Destination 02: Iceland - Art & Family Projects
Artist Projects
For these first few Icelandic inspired art projects, my goal was to stay very loose and relaxed. I knew I wanted to do a portrait, abstract, and floral within my Icelandic color palette. I worked on all three paintings simultaneously bringing in my my journal colors of greens, blues, grays and a hint of warmth with burnt sienna and pale pink. I encourage you to try a new medium or work on several pieces at once! You can work from my Pinterest board images for ideas. Please share your progress and what you create!
Kids Projects
For this month’s kids projects, we worked on drawing techniques in our journals. The kids drew puffins, dragons, Vikings, Icelandic sheep, horses and some local flowers!
We began our journey by reading a book on Vikings that was brought back to us from Iceland from grandparents called The Dragon’s Hoard. The stories in the book lead my kids to create a ship from an Amazon box and we listened to old Icelandic songs and read facts from our Lonely Planet Kids Travel Book. I hope you enjoy the projects below!
Viking Shield Project:
For our first project, we created Viking shields! We cut out three different size cardboard circles using an exacto knife (I helped my younger kids with this part) and used different size plates and bowls as templates for the circles. You can also use construction paper if you prefer. The kids painted each circle a different color, let the paint dry, and then glued them on top of each other in a stack with a hot glue gun to create more of a 3D effect. Now its design time! I showed the kids some images of Viking shield patterns on my Pinterest board before they started. We used glass craft stones to decorate and embellish the shields and pastels to add patterns. Use whatever you have available (yarn, duct tape, washi tape, sequins, beads etc.). Finally, we glued a felt handle on the back of the shield so the kids could play with them.
Supply List: Scissors or Exacto Knife, cardboard box / construction paper, hot glue gun / glue, miscellaneous craft supplies for decorating (yarn, duct tape, washi tape, sequins, beads etc.), felt / elastic / string for the handle on back of shield
Viking Ships
For this project, we were inspired by Cassie Stephens Viking ship project on her blog. For those of you that don’t know her, she is like a creative genius in the art teaching world! She is extremely creative and her projects and ideas are SOOO engaging for kids of any age and…she’s hilarious to boot! Follow her amazing Instagram page.
We started by looking at some images of Viking ships on my Pinterest board for inspiration. We looked at the various wood carvings and the dragons / serpents traditionally shown on Viking ships. I pulled out a large white construction paper and asked my daughter to first draw the sky on the top 1/3 portion of the paper. On the bottom of the page, I asked her to draw the ocean / sea with a different medium such as acrylic paint or watercolors. Then I asked her draw a Viking ship on a separate paper. The only requirement was to draw an animal head and tail on the ship. She cut out the ship and glued it in the middle of the page and I was abosutely amazed at what she created! Thank you for the amazing project Cassie!
Supply List: Construction Paper / Large White Paper, different Art Mediums (pencils, pastels, colored pencils crayons, or watercolors), glue, scissors
Northern Lights & Icelandic Maps
We watched a couple YouTube videos on the northern lights and then used black construction paper and brightly colored soft pastels to create the lights in the sky. We rubbed the colors upward to give the effect of the northern lights. I also showed the kids a map of Iceland and asked them to make a “treasure map” similar to what they think the Vikings would have used during the time. You can also use watercolors.
Supply List: Construction paper, pastels, pencils, crayons or pens