Mother and Child

Now that Christmas is over, I can post the Christmas project we did in my art classes this year. The kids made these for their parents. The art that I adapted for this project was on the front of our Dec. devotional. The last photo shows the cover art by J. Kirk Richards. Prints are avaliable at http://www.jkirkrichards.com/.

I loved the modern yet traditional look of this artwork. I copied the lines through tracing paper, and decided on which shapes would be light and which would be dark. The faces and hands were a second color.
Students recieved copies to color in with prismacolor pencils. Each student chose a main color to use on the whole composition. The indicated dark areas were colored in darkly and densely with their chosen color. The indicated light areas were colored in lightly with the same color as the dark, or colored in then colored over with white colored pencil to achieve a lighter shade. You could also color the light areas first with white and then color over that with the chosen dark color. The idea was to use pressure and blending to create shades of the same color effectively in a composition. Skin color was chosen and colored. Some shading could be added to the faces and hands, if desired. Black pencil was used to outline all lines when done.To finish, I added glue and fine glitter in a "halo" on each baby.
Since these were going to be gifts, I had to mount or frame them somehow, on a budget. I finally settled on thick mounting board, cut to size and painted black with acrylic paints. I used spray-on, re-positional glue to mount them. When all was dry, I sprayed the fronts with two thin coats of acrylic spray to seal and protect. The edge of the mounting board was then covered with black ribbon (hot glued on), and the hanger was a bit of ribbon with a tack through the back. This way the picture could be hung or the hanger could be removed if the picture was to be leaned on a shelf.