Alesia’s Art Activities
Alesia Lacina has a long history of arts education in Grinnell. Here are some of her favorite art activities for you!
Start a Journal, Diary or Sketchbook
Free Imagination | Write, draw, paint, collage
Not sure what you are feeling? Surrender to the present and find humor in the day, or perhaps something not so humorous. Check out this array of artwork from Alesia’s 15-year-old journals, diary, and sketchbooks.
Make a Simple Book About You
Illustrate and write your story. (Have fun--there are no mistakes!)
Materials:
paper
pencils + markers
glue
yarn, string or pipe cleaners
Instructions:
Fold heavy paper and two plain pieces of paper in half, and then unfold. In the middle crease, poke three holes through all the pages.
Starting from the outside of the book, poke a string through the middle hole.
Then poke the string back through hole one, back through hole three and finally back through the middle hole.
Tie the string ends coming through the middle hole together. Add beads or feathers etc.
Attach head, wings, arms or legs to your book.
Begin to illustrate and write your story.
Optional: Make a series of books about animals, pets, friends or family members.
CARTOON MOVING PICTURE BOOK
A moving picture book is a variation of what’s called an Exquisite Corpse picture. It is a freestyle representation of a human (or non-human) body with the top portion containing a head, the middle portion containing a torso and the bottom portion containing legs and feet (or claws, paws or hooves).
Supplies: 8 ½ x 11 inch paper + colored pencils + markers +
8 ½ x 11 inch heavy paper for cover
Optional: magazine pictures
How to:
1) Fold the heavy paper in half and set aside.
2) Fold two pieces of the regular paper in half. This will create a book with four half pages.
3) Draw two horizontal lines on the front of each half page so as to divide each half page into 3 equal sections. There will be lines on one side of each of the four half pages.
4) On the front of each of the four half pages, draw and color a cartoon character. Make sure the head is in the top section, the torso is in the middle section, and the legs and feet are in the bottom section.
5) Cut each page on the two lines and nestle one piece of paper inside the other.
6) Put the two pages (four half pages) into the heavy paper and staple together on the fold to make a book.
7) Draw what you want on the cover and back of your book.
8) Have fun flipping the various pages to rearrange the cartoon characters you have drawn!
Optional: Take turns drawing different parts of the cartoon with someone else. See what you come up with.