I asked these students to judge the art show for several reasons. One reason is that these girls are very responsible and I knew I could count on them to do a good job. Another reason, I knew the three would take on the task in a serious manner. Thirdly I knew they had the ability to critique and judge the art work because of their experience in the Visual Art Scholastic Event, often called VASE, which is held once a year in Texas.

I have been very fortunate to teach all three of these lovely young women. Kimberlie is a Freshman and is in the drumline in the Navasota High School band. She loves art and especially music. Marissa is a Sophomore and has loved art since she was a little girl. She feels it is a way to express what she is feeling. Marissa thinks everybody is an artist in their own way. Aubrey is a Senior and will be continuing her studies at the University of Texas in Austin. She is an exceptional photographer and has an eye for the unusual in everyday settings. Thank you girls for judging this show for me.

Now we get down to what you have been waiting for. So, here goes:

5 to 8 years old:

First Place

Graceanne - 6 - My Blue Boat

First place goes to Graceanne for My Blue Boat. Congratulations!!!! The judges really liked your use of color and blending. They also enjoyed the abstract feel of the art work. Good job.

Second Place

Grayson - 8 - Stray Cats and the Briar Thicket

Our second place award goes to Grayson for his Stray Cats and the Briar Thicket. The judges felt the detail and color in the cats was very well done. They also loved the expression of the cats’ faces!

9 to 13 years old:

First Place

Rebecca - 12 - Nature Path

The first place award goes to Rebecca for Nature Path. Some of the judges comments are: “This painting has everything: rhythm, color, depth, value and is very beautiful as well. I’m blown away.” “The detail is amazing and all the colors, values, and textures make the painting come alive.” “I love everything about this painting!” Congratulations Rebecca!

Second Place

Rebecca - 12 - Turkish Woman

Second place also goes to Rebecca. She did a pencil drawing titled Turkish Woman. Comments: “Wonderful values. Detail in the headpiece is beautiful. Fantastic job.” Keep up the wonderful work!

14 through 18 years old:

First Place

Jerah - 14 - Love Never Fails

Our First Place award goes to Love Never Fails by Jerah. The judges were impressed with the meaningful and emotional feeling of the composition. Great use of value also!

Second Place

Luci - 14 - Love Collage

The Second Place award goes to Luci for her Love Collage. The judges felt that the words added a nice touch to the composition. They liked the variety and pattern as well.

People’s Choice Award

Grayson - 8 - Stray Cats and the Briar Thicket

The People’s Choice Award goes to the artwork that receives the most votes by Art For Homeschool readers. Voting has been going on for the last few weeks. We had 47 voters give their opinion. Thanks to all that took the time to vote. Voting was a great contribution to this art show. I know it was a difficult choice to make with all the wonderful original art work entered in the show.

This May, our People’s Choice winner is Grayson with his Stray Cats and the Briar Thicket. Congratulations Grayson for a great drawing with so much personality.

If you are a first place award winner for May 2012, you will be receiving an email from me in the next few days to get your physical address. I need that address so I can tell Dick Blick Art Materials where to mail the award gift certificates. Dick Blick has been kind enough to donate to our show for the last two years. Hard to believe the show has been around that long.

Thank you to all the participants and parents that helped make this online show possible. I really appreciate all of you for your contribution. I hope you all enjoyed the show. The next deadline will be August 1.

Here is the link to all the information you will need: 2012 Cover Contest. There are specific requirements for the image size that you upload so be sure you follow all the guidelines. There is a $250 prize along with making the cover of the magazine. Tell your friends and family to share this information with any students they may know. Tweet it, put it on Facebook, etc.

I emailed editor, Kellie Houx, to ask if homeschool students could participate. She said that Creative Outlook Magazine would love to include homeschool students in the show. So come on homeschool high school students, get your entries in.

Note: There is also a performance contest you can look into on the Creative Outlook Magazine website. Check it out.

These kids are definitely artists. I am so proud of their work and that I can showcase it here at Art For Homeschool! Thank you parents and students for making this show happen. I certainly could not do it without you and your art. Another “Thank you” goes to Dick Blick for donating the gift certificates for the First Place awards.

Once again we will have a People’s Choice award. People can vote for their favorite until midnight Sunday, May 13, CDT. That is Mother’s Day, by the way. I will post the award winners on May 15.

Awards will be given to the First Place winners in each age group as well as People’s Choice. I do not want People’s Choice to be a popularity contest, so please look at the work before voting.

I would also appreciate any tweets, emails, Facebook mentions, etc. that you can give to let the public know about this art show. These kids have worked hard and they deserve to get some notice and recognition. If you are a blogger, a link from your site to this one would be awesome. Plus, comments are always welcome.  Please let these kids know how they did.

Here is the link so you can vote:

Vote for People’s Choice Award here.

You can click on the thumbnail to get a larger view of the art. Enjoy!

May 1 is the deadline for the next Art For Homeschool Art Show. That gives you 18 days to create something to enter. Can you create something in that amount of time? Of course you can…… I have faith in all you creative homeschoolers and parents.

Is there a theme for the show? No. I am not requiring a particular theme this time. But I am thinking about that requirement for the next show. Anyone have a suggestion for a theme for the August art show? The more general the theme the better.

So please spread the word about the art show deadline through twitter, facebook, flickr, email, or your favorite way of keeping in touch. Some people still talk to each other on the phone. Remember, you can enter two pieces of art in the show. The actual deadline is May 1 at midnight CST.

If you are new to this site, all the information you will need to know is on the page that the following link will take you to. Click here.  Any questions? Send me a message through email. I will try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Now, get busy creating! Need some inspiration? You can go to My Creativity Blog to get some ideas.

Marissa, "Optimistic"

This past semester I was very fortunate to be a mentor for a student teacher from Sam Houston State University. She was such a blessing to me. We worked really well together coming up with new and interesting assignments for Art. One assignment that the Art II students really enjoyed was creating a self portrait. The interesting twist to the assignment was that the students had to do their self portrait with words.

In preparation for the assignment my student teacher, Marcia, took digital photographs of each student in the class. She then printed out a black and white print of the photo on paper. We used my desktop and lexmark printer. The size of the photo had to fit in the 8.5 x 11 inch guidelines of regular computer paper. You really don’t want the picture too small, but you could always make it larger.

The students were given their photos and told to trace the outline of their face onto another sheet of computer paper with marker. This outlined tracing would be needed as a guide for their final product.

A Close Up of Marissa's Hair

After tracing the photo, students were told to choose one word that would describe their personality. They could only pick one. That was difficult for many students, but they all finally decided. It was interesting to see the chosen word.

Alice, "Faithful"

Once they had their word, then they were told to take out another piece of paper and place it on top of their traced drawing. This is the drawing done in marker. The marker makes it easier to see.

The students then had to use the chosen word to fill in the areas of hair, eyes, mouth, face, nose, etc. They could write small or large. They could change up the type of writing such as the font used. They could write some letters darker and bolder to create the necessary values needed in the drawing.  Letters could be stretched and pulled to fit the areas on the portrait.

Eddie, "Creative"

We let the students decide if they wanted to put in a background or not. Anything that was put in the drawing had to be created using their chosen word. Some of the words used were: faithful, dreamer, intuitive, creative, optimistic and legacy.

This may be an art assignment that you want to try with your homeschooler. This assignment can be adapted or modified for any age. I hope you will give it a try.

Here are a few more examples of self portraits:

Tre, "Legacy"

Marcia, "Dreamer"

Weaving Supplies

Weaving a small bookmark is a fun and interesting project that your homeschool students may enjoy.  You may even have most of the supplies needed at home already.

Supplies needed are:

• a cardboard loom,
• a large plastic needle,
• scissors,
• string or yarn,
• and masking tape.

If you do not have a cardboard loom, you can make one. The loom is just a piece of sturdy cardboard with notches every 1/4 inch cut into both ends.  The notches are approximately 1/2 inch deep. Here is a closer look.

Notches in the Loom

There are several weaving videos on You Tube that explain how to create the woven bookmark as well as show examples of weaving techniques. The following video was made by an art teacher for his students. I suggest viewing it before starting your weaving project. Weaving Video.

The first step in creating a woven bookmark is warping the loom. You can use string or yarn. You need to put the end of the yarn or string in the end notch of your loom. Tape about one inch of the string to the back of the cardboard to hold it in place. Then you will pull the string or yarn across the front of the loom to the opposite first notch. The next step is tricky. You want your string on the front of the loom only. Remember that. If you see any string on the back you need to stop and fix it.

Take the string and go from the first notch to the second notch on the same side of the loom Here is a photo to help explain.

Front of loom

Taping String on back

Make sure that your weaving has an even number of strings. For the bookmarks that my students made they used ten strings. When you get the correct number of strings, tape the string end to the back of the loom and cut.

I suggest that you do not weave in the top or bottom 1 and 1/2 inches of the loom. That length of string will become fringe on your bookmark when you remove it from the loom.

The easiest weaving technique is called tabby. In using the Tabby technique you take the yarn and needle over, under, over, under through the warp strings on the loom. Begin with that technique. You can use that technique throughout the weaving or you can use others called interlocking, supplementary, Egyptian knot, dovetail, rya, or slit. Watch the video mentioned above to see some of these other techniques if you haven’t already. Weaving Video.

When you have made the bookmark the size that you wish, Hide the end of your yarn by weaving it inside the last woven row. Clip with scissors.

Weaving on the Loom

Then it is time to take the weaving off the loom. You do this by cutting the first two strings that are closest to the edge of the bookmark. Cut them right at the end of the loom. You want to be sure you can tie the strings into a knot. If you cut them too short it will be difficult to tie. Tie the two strings into a double knot so that the knot is snug against the weaving. Then cut the next two strings. Tie them. Do this until one side is off the loom. Then move to the next side. Tie each pair of strings. When you have finished tying the strings you will have completed your weaving. Trim any strings that may need it. Enjoy your bookmark!

Close up of Fringe

It took me probably about two or three minutes to realize the mistake and I then changed the settings back to what they should have been. In the amount of time it took me to do this someone subscribed. I did not have time to take care of it right then and three hours later I found an article posted about Swarovski Crystals.

You should have seen me. I was in a panic. I removed the post and removed the person from the blog. I even emailed them and apologized for the mistake.

Scary. Security for your blog is soooooo important. I have learned a valuable lesson. Now I want to apologize to you guys. I am so sorry for the confusion this article may have caused or the links this person may have put in the article. So sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The fact that this happened on the day the awards were posted was very unfortunate as well.

Thanks for your time and support of this website. Have a great day! I appreciate all of you.

It was very exciting to see the reactions of the students when they viewed the work. You could hear “Ohhhs” and “Awwws” as we walked back and forth through the lines of art. This was the first year for these particular students of mine to compete. We were especially excited to see three of our pieces on the floor of the gym. After the stroll, the gym was closed and the work was judged again to determine which works would move on to State.

Unfortunately, none of my students work continued on to State, but the experience was very beneficial.  Part of the competition was filling out a Student Intent form where they had to write about how they applied their knowledge of the Elements of Art and the Principles of Design. They had to explain the steps they took to create their art work and the reasons for the decisions they made in the process. All work had to be original. Any references used in the artistic process were attached to the art work for the judges to see.

All my students want to compete in the show again next year and they were all inspired to start working towards it now.

So, why am I telling you this? Because that is what I want the Art For Homeschool Art Show to do for you. I want this show to inspire. I want the homeschool students that participate in each show to be encouraged to continue creating. I want all the participants to learn how to look at their work and determine their reasons for creating it. I also want the students to think of themselves as artists.

That was a long introduction. You guys ready for the art show results? I thought so…….

The show was judged by 5 classes of Art I students at Navasota High School. The classes spent an entire class looking at the work and discussing it. The students were required to write about each piece of art. They were asked to find something positive to say about the work. Then they were asked to make a comment on what they thought the artist could do to make the work better. It was stressed that they, the judges, were to focus on encouraging our homeschool artists to continue in their quest to be artists.

Now the results:

5 to 8 year olds: 

First Place

Cupcake - Graceanne H - 6

Congratulations goes to Graceanne for her painting Cupcake. As soon as I showed this piece to my students the reaction was one of  ”WOW!”. They thought the detail and color was excellent. I heard many students say they could not paint like that. Here is a combination of quotes about the work:

I like the way you gave the cupcake texture and the use of warm and cool colors. Great job making the flame looks like it is moving. Your cupcake is making me hungry. Looking at the cupcake makes me happy and reminds me of my birthday.

Second Place

Meeting at the Log - Grayson - 8

Congratulations to Grayson for his colored pencil, Meeting at the Log.  The students felt that the detail in the birds drew your eye into the work. Turning the birds so that they looked in different directions created tension and caused you to wonder what drama was happening with the birds. The uneven color in the background gave a feeling of movement in the tall grass. A comment for improvement was that possibly Grayson could have put more detail and color in the foreground to give the work a little more depth.

9 to 13 year olds:

First Place

Cheetah - Nikki - 13

Our first place winner in the 9 to 13 year olds goes to Nikki for her colored pencil titled Cheetah. My students were very impressed with this drawing. Some of their comments were: Amazing! The eye of the cheetah looks so life like. Great detail. The texture in the fur looks so fluffy. You really captured the fierceness of the animal. A suggestion that several students had for improvement was to color the tongue a slightly different color than the background. Great job, Nikki!

Second Place

Quack - Nikki - 13

Our second place award goes to Quack by 13 year old Nikki. Congratulations! Some student comments were: Great texture and color. I love the use of multiple colors and values in the feathers. The background really complements the duck. Glad you used a gradual change in value in the background. Unique. Maybe the drawing would be better if you colored it more solidly without the gaps of white.

14 to 18 year olds: 

First Place

Sea Turtle at Aquarium - Luci H - 14

Congratulations goes to Luci for her photograph Sea Turtle at Aquarium. Before we judged this category I discussed with my students how difficult it is to compare a photograph to a drawing. It really is tough especially if you like realism. My dream is some day to have categories for the different media in the art show. We would have to get more entries for that to happen though and more sponsors.

We only had two entries in this age group. Luci is competing with herself. Luci, I really appreciate you for participating and I hope you will continue. My students were very impressed with this photograph. They liked the way you created the composition making the fins of the turtle create different areas of negative space around the body. The contrast in values grabbed the eye as well. Good job taking a picture through the aquarium glass.

People’s Choice

We had a lot of interest in the art show and over forty people voted for their favorite. Thanks to all who voiced their opinion! This time the award goes to 8 year old, Grayson, for his painting titled Woodpeckers. The piece is quite lovely with the interesting sky and clouds as well as four woodpeckers. Each woodpecker is presented in a different activity from flying to pecking on a tree stump. Congratulations Grayson. Please continue with your drawing and painting.

Woodpeckers - Grayson - 8

If you are an award winner, you will receive an email from me asking for your physical address. This is so Dick Blick, the sponsor of our show, can mail out the award gift certificates. “Thank you” Dick Blick for your sponsorship! “Thank you” parents for helping and encouraging your children to be artists. Also, “thank you” artists for sharing your work with us.

If you feel that this art show and website is worthwhile, please tell your other homeschool friends about it. I would really appreciate it.

Even though we did not have a theme, there seemed to be a large number of animals.  I am impressed with the quality of the art work! A big “Thank you.” goes to all the artists that participated.

At the bottom of this page I have created a gallery of the art work entered. The title of the work, the artist’s name, and age are included in the image name. I hope everyone will take time to really look at the work. You can make comments about the art work in the Art For Homeschool Flickr Group or here in this post.

Once again I want to allow the people to vote for the art work that they feel is exceptional and the best work in the show. So I am asking for votes for People’s Choice. You can post a link to this article on twitter, facebook, your blog, or through email to get others to vote too. People’s Choice is not meant to be a popularity contest. In the years I have been putting on art shows, I find that most people take voting very seriously. I hope you will too.

To vote: Look at the work, then click here to cast your vote. You may only vote once. Voting will close Feb 13 at midnight, so don’t take too long to make your choice. This is a different voting format than before. I hope it makes it easier for everyone.

The awards for the different age groups and People’s Choice will be announced February 15th.

The Art For Homeschool Art Show deadline is in two days. February 1st at midnight, Central Standard Time, is the deadline for the next show. I hope everyone is working to get something entered. I look forward to seeing the art work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!