PETE CROMER
Materials: 8X10 canvas, Exacto knife, scrapbook paper, cardstock in a variety of colors, acrylic paint, watercolor paint, brushes, scissors, hole punch
Now that they were "pros" at using the Exacto knife, we moved on to our next living artist project inspired by Pete Cromer who creates the most joyful creatures!
There are many videos available on YouTube about his background as well as the inspiration for his work. Check 'em out!
We watched several of them before browsing his website and picking out our favorites.
The first step to owning our own Cromer-inspired birds was to paint our canvases background using acrylic paints.
Then, we used watercolors to paint a series of patterns across a large piece of sketch paper to later use in our layering of the birds.
Next, I downloaded the black and white versions of these FREE templates to use as a basis for our projects. Each kiddo chose a bird shape and cut it out.
From there, they traced the shape onto a cardstock color of their choice and then, cut it out, and glued it down to their canvas.
Using fun zig-zag and scallop scissors along with heart and circle hole punches, they cut from the watercolor patterns they'd painted. They used their patterns and a variety of colored cardstock.
The kids were not allowed to mimic the exact bird pattern that they had chosen. Instead, they could cut the shapes from the original bird, but use them in their original way. They did a fantastic job using the tear drop shapes as feathers, heart hole punches as freckles, and the scallop hole punch for tail feathers or tufts of hair.
In the end, we all decided we needed to name our birds. They had so much personality, we couldn't resist!
The first image is named Lucille, the second is named Fern, and the last one Birte (pronounced Birdy).
