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.

Mall Food Court Sketches

Since I had a few minutes (well close to an hour and a half) to spare at the mall food court last weekend, I was able to get a few observation and fantasy sketches done with some of my favorite sketching pencils: Staedtler Mars Technico 780 2 mm leadholders loaded with H, HB, and B graphite leads.



Remember kiddies: "Carry a sketchbook and pencils everywhere you go, so you may take advantage of every opportunity to get some drawing practice you might come across".

How to use a Leadholder for Beginners and doodling videos

Leadholder 101 (2 min video): ok Daniela while you already probably figured out how to use your first leadholder, I often forget that many students have never tried one before since they are no longer a requirement for drafting classes in this Age of Computer Assisted Design. Thus these short videos show how to load a Staedtler 780 Mars Technico 2 mm leadholder with my favorite Uni graphite lead, how to use a rotary lead pointer, the existence of an emergency touch-up lead pointer built-in the push button, and a couple of doodling examples. Notice that for daily use, I prefer to cover the knurled metal grip with a plastic pencil grip for comfort and that I have removed the metal pocket clip to avoid scratching other tools in my sketching kit.
Speed sketching demo 1 is just a quick 2 minutes demo of a warm up doodle page. It is an exercise I often have my students perform at the beginning of a class in order to loosen up and get a feel for the sketching tool chosen for the day.
Speed sketching demo 2 consists of another 2 minutes of me doodling and mumbling at the same time. I promise I'll try to enunciate better on future videos once my braces come off. For now that is my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. Thank you very much Sunny for the helpful feedback.