Meet the Giba Monster!

Illustrating the Middle Ages

Jon was working from home yesterday, and to take advantage of the extra adult at home Calvin decided he wanted to stay home while I went to the library to do the Monday sorting in the sale room. I left him with task of drawing castles, and for the whole hour I was gone he was busy at it.

Castle with battlements, inset picture shows same castle from slightly farther away.

Castle under attack by a catapult.

Diagram of the inside of a castle tower, with decorative plants and a spiral staircase. He drew this one to be made into a cylinder, as seen below.

King on throne inside castle, with artwork hanging on wall.

A balance scale, and it looks like there's either a person or a duck on the right side so this very much makes me think of Monty Python's witch weighing in the Holy Grail.

And my very favorite. I love this picture. A knight riding up to the castle drawbridge (closed) with sword and shield and the visor on his helmet down. He's a little hard to see here because both he and the horse or a sort of neon yellow, but I love him.

Writing and illustrating

It was towards the end of a particularly difficult day (chores, bad weather, snuffles) that Calvin up and declared he was going to write a poem and illustrate it. When he finished I suggested that he write a story about the same topic to feel the difference in composition. He illustrated that as well, and the next day he proceeded to write more poem and story combos with fun illustrations. I love this new found confidence not just in writing, but in creating.

The A, A, B, A down the left side is his plan for the rhyming scheme.

Note that the pig is clearly singing. *love

As he was drawing this one he made a line for the mat and told me that he knew that was how a mat would look from the side, but he wanted people to be able to see the pattern on the mat so he was drawing "a different perspective." *more love

I am linking this to the wonderful Saturday's Artist.

Africa exploration art

We spent a lot of time exploring Africa this week. Between atlases, dedicated books, BBC and National Geographic videos, and the help of YouTube, we've been to a number of places. Calvin was the instigator of this foray, and his interests led us from Victoria Falls (between Zambia and Zimbabwe, he'll tell you) through the savanna on up to Mt. Kenya and the Great Rift Valley. We learned a lot about the animals and a bit about the land. It never fails to amaze me how much information a little guy can swallow up while still being hungry for more.

It is Saturday, meaning it's Artist day at Ordinary Life Magic, and because we explored Africa with our pencils, crayons and paint at hand, Calvin has a lot to share this week.

We started with the biomes, and exploration pictures of each one.

Then it was elephants. That's who he wanted to see a lot of on his trip through Africa, so he drew an awful lot of them.

Then giraffes, and lions, too.

We listened to music and enjoyed colors and clothing and ornaments traditional to a number of south and east African populations, and we really enjoyed reading a number of different African folk tales, or Anansi stories. This is really where our week began, since it was our trip to a play of African folk tales last Friday that launched our recent safari. An Anansi book we got from the library had torn and cut paper art illustrations, so we tried that, too.

I think this was my favorite art "moment" from the week, though. Early on Calvin requested a return of the paints and the week long painting project. I am very glad that our first experiment with that went well enough to elicit a requested return. He spent the week working out a landscape painting of the savanna. With an elephant, of course.

There are still many more projects up our sleeves, and because we're having such a great time with Africa I think we'll decide to skip the flight home and spend another few days, maybe a week...maybe more. I'd like to make African masks, and Calvin want to learn more about Egypt. Maybe we'll make pyramids. With rain, sleet, and snow outside right now, the the rainforest is also pretty appealing.

More posts on our African "travels" can be found in the journal.

Sick day–art in bed

A sore throat, a sore head. A bed piled high with armfuls of favorite books and art supplies. An entire afternoon with no phone, no distractions, just books, imaginations, and snuggles. We read book after book and created our own illustrations for them. We spent the entire afternoon right there, book after book, picture after picture. I was tired and achy and this was a better way than I could ever have imagined to spend the afternoon, having fun together and still getting the requisite rest.

Time Flies

Great Lakes Great Ships

We spent a good hour with the D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants (now their Book of Norse Myths)

And because we're going to see African Sky on stage tomorrow, Bringng the Rain to Kapiti Plain.

And of course we couldn't forget our newest Oz, The Scarecrow of Oz.

I'm linking to Saturday's Artist at Ordinary Life Magic. I love the virtual parade of art there.