Scratch Art

 Monday was Art Experience class again. E loved this one. You could tell he was quite immersed in it because he had black finger paint marks all over his face by the end.

They did scratch art. The best way to describe it is like one of my Blue Apron meals. So much work to get to a beautiful final result. You would just never think that all the "prep" is so difficult. But it's a tedious process to get them to come out so good.

The teacher had them help separate a fall color palate of cray-pas out of the container they were in. Vibrant reds, golds, orange, pink, blues, greens, etc. Using watercolor (heavyweight) paper, a design is made and colored in with the craypas. You have to press REALLY hard with the craypas and cover every spot of the design. They drew a leaf on their papers and then colored it in. The colors of the craypas also need to be blended almost in an ombre look.

When the colors are brought to the surface you want them to look nice, not like a mish-mash, so you have to be careful what you put underneath and how you do it.

After they were done with the leaf drawing and coloring in, they covered their whole paper in black tempera paint. I assume that's how E got it all over his face like giant black whiskers. I saw the teacher use a dryer to dry the black paint quicker. I don't know if that's what you always do for this kind of medium or they were on a time constraint. I'm also going to assume some of the kids used a thicker layer of black paint than others. Or that was meant to be on there!!

They then took what looked like orange sticks- like for doing a manicure, to make their design on top of the black paint. This is where the colors come through. The sticks have both flat and pointy ends to make different designs. They were to make their leaf and then do designs within their leaves. Some of what I saw from these five to nine year olds looked professional.

The Mommy & Me class did this next door also. They just did it on an easier level. But theirs were pretty too!

If you don't see a class on the schedule but think you can pull together 3-4 kids to take one, they'll make a class for you! Just ask!

Drawing Room
27 Central Ave, Midland Park, NJ 07432
(201) 447-7272
http://drawingroomllc.com