Mary Blair inspired Art Project for Kids
Almost all artwork, no matter what the final form, begins with drawing because drawing is the artist’s fundamental tool.
- Mary Blair
Please join me in welcoming my friend Jeri of Kudzu studio. Jeri is a passionate process based fine arts educator who runs mobile and virtual classes, workshops, and camps in Victoria and Vancouver, BC. When she isn’t leading classes at Kudzu she works as a gallery and museum educator.
I first met Jeri under unfortunate circumstances but meeting her was a light in the dark. A week after losing Paul I popped my head up on Instagram to thank our community for their love and support and somewhere in the comment section I met Jeri. She shared with me that she had lost her husband 6 months prior and if I ever needed to talk she was there. It was my first brush with what would become a sacred connection. Two women trudging along a similar path holding space for all the ugly and tender moments of incomprehensible loss. I hate that we are in this club together but I am very grateful to know Jeri.
When I was dreaming up the artist list for the Series a Mary Blair Jungle Scape was at the top of my list and I knew that Jeri would take the concept and create something very special. The result of her care and expertise is a wonderful artist study that is rich in story and process. It is a project that can be approached in a variety of ways and modified for students of all ages and abilities.
I will let Jeri take it from here… Enjoy!
You might not know her by name, but you know her artwork. Mary Blair is an artist whose iconic works include Cinderella, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, the Disney ride, It’s a Small World and the Grand Canyon Concourse mural in the Contemporary Hotel at Walt Disney World.
When Mary Blair began her career, the animation industry was mostly controlled by men and was shook up by this extremely influential artist. She helped introduce Modern Art to Walt Disney and his studio and she was known to be Walt Disney’s favourite artist. He even had a few of her paintings proudly displayed in his home!
She fell into her own unique style after taking a trip to South America where she was inspired by the graphic, bold, geometric patterns of the region.
Mary Blair took images and simplified them. She was one of the first to incorporate organic shapes and design elements into her illustrations and designs. She used flat shapes and stylized forms but the objects are still easily recognizable.
Colour meant everything to Mary Blair and she combined bold and bright colours in unusual ways. Blair once stated proudly, “Walt said I knew about colours he had never heard of before”.
Some of her supervisors at Disney rejected her work referring to her colours as “Too abstract and too colorful” and the criticism frustrated Blair. So for a short time she left the Disney studio to pursue illustration. She worked on several Little Golden Books, including I Can Fly, greeting cards and advertisements, along with creating her own artwork for enjoyment.
Because she stayed true to herself regardless of what others said, Mary Blair was the very first woman to be honoured as a Disney Legend. She continues to be one of the most remembered and respected artists that came out of the Walt Disney Studios and her bold, unique style continues to inspire artists and moviemakers today.
The project I am about to share with you can be approached in a variety of ways. I am sharing a two part lesson that can be done individually or combined. The first process is a drawing:
Nobody’s Perfect Animal Oil Pastel
My giraffe intentionally drawn with 5 legs
Materials:
dark colored construction paper or card stock
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Mary Blair was asked to design a series of murals for the Grand Canyon Concourse in the Contemporary Hotel at Walt Disney World. She created a nine-story ceramic interpretation of the Grand Canyon from the canyon floor to the rim. This artwork is a testament to her use of colour and may be the most viewed modernist mural in the world due to its location. Amongst the dense graphics is a mountain goat who has five legs. This was a deliberate mistake created by Mary Blair. He represents the reality that we are all human and nothing made by humans is perfect.
Let’s explore how Mary Blair used shapes to create animals and plants. How does she simplify animals and plants? What did you notice? Think about what shapes you might use to inspire your animal drawing.
Mary Blair was the first artist to put different shades of red next to each other. Her use of colour is what sets Blair apart from other artists of her time. She experimented not only with colour but also explored how colours changed on light and dark surfaces. Try creating your animal in a surprising colour combination using your oil pastels.
process:
Start with a dark coloured piece of paper.
Lightly sketch your animal shapes on the paper.
Don’t forget to add an extra leg to remind yourself that you don’t have to be perfect!
What patterns or shapes can you repeat in your animal? Add them to your sketch.
Can you add a simplified shape of a plant to your drawing? Can you repeat it somewhere else on your paper?
Use surprising colours on your animal and plants. What colour would you use to represent silly? Scary? Funny? Calm? Happy? Sad?
Did you choose a warm or cool colour for your animal? What other colour from the same group can you pick to colour your pattern in your animal?
Now that you have created a warm or cool coloured animal, use the opposite colours for your simplified plant shapes
If you want, you can outline your animal and plants with black oil pastel in the end
How did using a dark piece of paper change the colours?
If you want, do your drawing again on white paper. Do the colours look different on the papers?
Inspired by nature printmaking collage
Materials:
plate or tray for mixing
Walt Disney invited Mary Blair to go to South America with a team of artists on a goodwill tour. This trip changed her life forever as an artist. She observed everyday life there and she began to use the bright colours and geometric shapes she saw around her as part of her own style. Now it’s your turn to be inspired by the world around you. Go for a walk and collect a few natural objects you find interesting, maybe you like the shape of a leaf, a flower or an interesting stick. Use these found objects as inspiration for your artwork.
Create a sketch of each of your objects. How can you turn it into a simple organic shape?
(I created a shape for a stick, two different leaves and a flower. What did you create?)
When you are happy with your shapes, draw them onto a piece of craft foam and cut them out. Don’t draw them too small!
Cut out your shapes using scissors.
Here’s an artist’s tip:
first cut closely around your drawing to get rid of all the “extra” foam. Now it will be easier to cut out along the lines you made. But don’t worry if you don’t cut it out exactly as you drew it. It will still be interesting and no one but you will know.
4. Glue your shapes onto a piece of cardboard. When it is dry, cut your cardboard closely to the foam so it is easy to know where to place your stamp on the paper when using.
5. Feel free to draw with a dull pencil into the foam to create interesting lines and patterns. Make sure you make a deep indent if you want it to show when you stamp.
You have just created your very own stamps to use for printmaking! Now you can decide different ways to combine your stamps to create interesting organic plant shapes inspired by Mary Blair.
6. Gather some coloured paper in warm and cool colours.
7. Use cool colour paints on cool colour paper and warm colour paints on warm colour paper.
8. Mary Blair loved making many different colours of red, green, blue, orange and purple. Can you make at least three different shades of the same colour? Try doing this only using primary colours- red, yellow and green.
Here’s an artist’s tip:
using green as an example. I can create three different greens with just yellow and blue. I’ll make a very bright green using almost all yellow and a little bit of blue, a very dark green using mostly blue and very little yellow and a medium green combining green and blue in equal parts.
9. Lightly paint your stamp with a paintbrush and make vertical (up and down) prints. Create your own interesting, simplified plants by combining your stamps in new ways. Make at least six prints using two different coloured papers with your paints. (I made three prints on two different papers)
10. How does the same colour paint look on different colours of paper? Dark paper with dark paint? Dark paint with light colour paper? LIght paint on light paper?
11. Once you have created some prints, cut them into strips. Don’t throw away the leftover bits!! You may want to collage them into your artwork.
12. Let’s start with our background. Pick three printed plant strips you like. Lay them onto a piece of paper. Maybe you want to use some leftover strips of paper to collage in between your strips. When you are happy with the composition (how things are placed on the paper), glue it down.
13. Now let’s take a piece of coloured paper from the opposite group of colours. For example, if you chose a cool colour for your background, pick a warm colour. (I chose orange because it is a complimentary colour to blue and I knew it would make my artwork brighter when I put them next to each other,)
14. Now create a new horizontal (side to side) patterned print with one of your stamps- just like you did before. I chose a warm color paper, so picked warm paint colours for my prints.
15. Cut out a horizontal wavy strip and glue onto your paper. This will be the midground of your composition. When you are happy with the placement, glue it down.
16. Now pick two prints from the first group that are left over. Cut them out closer to the image to create an interesting shape.
17. Place one or two on your paper in front of the wavy strip, this is the foreground of your composition. When you are happy, glue it down.
What do you notice about how the colours look next to each other? Where do you see the most contrast between your colours? What does adding a warm colour to your composition do? What colour combinations do you find most interesting? What shape combinations do you find interesting?
Another option:
Make your background stamps directly on a dark piece of paper. I did three prints using my darkest colour on the dark paper. This makes my plants look like they are far away. I then made two more prints on the same piece of paper using light green paint. I let them overlap the first three plants I put on my paper.
I then did my midground and foreground the same way as the original project.
I finished adding some white stamps, intersecting the background, midground and foreground for interest.
About Kudzu Studio
Kudzu Studio is a process-based fine art studio. Owner and educator Jeri Engen creates with youth of all ages in VIctoria and Vancouver, British Columbia. Alongside running Kudzu Studio, Jeri works as a museum and gallery educator and has been sharing her love of art with children since 1999. The studio is grateful to be living and learning on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen speaking people, now known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations in Victoria and on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-waututh Nations in Vancouver.
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