Mother's Day card

A mother's heart can only be filled with unimaginable joy when two little eyes are fixed on a piece of paper, while a little hand works hard while the head is bent down until the smile of satifaction spreads on her face. All because she wants to make her mummy happy on 'Happy Mother's Day'. Look at all the hearts she has made for her Mummy and Mummy hopes she knew that this 'ever strict' mom loves her so very very much.

Art for art's sake

Do you shop around for the best of drawing sheets and art paper for your little ones to express his/her art? Sometimes children can choose the wildest of places to sketch their hearts out.
My daughter has not only been tearing pages from notebooks to draw, besides regular drawing sheets, she loves drawing on all sorts of places and items around the house. Sometimes its the back of a visiting card, and sometimes also on her sister's hand.
Here Rhu drew on an airsick bag, probably we had kept on one of our journeys for our 'puky' little girls. Its a drawing of her little baby sister and herself. True, medium doesnt matter when art is on your mind.

Family Portraits

While I cooked in the kitchen, DD brought out her favorite doodle set gifted by her Uncle who stays in USA and told me that she wanted to draw the baby. The curious 'me', immediately dropped the ladle to catch a glimpse of our 'to-be-born' baby and this is what she drew.

Then, Mummy said, "Now can you draw Mummy and the baby?"

She said, "No, first I will draw Baba (Daddy)".

Mummy said, "Ok, you draw Baba first". Here's how Baba looks like.

Then, Mummy said, "How about drawing Mumma now?" (hoping to see a fat-fat preggy me)

"No. Now I will draw ME."

"Ok!," said Mummy. "It's my turn now".

"Ok!" She said....

....and this is how Mummy looks like...

Poor Mummy!!! Cheeky Monkey!

Dabbling with water colours...

Isn't it fun to pick up a paint brush and a box of water colours a jar of water and see your child pour his/her creative juices on paper. When letting your toddler enjoy watercolours, remember that 'Play' should be the keyword.

Let the flow of the brush, the dabbling of paint and water take its course on paper. Once they are done, you can pose a question, "I wonder what this looks like?"

These are some of the paintings that my two and half year old daughter created with her dad's participation over a period of two weekends and also the original titles of the paintings as she thought it depicted.

Title: A House in the Clouds


Title: The hiding sun


Title: A rose

Title: The Green Jungle

Title: 'Ellie' - The Elephant

Some of these paintings have been slightly modified to give it some shape to make it more meaningful for her. She is beginning to understand how a blend of colours can bring out a beautiful picture.

It is important to encourage them to enjoy the watercolours and 'discover' what they made instead of teaching them various techniques of handling the colours.

An Artsee p'Art'y

What do you expect FOUR friends to do, that too 'women' (two married with no kids, one with a baby, the other with a toddler) when they come together on a lazy afternoon. No, they dont gossip about the latest scandal in town, they dont bitch about their friends and colleagues, or talk about how frustrating it could get at times with kids, or how respective hubbies haven't been taking their responsibilities seriously or how the maid spends hours chatting to her boyfriend on her phone.

They grab pieces of paper and create what may be called 'Art'. That is how it was on 13th May when my friends came over for a different sort of party. It was an 'Artsee' Party. Some even came armed with their own tools and paper and invoked Goddess Saraswati before they began (atleast that's my interpretation). That's my talented friend Vedanti all set for the show. (I've skipped uploading your drawing as per your request, but i think it was done beautifully and is worth sharing.)

It was heartwarming to see our new & busy mommy also pitch in to let out her creative spirit. Three Cheers to Mommy Sneha for being such a sport. She drew like a pro, just picked up the pencil and started sketching and was done in no time, while all of us still unsure what to draw watched with our eyeballs popping out. Talking of eyeballs, the one with the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen, Mouli drew her most favourite subject, 'the eyes'. She is not only a talented singer, a successful dancer, but also an artist, a 'truly creative' person amongst us. I was amazed at her drawing of the eyes.

Her art which she termed 'unfinished' had such magnetic charm I could just sit and admire it for hours.

I also could not resist myself from picking up the pencils and letting my heart out. Although I completed this the morning after when my daughter left for school.

Do you know that the age group of this fun afternoon party started from age two.

Yes, that's my daughter sitting with all of us, pouring all her creative juices on paper, (doing more of scribbling than drawing). She wanted everyone's approval after she made a stroke on paper. So, she was becoming more of a nuisance than anything else. She soon lost interest like all two year olds (with very low attention span) and ran off to play with her blocks.

Everything else beside the flower on the picture below is her masterpiece. :D

She had drawn daddy for the 'nth' time on her doodle set too. I am soo jealous.

We would have also invited our youngest and cutest friend, six month old 'Aarav', Sneha's son to join his artee elders. Anyway, next time Aarav! He instead chose to give us a different talent show altogether. Isn't he simply adorable?

Thanks everyone for coming over and being such a sport for the memorable party! It was indeed fun.

Drawing before Mother's Day

Just a day before Mother's Day, Mummy chanced upon a drawing lying on DD's desk while she was sleeping in her room.
Isn't it cute? I love the smile on the face. Is that DD herself with her chubby cheeks and cheeky smile or is that Mummy trying to guage if her daughter has been up to some little mischief again (with eyebrows raised)! hehe..
Mummy is soo soo proud of her. I admire her drawing while my little one peacefully sleeps... I will ask her once she wakes up about the subject of her drawing.

ART@2years 2months: 'Daddy'

Drawing is something my daughter enjoys a lot. She enjoys drawing more on the DoodlePro than on paper. Probably its easier for her to draw and erase.

Today, Daddy's doll drew 'Daddy' yet again!

But...but...but....why is Daddy always in the sleeping position? Can u see Daddy's bulging belly? :D

Mummy is waiting to see herself too one day (hopefully slimmer atleast in the drawing).

Daddy was so happy to see her work that he agreed to pose as per her drawing.

Drawing and Post Rationalization

While most of us draw with something in mind before we start, only few of us let the pencil take the flow.

My view is toddlers who are unaware of where the pen/pencil might take her, draw with an open, free mind. It is only with time that they start thinking that 'now i am going to draw an apple and then draw it'.

All they see is an empty space that needs to be filled. Their eager hands get curious of what wonderful thing can emerge with just a stroke of a pen. Its something similar now with my own toddler. She just scribbles something with no intention of drawing the same, and then wonders how the image came into being.

Here, she scribbled as usual and out emerged what she said is 'a sleeping man'. She kept saying, "Mumma look-sleeping man." Now, is that a pre-drawing skill or is it just chance? I wonder. :)

Drawing of the Day

DD has developed a sudden love for drawing. She loves making different pictures and showing it to Mummy. Most of the drawings did not make sense till lately. Does this look like a BIRD to you? If yes, then she sees what we see..., and if not she sees, what we don't see. :D She says its the OWL.

Second Art Attempt

DD has been playing all day. She is enjoying her one week school holiday to the core. She ran into the room where I was sitting, singing some nursery rhyme and drew this dolphin. I was working when she called me to show it. Before she could erase it, I thought of capturing it for my memory lane. Atfer a while she drew the snake. She continued scribbling and drawing for about half an hour telling me what she had drawn everytime she finished. Her snake and dolphin look roughly the same but not a bad attempt.

Ru's First Art Attempt @2years 1month old

Look for the similarity between a 2 year old's drawing and a Noble Prize Laureate's drawing. A drawing of a two year old that is simple enough to be ordinary yet unusual enough to be an eyeopener.
This is DD's first drawing that has any recognizable shape whatsoever. She said she had drawn 'Baba' i.e. Daddy. Daddy was quite impressed and said that its called 'minimalistic drawing'. With only a few strokes you can give your drawing some meaning. Daddy remembered one of Rabindranath Tagore's famous Paintings,
Portrait of a Lady

Watch the painting to see the similarity. What would you say, except...'Great expectations!!!'...Hahaha... :)

Painting without Paint

My little one was introduced to 'Magic Painting' today. It's something I had loved doing as a child. I wanted to pass on the fun activity to her.


I dipped the brush in water and held the brush in her hand to make a stroke on the paper. She was so amazed to see the brush create colours after being dipped in water. She had real fun with it. Watch her enjoying her first magic brush painting (without paint).

Everything was going on fine. And Mummy was quite pleased with the success of the venture.

And then,

within a few minutes,

a CATASTROPHE happened.

And things got out of control.
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She got over excited.

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She wanted to pour the whole of the water from the glass on to the page.

The more the water, the more the colours, Right?

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We had a little tug of war with the glass of water.

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The END: A glass of water in my hands, tears in her eyes and a semi-flooded paper.

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Once the water dried on the page and her eyes,

she blinked and looked at the colours on the page.

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That's her first experience of what a brush & a magicpainting book can do.

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Create Magic!

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Or rather create droplets everywhere

On eyes, on the floor and on paper. :D

Perhaps, some day she will learn how to use the brush to express her creativity.

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Here is my little painter who has decided to paint her world

(fortunately without) colours. LOL.

Creativity and Art

Title: Glass Painting
Shared by Neelanjana.

GLASS PAINTING: Do-it-yourself

Requirements:Glass / Thick transparent plastic / PVC
Glass colors (preferably oil-based to get a beautiful sheen)
Glass outliner
Drawing paper
Tracing paper (if u intend to make a symmetrical figure)
pencil

Method:
1. Think of a design that you think would look good on glass and sketch it on paper.
2. If it is a symmetrical design, draw only the part of it from which the other parts can be copied.
3. Then trace that part on a tracing paper so that when you turn it around, you get the mirror image ready.
4. Next, take the sketched design (on paper if it is asymmetrical, on tracing paper otherwise) and place it on the glass so that you can see it from the other side.
5. Stick it with a tape so that it doesn’t move while you are working on it.
6. Take the glass outliner and trace the design on the glass while taking care that no bubbles are formed on the outline. If you see any bubbles, break them with a safety pin or something like that.
7. In case of a symmetrical design, turn the tracing paper around, place it accordingly on the glass and trace the remaining bit.
8. When you are done with outlining, let it dry.
9. Fill the design with the colors while making sure that part you want to fill is completely enclosed with the outliner. Else the color in the adjacent part will seep in and make it messy (since the colors are liquid).
10. While filling the colors also you have to avoid bubble formation
11. Now you can either leave the painting as it is or adorn it with beads or crystals or glitter powders.

To share your comments or learn more about the work, jump to comments.

Creativity and Art

Creativity Unleashed 
Title: Adoring the Western Sky!

Shared by Swati.

Self-made gifts & cards

Gone are the days when rainy days meant paperboats sailing on streams of rainwater. Children love sitting infront of the television hooked to their own cartoons and video games. Unless we make an effort to channelize their attention to something more interesting, they will grow up to be dull fat couch potatoes of tomorrow. Engage your child by participating in an activity together. So, how about encouraging your little one to create something for Dad on Father's Day rather than buying the regular Hallmark cards. It could be anything from a card, a card holder to a penholder for dad. Self-made cards and gifts from your loved ones could be much more valuable than the prettiest and costliest of gifts. Don't forget to shower loads of appreciation while recieving the gifts. Appreciation is the best way in boosting creativity. A clap, a pat on the back, or a few words of praise can inspire them or crush their creative spirit forever. Here's a sketch I gifted my twin brother and sis-in-law when my nephew was about to be born. I was so delighted with the kind of response they showed.
This was a surprise video made for my younger brother and his love, and shown at thier wedding reception...they sure were surprised and enjoyed every bit of it!

Has your child gifted you something that he/she made by himself/herself? What was your reaction? Have you made something and gifted to your loved ones?