For Art-ober we are highlighting weekly art-focused activities! These can be as short as 10-15 minutes, or if you have the time/are enjoying yourselves extend it! The goal is to change things up a little and encourage creativity. Art can help us relax and feel accomplished, and can be a good way to have some balance. The benefits apply to all ages, so feel free to join in on the fun and do the activity together!
Hopefully October is going great and you got a chance to try last week’s ART-ober Fun with Leaves! This week we are focusing on another one of the Library Challenges – which is to add a book to your drawing or art. While these challenges can certainly be done individually, this week would be a great one to work together on and help each other with!
Sometimes drawing can seem a little intimidating, but drawing a book is not too hard – if you can draw straight lines and curvy lines and basic shapes you can draw a book.
Here are some examples of simple ways to draw a book that you can try:
And if you know how to draw a book, you can try drawing someone, or something, reading! I really like to draw robots and monsters – there are no rules as to how they look so you don’t have to worry about accuracy, and creativity can get you far. To draw robots I just use a lot of shapes – like cubes and tubes and triangles… As for monsters the shapes just get a bit more blob-like, with additions of hair, horns, teeth, etc.
Don’t feel limited to drawing though! You can add a book to any kind of art – try building a castle or dollhouse out of books, or do something seasonal and make a book ghost!
Photography is also really fun way to create art, with just some imagination and the click of a button. Grab some books and props and you can create your own photoshoot! I tried it out in my backyard with an Anne of Green Gables doll reading in the trees, and a stuffed sloth reading in a chair…
Another fun photography + book challenge is the “Bookface” challenge – where you find a book cover and strategically line it up with a person (or animal) in real life to merge and complete the picture. This is one you will definitely want a partner for!
Give some of these ideas a try or feel free to come up with your own! We would love to see what you make – share your art on Instagram by tagging @poudrelibraries and using the hashtags #artober and #librarychallenge
Related Reading:
Building books by Megan Wagner Lloyd
Let me finish! by Minh Lê
Look! by Jeff Mack
Books always everywhere by Jane Blatt
The things I can do by Jeff Mack
Robots and aliens by Mark Bergin
Ralph Masiello’s robot drawing book by Ralph Masiello