Earlier this week I wrote a book review, with the chance to win copies of this book (there is still time to enter). You can see that blog post here: Stencil Craft Book Review and Giveaway.
Since I am an elementary art teacher, Margaret is also going to share a fun project to do with little children.
1. What is your art
background?
I have a BFA in
Painting and Fibers from Miami University of Ohio, with further study
at The Center for Book Arts, NYU and SVA.
2. What advice do
you have for someone who is just getting started using stencils?
The easiest way to
get started is to start playing around with found stencils. Collect
leaves of different sorts, paper doilies, sturdy ferns from a
florist, tape, Avery sticker dots. Make compositions with them on
paper—a sticker dot for a moon, a fern for a tree, doily lacy for
clouds in the sky, painting tempera paint with a brush or sponge in
and around the found objects. This will give you ideas for stencils
to cut, too. Maybe you’ll decide you need a howling wolf stencil in
your moon and tree composition, and have to design and cut it out!
3. What do you like about stencils?
I like stencils for
their reusability. I have some bird and paw print stencils that I cut
out years ago that I have used to print holiday cards, tea towels for
gifts, and totes for sale. And in my job as a costume painter for
Broadway shows, I use and reuse stencils all the time: a texture that
might have been originally cut to be the shadows on a fan coral might
be found in a floral border in one show and in the texture of flying
monkey wings in another show.
4. What other kinds
of art do you enjoy?
I like prints of all
sorts, especially stencils and wood and lino cuts. My current
favorite artist is the Japanese artist Yoshitoshi, from the Edo
period, for his wonderful characters, narrative, and design.
5. What advice do
you have for an art teacher who works with young kids?
A fun project for
very young kids might be this Four Image Narrative project:
Cutting stencils
with a craft knife is out of the question for the very young artist,
but they can cut with scissors, and so this might be a way to
introduce them not only to stencils and also to making an edition of
something, in this case, a printed book. This book has a decorated
cover (using masking tape as a stencil) that can have a title printed
in the border, and four stencils depicting the life cycle of a
caterpillar: a caterpillar, a branch, a cocoon on the branch, and a
butterfly.
The four part story
could also be a seed growing into a little flower, four stages of the
moon, paw prints in the snow, a snow man being built (or melting, for
that matter!). The kids can augment their design by drawing inside
the stenciled shapes, or adding explanatory text. This little
chapbook can be bound with a ribbon, and can be made in multiples.
The students can number and sign the edition on the back or inside
the cover.
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This
not-too-sticky painters tape can be used to tape off a brushy acrylic
border for the cover of the chapbook.
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Little fingers
can easily cut out this caterpillar shape, hold it and brush off the
edge of it to leave a white caterpillar shape than can be drawn into.
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The chapbook can
be bound with ribbon or string, and the stencil cover titled and
decorated further.
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The edition of
the little book is indicated inside the front cover, signed and dated
by the individual artist.
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Kids can include
words in their narrative as well, or make their picture book a
wordless one.
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Etsy
, written by Margaret Peot. I am also excited to be a part of TWO GIVEAWAYS for this book. I will be giving away one copy of the book to a reader of my blog. Simply leave a comment on this post to enter. Tell me how you use stencils in your art. There is also a second giveaway to winner a fabulous prize package. All of the blogs on this blog hop are participating, so there will be one grand winner from the rafflecopter giveaway. The form is at the bottom of this blog post.
.
It just arrived in the mail yesterday and it is thick.. just full of
inspiring art pages. And I am super excited because five of my art
journal pages have been published in the book!
. These are similar to oil pastels, but water-soluble, which means you can spread them with water. They are creamy and have vivid colors. I have a bunch of these in different shades.
.
: I had been wanting to read this one but never picked up a copy. When I was at the library today, this book was in the sale shelf. It's pretty dinged up, but still readable (and practically free).
: I have read a lot of reviews on various blogs about this book, so I ordered a copy for myself while I was Christmas shopping. It's very inspirational and the artwork is very interesting. It's a good one!
Exactly what the title says it is.. collages on postcards. Two things that I love... collages and postcards. My husband bought this one for me for Christmas. Thanks, 
I learned about this book (and I think the Lenore Tawney one) from 
This is another discarded book from the library that I picked up today. There's a lot of interesting typography, graphic design, illustrations and drawings in this book.
