JFK Students working hard!

Painting, painting, and more painting!

Images Taking shape

There are a about 150 JFK students in grades 2-5 working on the mural project with me. The mural is 32 feet in length and 8 feet high. Students learned how images are enlarged using a grid method. They worked on drawing exercises and practiced enlarging line images on paper while I was enlarging the sketch for the mural on the wall. The students then help me paint in all the areas like a large coloring book. They are doing a great job! Stop back for new photos of our progress.

NEW JFK Mural in Progress

The John F. Kennedy School is getting a new mural this year. I start the process with the students by "brainstorming" what they would like to see in their mural. Many of the character ideas and the park setting for the mural came from the students during these sessions. They also came up with the quote "JFK Golden Rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated" which will be a focal point of the mural. JFK students in grades 2-5 will be helping paint the mural. Many thanks to the OASIS after school program for inviting me back to work with the students this year.

King Street Mural Completed

Here some final pictures of the completed mural at the King Street School.

King Street Mural

I had a great time creating this mural for the King Street School. Students in the OASIS after school program learned how a mural is created, and brush skills as they helped me paint in all the characters. The mural shows a fanciful daytime scene of a park like setting with animals playing instruments, dancing and having fun. The scene changes to NYC at night with all the buildings in bright colors and Lady Liberty in neon green. I tried to incorporate a lot of fun images into the scene which decorates the hallway with grades 3-5 classrooms. I completed the detail work on the mural in July 2011.

Clay heart project!

I love this project because it is really good for very young children. These little hearts were created by Kindergarten students after I did a illustration presentation with them. I use this project to go along with my book "Meet Genna and Russ, The Generous Kids." www.gennarusskids.com The story is about these two little goats who give, care and share and I designed this project to go along with one of the messages of the book, which is "giving makes your heart smile." All you need is some polymer clay in different colors, a heart cookie cutter, rolling pin, wax paper, drinking straw. To make this project: Choose the heart color, roll out clay to 1/4" thickness, cut heart shape with cutter. Put on wax paper, add two little balls of different color clay for eyes, add small coil for mouth. Mix different colors together to make the candy stripe coil that frames the hearts. Use drinking straw to punch hole for string to pass through. Bake according to manufacturer directions in your oven. Enjoy!