LittleSketchers

Ever thought of creating your own little gift tags? Well, I did…a while ago…in fact last Diwali. These are easy. You can create variations of your own.
I love using a bold black marker to draw and fill it up with fluorescent  colors. Highlighters serve the purpose. Want to give it a shot?
Here it is…

If you enjoy doodling like I do, this might be a very happy time for you. So create as much as you want, after all gifting is never out of fashion!

The hot sunny summer is here to stay. The kids get bored easily and there is not much to do inside, except watch TV. Why not allow some art in your life. It will be a welcome change. It will initiate an understanding of self. Expressing emotions through art journalling can be very alleviating.

Get yourself and your child a sketchbook or notebook and start by filling up the pages with thoughts and jots.

The children can be prompted to create art journal pages on various topics. They can write and draw about their favorite places, things, people etc. They can also write letters to themselves, jot down their dreams and make visual notes for any of their favorite subjects or topics. Each one can paint a page or two in their favorite color and draw all things associated with that color.

Being involved in art journalling myself, I know how it brings me to a zen like stage. Imagine what it’ll do to the world with a whole lot of individuals doing that. What a happy and healthy place to live in!

Next time you go out with your child and don’t know how to keep him busy, do not pass on your cell phone over to him…there is another creative way of ‘whiling’ away time.

You will enjoy every bit of it. Yes, you need to involve yourself, but in case you cannot it will still work well. Carry a small notebook or better still a sketchbook and a pencil or pen every time you step out!

Yes it works all the time.

Of course your child may not show interest in the start but you have to teach him simple games like the good old tic-tac-toe or join the dots.

Perhaps you will coin a game of your own!! Just like my son did! Cool! Creative! Uplifting! All we did was to write our names one by one in different writing styles each time. The one who came up with the most ‘creative’ styles won! Well, eventually we both were winners, since we were both at our bestest best 😉

It is quite a ‘mental’ excercise…can easily get addictive! LOL!!

Everyone likes to decorate their walls with meaningful art. Art that reflects their taste and style.

Have you ever considered using your child’s art as ‘art’? My wall is full of art by my son and I love to look at all the lovely drawings and paintings he has created, some for me some for his dad and some just for simple, happy smiles for all who visit us from near and far.

Art never seizes to give happiness and pleasure, no matter who created it. Your child will feel so great, so very important if you start ‘collecting’ his art. You can get it framed in various colors complementing the drawings. Some black and white sketches look best with black frames. When my son was very little, he had a fascination for airplanes, he drew all shapes and sizes. I got them all framed in black, tiny frames that looked awesome when all put together. Consider using bright frames, like red…but keep it thin, so that it looks more like an ‘outline’ than a frame.

Each time I look at my wall, well…his wall…it brings back fond memories, his tiny voice fills my ears…for all the zillion reasons he made what he made. I especially love the flowers he made just for me. They will always bring me oodles of bliss…

I highly recommend framing your child’s art. You will love it. And imagine how much it will boost his self esteem. Your little artist needs a wall of his own! Go ahead, give him one…maybe two…why not?

A very interesting word indeed!

The moment you think of it, a whole lot of images pop in your mind. It gets filled up with ‘patterns’. You step out of your home, notice your gate and that of the neighbors. The tiles along the roadside, the fences and the trellises. The flowers, the trees. The birds and the bees. Aren’t these all made up of patterns? Oh, yes!

Anywhere you go, you are bound to find a pattern. And yes, inside you as well…we humans follow patterns too, patterns in our behavior and patterns in our thinking.

A pattern may be organic or geometrical. Draw some basic shapes and let your child fill in the colors. See what beautiful art emerges. Each one so amazing and so vibrant! Before you know you have some lovely pieces for your walls.

Help your child discover patterns in everyday life. They might also start noticing and perhaps correcting the patterns in their own behaviors as well. And you might too…

Small children love to tear paper, any paper. Important or not so important. They just like to rip!

Well, if you join in, you might enjoy it too. Is it the sound, is it the feeling or is it the only thing that comes to mind when they see paper? Hard to tell, unless you ask. Hard to tell, unless you get the right answer.

Tearing the paper, releases stress. I asked my son why he likes to tear paper. He usually tears it around a drawing, so that it forms the shapes he has drawn out. He told me once that he tears it so that it looks more ‘real’, perhaps he meant more organic and natural. He likes to draw a lot. He sometimes draws out forms of animals, birds, cars and a lot of more, on torn sheets of paper.

The forms are derived from the shape of the tear. One torn paper might look like a penguin, while the other seems like a snake. It is a creative exercise, no doubt. It is a lot like watching the clouds and imagining the shapes 🙂 Wait, I just spotted a smiley up there!!

There are several activities around torn paper that you can do with your child too. Tearing paper is good for fine motor skills. Take newspaper, take color sheets, take any paper, just tell them to tear to their heart’s content. After they are done, they can draw out shapes on another sheet of paper and then paste these torn bits on it. Before you know, you will have a whole lot of art waiting to be framed. Creative and original. Tearing can be so much fun!

Just came across this interesting terminology while doing my research on Art and it’s impact on our brain. Well, to tell you the truth, I have been quite obsessed with this topic lately…

Zentangle — a type of meditation achieved through pattern-making, created by artist duo Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts. Each pattern is built one line at a time, organically combining simple patterns into complex zentangles in unplanned, unexpected ways that grow, change and unfold on the page as you enter an immersive state of flow.

As kids, as teenagers and also as adults we sometimes doodle, aimlessly, sometimes to while away time, and some times just for the sake of doodling…maybe we can’t think of anything better to do. For whatever reason we do it, our brain seems to ‘like’ it and enjoy it. It feels like we have entered the state of flow.

A research proves that people who doodle retain 29% more information than those who don’t!!

To start with, you can take up an alphabet or any simple shape. Your kids will enjoy it too, it’s like decorating their initials 🙂

Try your hand at it, you may or may not find your ‘flow’. But there is a chance and a strong one I must say that you might feel good and relaxed…

Feel free to share your zentangles with us.

You might have often swayed along a song. Danced and maybe even hummed along…but have you ever sketched along a song??

Perhaps, if you are an artist, maybe! Just try it once…you will enjoy it and so will your Little Sketcher!!

Here is a sweet melodious sketch that Tejjas ‘made along a song’!! Oh! What fun! Thoroughly rejuvenating 🙂 We played the song once, we played it twice, we re-played it zillions of time, in fact it is still on as I write…

What a wonderful worrrrld!

I see trees of green…red roses too,
I see em bloom…for me and for you,
And I think to myself…what a wonderful world!!

I see skies of blue…clouds of white,
Bright blessed days…dark sacred nights,
And I think to myself…what a wonderful world!!

They say, a picture is worth a thousand words!

Our brains process and remember information by linking. Pictures help ‘link’ and connect, help us in retaining much more than would words…learning within the brain is done by linking ideas, questions, words and pictures in huge inter-connecting branches and webs.

My son, like any preschooler his age gets confused between b and d…so today we took some help from good old ‘art’!! And I must admit, it did come to the rescue 🙂

Here is our version of a boy with b and d as his two eyes! And yes, he remembers now!!

If there are any such tools that you have used or intend using, feel free to share…

This is a fun weekend activity that you can do with your kids. Start with drawing some buildings, trees, cars, buses on cardboard. Or you can also draw on paper, and then stick that to cardboard. You will find your own way through the process…I enjoy cutting out empty cornflakes cartons whenever I can lay my hands on one. Let your kids do the drawing and they can also paint what they create.

For amazing templates and inspiration, you can visit Joel’s Blog

Every city has its own amazing landmarks and a spirit that is truly its own…
This can turn out to be quite an exciting project, children can learn to identify places and landmarks. You can also take a tour of the city with them on a weekend…and re-live old memories.

Enjoy!