaching aid for explaining color theory, primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors, and how to select complementary colors for maximum visual impact.
One of the main advantages of using watercolor pencils is that they provide a pretty effective painting experience while minimizing the potential for accidental spills. All the colors could be applied dry before having to use a water loaded brush to blend them. With their water solubility and washability, we were able to use these Crayola pencils at the library without problems.
We had a few coloring template options for the students to practice with their new water soluble tools.
Some picked animal coloring templates.
Many of the girls chose to work on the mermaid coloring template.
Some of the students supplemented their color options with custom palettes made by scribbling Faber Castell aquarelle sticks on scraps of paper.
With colors left dry.
With colors partially blended with a wet brush.
The students seemed to enjoy their first session with the Crayola watercolor pencils, so we'll continue to keep them as a coloring option through the rest of their cartooning course.