Past Classes for Home School Students
held at the Workshop at Holcomb Farm
Here are the latest watercolors from Homeschool Art. We drew our images on large watercolor paper, and added one main color. We learned how to do a background wash. More will be done in the next 2 weeks.
The photos we used for reference are from my vast file of 8 x 10 prints. Some are from calendars (the cat) and the bridge above, is from my sister's boat adventure to New York City! |
Here are the lovely tree studies we worked on for the first day of watercolor. I find that painting trees is both the easiest to do and the hardest thing, since there is such variety in the shapes and thickness of the branches. The students learned to control a flat brush and turn it to make thinner strokes, like calligraphy.
We have a nice range of ages, from 7 to 19 in this group, and everyone seemed to enjoy this exercise.
And now on to color...
We have a nice range of ages, from 7 to 19 in this group, and everyone seemed to enjoy this exercise.
And now on to color...
Most of the students followed the directions to NOT put the sky in the painting this time, so they could concentrate on the colors and shapes of the foliage.
But where there is paint, there is art, so we have an interesting color study from our 7 year old on the left. |
These are a few steps of the bobcat artwork. Pencil, watercolor, charcoal and pastel all combine to get the layered, textured look.
Spring Teen Class 2017First time ever, we drew a portrait of a homeschool mom. You are brave, Wendi. Usually 5 here, plus the instructor makes 6. The small group did great, a calm relaxed atmosphere to sketch, chat, and listen to music.
For a warm up we drew vegetables, with a 1 or 2 minute time limit. It was fun and we really got to know the pepper, garlic, onion, and potato. Here are some of the portraits, mostly not finished. This one is done, by Ashely, she works fast. |
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Teen Drawing Class
Two New Homeschool Art Classes for Fall 2017. More classes and workshops to come.
Creative Painting on Slate and Rocks. The first in a series of 3-D art projects for homeschool kids ages 7-13. Friday Sept 22, 2017. 10:30 am - 11:30 am at The Workshop at Holcomb Farm. Make a colorful scene, design, or sign on a lasting piece of real slate, about 7 x 10 inches. Some are odd shapes requiring a creative mind. I will show a few easy ideas and some complex ones too. (I like to paint birds, you can paint any creature or design) If time, also paint a small smooth rock that you bring. You can place the rock out at Holcomb Farm as part of the Granby Rocks craze, or keep it for yourself, a gift, or your own yard. You may want to bring in a sketch of your ideas so you can get started! Other workshops to follow later in October. Fee: $15 per student. Using permanent acrylic paint, please wear clothing that doesn’t care. I will have some smocks. Class size limits 12.
Please e-mail me to save your spot. Send to: suzanneroz@att.net Drawing for Teens - Sept. 29- Oct. 13Drawing Class for Homeschool Teens ages 14 and up. A series of 3 classes at The Workshop at Holcomb Farm, West Granby: Friday Sept 29, Oct 6, and 13th. 10:30 am -12 noon. $60 for 3 classes plus $10 materials fee. Charcoal, pencil and conte crayon will be used for still life and human figure drawings with a clothed model. This drawing class helpful for taking the upcoming teen painting/pastel class planned for November.
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Paint on Slate - Sept. 22, one class only. |
Faces in Profile: 5 brave artists drew their face or that of a realistic sculpture.
Why are some smudgy? We started the drawings with powdered graphite applied with a Q-Tip. Details were added with pencil. So much fun, one student continued the process with the owl drawing too!
Take a look at the shells we drew with pencil. Shading was added to show depth and also to show their patterns.
We drew faces, both self portraits and eachother.
For the second class, we painted colorful flowers! Take a look...
Our first class of 2017 at The Workshop, and we drew flowers. (first we made them)
Class at EGPL ages 4-6
Fall 2016 Drawing and PaintingOur last day of 6 classes, and it was a busy one. Some had not done the still life drawing, and one finished her watercolor, others drew leaves for a warm up. Then there was the wall shape drawing practice, a new thing we will be doing. So much fun too! Then most chose an animal from the collection and drew it then added color too. We all needed to finish up today, so lots of projects going on. Hope you enjoy them.
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Two older students drew still lifes. See more below. They were looking for shadows and shading, plus getting the forms of the objects in relation to eachother. Pastel on colored paper and charcoal on white paper.
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Sketchbook Assignment: Continuous Line Drawing
These are examples of a line drawing that continues without picking up the pen, yes pen not pencil. It does not have to be the whole room, but something you see in the room. It should have a look of bent wire since you have to go back over things and squiggle back and forth to continue. Have fun with this, don't plan it out or think too much. Just see what happens! It can have an unfinished look like these do. |
We started with pencil sketches in the scetchbooks to plan our animal drawings. Then we moved to bigger paper...
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Our first Homeschool art class of fall at the Workshop, and we drew owls.
New Class starts October 7th at the Holcomb Farm Workshop
Fridays from 11 am -12 noon at Holcomb Farm Workshop Room, West Granby, CT.
5 weeks, with a make up week at end if you miss a class. Cost: $85.
Sibling discount, $10 per child. For ages 8- 18. Two levels will be addressed, and we learn from each other too. Contact me at "contact" page or e-mail.
October 7 - November 11 (extra day). Drawing and painting. Limit 15 students.
5 weeks, with a make up week at end if you miss a class. Cost: $85.
Sibling discount, $10 per child. For ages 8- 18. Two levels will be addressed, and we learn from each other too. Contact me at "contact" page or e-mail.
October 7 - November 11 (extra day). Drawing and painting. Limit 15 students.
Last class in May, and we drew barns, trees, and brick ovens outside!
(Note: More artwork to come, updating website from Vermont today...) We had 13 students outside on May 13th, the last class of the 6 new classes held at The Workshop at Holcomb Farm! This was the make-up class since almost everyone missed a day or 2. It was finally a perfect day to draw outside. We could see the barns, trees, and especially the flatbread oven. We used dark B pencils and then added our watercolor pencils for color. Some used water and a brush to create a painted look, while others kept the pencil strokes. Nice work everyone!
It's spring, we drew and painted real live flowers!
Then we added pastel for some color.
It was a cold rainy day, so we looked at a photograph of this barn. It was projected from the computer so we all could see and learn about perspective.
In this class we did a warm up of sketching a vase of branches. Then we learned about continuous line drawings, as you see the students doing here. They could either draw their hand or their shoe. Another option was the large pine cone, and even the kleenex box was something to draw. Never a dull moment...
Everyone loves to draw birds!
Student Art in the E.G.P.L. Art Show
Ted won First Place in the ages up to 7 year olds category with his colorful dragon painting. He did this on his own at home.
This prize is a gift certificate to Necker's Toys in Simsbury! Right: Willa added color to her bird drawing done in the painting class, and the frame finishes it off nicely. So think about entering next year if you have not. And parents, it does help to frame the work. Below: 4 teen entries, the first one from Elise who was in the spring home-school art class. The last 2 are from Ashley, a private lessons art student. |
Homeschool Art Fall 2015
Second class, faces and profiles.
In our second class, the girls drew faces using these Native American Heads that I had gotten years ago from a friend when I worked at Holcomb Farm. The students drew some in profile and some full face views, using Conte Crayons on grey paper.
We also looked at the famous pastel artist Mary Cassatt. (yes this will be on the quiz) who specialized in faces. She mostly drew and painted mothers and babies.
We also looked at the famous pastel artist Mary Cassatt. (yes this will be on the quiz) who specialized in faces. She mostly drew and painted mothers and babies.
Animals paintings and drawings: ages 8-12
First Class, Fall 2015. Still Life with Peppers. Ages 12-17.
Ages 12-17, below, working on the still life with peppers.
Ages 8-12, below, working on their leaf observation skills, plus a dash of creativity!
We drew and then watercolored real growing pansies and also a bright ping peony that looks real. One that is unfinished is getting worked on over the break. Nice use of color, everyone, and good proportion too.
You can see the smiling faces of the artists in the middle of their flower paintings, just below.
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Drawing and Painting our pets.
Watercolor scenes from our third class together.
We used photos from a Granby farm and an apple tree in a Vermont field, and learned how to put in a wet-on-wet sky, as well as more controlled (and very expressive) trees. SomeS
Here is everyone hard at work. We really spread out doing watercolors, since we are using large paper taped to a foam core board, and tubes of paint arranged on a palette, plus the photo image on a stand for viewing. All 8 students are here, one more is at the counter just out of the photo.
We love this room because it has a sink and an easy to clean floor, plus 2 big windows for natural light. Then we used the conference room down the hall to spread out and show off our finished paintings. |
Next week we will be working on animals, preferably our own pets but they could be any type of animal really. One student got a jump on next weeks assignment since she finished the watercolor landscape in one class. Here is the fox she drew and colored using our watercolor pencils.
I always bring in realistic animal models to draw from for students to sketch when they finish the main project. It's a nice way to do observational drawings and fine tune some of the difficult animal anatomy. Others like to draw from their imagination, or to practice their cartooning skills, and that's ok too. |
Below you can see the GESTURE DRAWINGS the students did using oil pastel and bigger paper. We looked at branches to see their shapes and movement. It was a nice way to get the art-side-of-the-brain in gear, and be ready to draw the complex bird shapes. Nice job everyone!
Next art class at East Granby Public Library: Starts Friday, February 13.
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Using reference photos of birds, the students looked for the shapes and forms. Then they added the values of darks and lights they saw using the B pencils. We have a wide range of ages and abilities, yet each one used their observational skills and conveyed the unique type of bird.
Nice work everyone!
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Our first ever jewelry class at E.G.P.L. !
Homeschool Art on Fridays At the E.G.P.L
Fall Artwork: animals, landscape and portraits.
Here everyone is working quietly. The scribbles on the wall are not ours, the library
does programs for toddlers. I always bring in extra art materials, in case someone really likes colored pencils instead of pastels or paint. We have one main assignment, then once that is done and up on the board, the student can do a free draw. |
FACES!
We finally tried drawing faces. To start, we traced photos that you see here on the board. Our theme was "star wars" but we used other pictures too. Once we traced, it helped us to see shapes and the spacing of features. Some went on to shade the tracing too. Then we drew a face on good paper and colored it in. Some kept to just the head, some showed more of the figure. |
Homeschool Art- Fun on Fridays at the E.G.P.L. !This project was based on the story quilts of Faith Ringgold. We like the way she used colorful patterns in the border and a main image of people in the center. So we used cut paper for the border and watercolor to tell our own story, whether real or just for fun.
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Above are two examples of our first warm-up, also known as a gesture drawing. We work fast and try to get the shape and movement of what we see, without erasing or planning.
Most students chose to draw from the photos I brought in of cats, dogs and horses. Students worked at observing the proportions of body parts to create somewhat realistic looking animals.
Some added things such as a rider or a pattern of flowers, while others concentrated on the main image. This was the first time many had used chalk pastels. |
We did drawings from models of ducks and other water birds. (A few chose to do other things, like a horse or a boat). Then we drew in a background from out imagination, and painted with watercolor to complete a scene. Some used a wet on wet technique, while others used more of a dry brush (at left) for more control.
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This painting of a swan family stood out. Notice how there are patterns of flowers in the back ground, wave patterns in the water. Also the smaller swans seem to be leaning forward, trying hard to keep up. It really tells a story and is fun to look at.I will feature one drawing or painting from each class on the website, since we don't have time for a lengthy critique at the end of class.
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