My characters, Beep and Bob, go to school in space. Up in space school, you can always look out the windows at the infinite wonders of the universe. But that can get pretty boring after a few minutes. So what to do?Beep’s answer is: ART! Beep loves to draw and always carries a sketchbook. But he also likes the lessons from his art class. Sadly, they don’t paint or use glue much in zero gravity, but even with simple materials like white paper, pencils, crayons and/or markers, there are a universe of possibilities for fun and creativity!

For those times you’re home and looking for some fun art ideas, I’m going to share some of my successful lessons from my 21 Earth years so far as an art teacher. Hope you have a blast!

Art with Words #1

Words are used for writing and speaking. But did you know that words can also an element of visual art?

Beep really, really likes to write his name. But he really, really, really likes to make it fancy and colorful. You can, too. Here’s how:

1. Write your name with a pencil in the center of the page. The letters can be uppercase or lower, block or bubble, straight or squiggly; it’s your art and personality, have fun! 2. Trace around your name, to make the word into a shape. 3. Now trace around the shape of your name; and do it again, and again, and again, until you hit the edges of the page.

4. Now it’s time for color and patterns. Markers are fun to use for this, but you can also use crayons or colored pencils. First, trace your name and fill with a regular (a/b, a/b/c, etc.) or random pattern. 5. Trace the concentric shapes. 6. Fill those with colorful patterns, too!

7. Keep going until you fill the page. Looks pretty awesome, right?!

Note that the patterns do not have to be “perfect”, pencil lines can show, and so on. Art is very flexible that way! Also, if you only have a pencil, black and white art can be pretty cool too (I’ll do a post on pencil art later).

Once you’ve done your name, try other styles with other words or phrases: your favorite teams, characters, or – hint, hint – even subjects you like (such as this example by a 4th grader):

Always be creative and have a blast!!

Beep says Yay to you!

Next up: How to make art with hundreds and hundreds of words!