The morning rain and intermittent thunderstorms today have produced some interesting cloud formations and G., my aspiring photographer, grabbed a camera and took a few photos of the white puffy clouds overhead a few minutes ago.
There is a peek of blue sky and sun right now but further on the horizon the sky has swirls of dark blue and black and I can hear the rumble of thunder so another storm is on its way as I type.
All the steady rain lately has been a real drag but there is some beauty in watching, and listening, to a summer thunderstorm roll in and out of town (from the safety of an inside-the-house vantage point). This is the sort of rain -- and heavy air (humidity) -- we usually see in July.
Not that I hope unsettled weather like this continues but at least I feel like maybe, just maybe, summer really has (finally) arrived in Maine.
We bought some pots of fingerpaint at Michael's craft store last weekend and the girls and I spent an enjoyable morning painting like we were all in preschool again.
The girls were initially put-off by the fact that fingerpaint only came in four colors (primary and green) but they discovered mixing them up to create new colors (which required they remember their former art class color wheels) was fun.
They were also quite adept at painting each color with a different finger because it was a hassle to wipe your finger after using each color (getting that bit out of the fingernails is a pain and if you don't, it really can mix in to the next color you use). I didn't care for the awkwardness in using my ring finger to draw and I did a lot more cloth wiping than the girls did.
So less you think that your kids (or you) are too old to spend a morning fingerpainting, think again. It really is a lot of fun, especially on a rainy day ... and a lot less messy when your kids are 11 and 13 years old (although I think messy is good when it keeps the kids busy for hours so this was an activity we did a lot when the girls were little because these washable paints really don't stain anything).
By the time we were tired of painting we had about 20 pictures among the three of us. We did a variety of styles and subjects as you can see. The great thing about fingerpainting is that anything goes and it's easy to do even if you don't have a talent for painting (which I don't think I do, nor does G. feel she does either but we still had fun making designs and abstracts). Oh, and I highly recommend that you get paper designed specifically for fingerpainting. The paint doesn't spread well on regular paper and the watercolor effect just isn't as nice.
The 'flip book' L. referenced in the reminder note she posted on her door last week included the culmination of a week's worth of drawing for an animated movie she had been working on at art camp.
Her book included 74 individual drawings she made in order to create an animated movie (hence the note to herself not to freak out that her special drawing book, that represented hours and hours of work, wasn't home that night).
The movie was made by simply taking a picture of each drawing (using a tripod to frame all the photos the same way) and then importing them in to iMovie. She imported the Dvorak piece (her choice as she believed the music suited her story best) and added the titles and credits to finish it off.
The movie is done (and the camp over) and after watching "The Story of the Little Red Ball" and seeing how much work she put in to it (and how happy she was with the final results), I told her I'd post her movie on my blog today.
And just to be clear, making an animated movie like this is not that hard to do (and this post is not meant to be braggart-like, just a special recognition from mom for a kid who worked hard on her project). I offer the step-by-step instructions on making the claymation movies that are the same for this sort of animation only substituting the drawings for the clay movements (but L and I agree that clay is much less time-consuming).
This is also a GREAT rainy day activity for older kids and can keep them busy for hours, which I mention just in case the sun doesn't hold out all week.
