Cool tools for aspiring artists

"I can't draw!" Adults say it all the time. While most grown-ups worry that our representations aren't realistic enough or our line quality might waver, children will just pick up a crayon or a pencil and start making marks. A little practice, and the marks add up to an individual style of communicating their fantasies and realities.

"Drawing is the most expressive of mediums," wrote Nancy Beal, a well-known New York art teacher, in her book, The Art of Teaching Art to Children. Drawing provides "a direct route outward from a child's heart," she added.

Children draw what they love, whether it's from life or from imagination. In a child's drawing, you can ride a bus to school, ride your own bulldozer, or just fly. You can see your family members just as they are, see them with purple hair in a room full of candy, or see right through them with X-ray vision.

Whether your child is just getting started with drawing or it's time to broaden your young artist's technical horizons with some new drawing materials, try a few of Poloppo's favorite pencils, markers, charcoals and crayons. (And while you're at it, why not follow your child's lead? Pick up a new drawing material, forget that you can't draw, and see what happens!)

Pencils

Graphite or colored, hard or soft, pencils are as varied as the artists who use them. Experiment with different hues, shades, and grades of hardness to find out which work best for different projects.

Reeve's Pencil Sets are a beginning artist's standby. Hard, medium, soft and extra soft pencils come packaged together, so you can make bold gesture lines, fine contour lines, and precision shading. Sets of 6, 10, 12 or 13 pencils come pre-sharpened, so you can get started drawing as soon as you open the package.

Faber Castell's factory in Brazil operates its own tree nursery to ensure that its Grip Pencils are made from renewable, reforested wood. Soft grip-dots make the vibrantly colored pencils non-slip and easy to hold; their triangular shape keeps them from rolling off the table.

Charcoal

Charcoal makes lush, dark, velvety lines that you can't get with any other medium.

Winsor & Newton Vine & Willow Charcoal Packs contain sticks of compressed charcoal that you can smudge, smear, and even wipe off.

For kids who want to try charcoal but like to keep their hands clean, try General's All-Charcoal Drawing Set. The assortment of soft, medium, and hard charcoal pencils includes a sharpener, an eraser, and a white charcoal stick for making lighter shades of gray.

Markers

From professional crafters to inventive teens to babies, there's a just-right marker for everyone.

Crafters and kids both favor Tombow Dual Brush Markers, a two-in-one drawing tool with a fine-tip marker at one end and a point like a watercolor brush at the other end. The inks wash onto paper like watercolor paint, and you can blend them to make custom shades or use a brush dipped in water to soften the colors.

Two- and three-year-olds love to draw, but if your toddler's idea of coloring outside the lines means coloring the floor, their clothes and their skin, don't worry. Crayola Washable Markers are so washable they seem like magic. Ink-marked hands and faces come entirely clean with the stroke of a baby wipe, and marks disappear from clothing in one wash. Broad-line or fine-tip markers are widely available in stores, even well-stocked grocery stores, so they're perfect when you need to pick up a last-minute party activity.

Crayons

The wax crayon hasn't changed much since it debuted in 1903, but a few recent innovations have caught our eye.

Crayon Rocks look like overgrown jelly beans but they're really rock-shaped crayons. They're handmade, rounded nuggets of soft, non-toxic soybean wax. The easily graspable rocks allow children with compromised fine-motor skills to get a better grip on an art-making tool.

If you've ever wondered why you child's crayons and paints are still made from petroleum products while your company's been printing its marketing materials with soy-based ink for a few years now, check out Stockmar Beeswax Crayons. These vibrantly colored, pleasant-smelling, break-resistant crayons are made without any petroleum-based ingredients.

Re-T-me!

Poloppo is always looking for ways to encourage children's natural creativity, so we were pretty excited when we created the reusable packaging for our T-me design-your-own-t-shirt kit. It's a sturdy piece of cardboard shaped like a t-shirt, which kids can easily recycle into an easel-style picture frame.

We're even more excited that some of our creative young customers came up with ideas for reusing T-me packaging that we hadn't even thought of.

Piper from Kansas made her T-me kit into a laptop using colored Sharpies. Nico from California made his T-me kit into a tunnel for his wooden trains.

We put our heads together and thought of a few more ways you can reuse you T-me kit:

- Add a binder clip or two, and you have a portfolio to carry your drawings in
- Put it on the floor upside-down as a hurdle to jump over
- Fold the t-shirt arms halfway in and staple them to each other to make a funny hat
- Open it all the way up to make butterfly wings
- Glue on sequins or add jewel stickers to make a handbag

At Poloppo, we think the power of creativity can change the world. And changing a t-shirt shaped cardboard into a unique work of art is as good a place to start as any. If you come up with a creative use for your T-me package, send us a picture! We'll send you a free T-me kit to show our appreciation.

T-me! DYO t-shirt kits ... especially for kids.

If you like Poloppo's wearable art by children, you'll love our new wearable art - made by your own kids!

You asked us, and we listened. We've had so many parents ask, "How can we get our own children's artwork onto a great t-shirt?" We decided to make it easy for you.

T-me Design-Your-Own is a do-it-yourself kit that includes everything your child needs to design his or her own wearable artwork. She can draw a picture using the markers and papers in the kit, choose her favorite t-shirt style from the enclosed catalog, and mail the drawing to us in the pre-paid return envelope. In 10 days, she'll receive her very own wearable art.

Kids can get creative straight away, or they can send in something they've already drawn. Kids can get their artwork printed on American Apparel t-shirts for themselves, friends, siblings, and even Mom and Dad. Look for more styles in '09.

The kit's unique t-shirt-shaped packaging converts into an easel-style picture frame so kids can easily display their favorite artwork.

T-me is a great holiday gift for children of any age. It even comes with a gift tag that says, "With many best wishes from ...", so you can personalize it before it gets to your favorite young artist.

T-me is now on sale at select kids' boutiques or online here.

Decision 2008, Kid-style

Upload your election drawings to the Poloppo gallery and you could receive a t-shirt with your artwork on it!

Kids, even though you need to wait till you're 18 to vote, Poloppo wants to help show the world what's on your mind as the election nears.

Which candidate do you support? Which local ballot measures are important to you and your family? Have you heard the candidates say something that you like or don't like?

The decisions your parents and other adults make on Nov. 4 will affect things that are important to you: the way things work in your school, the way we care for our planet and our health. Decisions we make now can even affect whether we're at war or at peace when you become an adult.

Whether you have a strong opinion or you're still weighing your options, we'd like to know what you think about the election.

Scan and upload your drawing of a candidate (either national or local) or a picture of your thoughts about what the election means to you. Include your first name, age, email address and the city and state where you live. Your drawing can be made with pencils, crayons, markers, chalk, or your favorite drawing materials.

We'll publish the drawings we receive on Poloppo's blog next week and the first 20 entrants will receive a free DYO t-shirt voucher (that means we'll print a piece of your artwork onto a cool t-shirt). Entries close at 5p.m. EST on Nov. 4.

Meanwhile, here are some election links for kids:

Time For Kids introduces the Democratic and Republican candidates and their ideas.

Barack Obama's Kids For Obama
page has video interviews with middle-schoolers and a printable campaign logo coloring sheet.

Check out the Scholastic News Kid Reporters live election-coverage webcast Nov. 7.

Catch a breeze ... it's kite season!

Maybe you're a kid at the beach with a simple one-line kite. Maybe you're a well-built grown-up maneuvering a giant squid kite in the breeze using so many strings you look like a marionette handler. Or maybe you just like to relax in a lawn chair and watch a wondrous Chinese dragon kite soaring on the breeze. Choose your fancy. Kites are for everyone. Whether you want to watch way-larger-than-life teddy-bear kites fly at a festival this summer, make and decorate your own kite, or just buy one and start flying, here are a few ideas to get you started.

Kites in the past
Kites are used mostly for recreation these days. When you're flying your kite, you're doing one of the same things people did for fun in ancient Japan and medieval Europe (and still do pretty much everywhere else around the world). But kites have also been used for serious business. During the Civil War, the Union Army dropped messages with kites asking the Confederate Army to surrender, and the Wright brothers flew big, sturdy man-lifting kites on the way to inventing the airplane.

Make your own kite
It's easy to make your own kite out of a few things you probably already have around the house. Here are some instructions for a small kite that flies beautifully in a moderate breeze. Young Poloppo artists have tried these and loved them. Or, if you're looking to recycle all those plastic bags cluttering up your kitchen drawers, you can turn them into a lightweight, easy-to-fly kite.

Decorate your own kite
Remember that kites are seen from afar, so bold colors and designs tend to work best. Try using 2-4 colors in big stripes or quadrants. Animating kites with eyes can be fun too. You could imagine a kite as any flying creature; a bird, dragon, pegasus or even some other fictitious flying creature of your own invention.

Go spy a kite
There are hundreds of kite festivals where you can purchase kites, learn to make them, and watch stunt kiters and kite ballet artists perform. Try googling your local kite festival and get ready to fly!

Go buy a kite
You can buy a kite at just about any toy store or department store. If you're thinking about buying a specialty kite, here are a few great kite stores and their web sites:

Into the Wind, Boulder, Colorado

Kitty Hawk Kites, Nags Head, North Carolina

Colors on the Wind, Spokane, Washington

Follow the Sun

Sunprinting: an old technique for new ideas (and a great summer-time activity for kids!).


Did you know that one of the oldest types of photographic printing is also one of the easiest? Cyanotypes were first developed in 1842, and artists and kids are still finding ways to make these blue-colored prints look modern.

Cyanotypes are a type of sunprint. That means you don't need to be in a darkroom to make them. You just need paper that's coated with a light-sensitive chemical, a tray of water, some objects or photographic negatives to make your image with, and sunlight. (Cyanotype chemicals are relatively safe. You need to be careful to keep them away from your mouth and to wash your hands after using them, but they're suitable for young artists.)

The easiest way to make sunprints is to buy a sunprint kit. It contains small squares of pre-coated paper, and it's about $5. The kit is just the right size to carry along to the beach or on a hiking trip, and you can use it to make images of flowers, shells, or whatever else you find along the way. Here are some examples of pictures made with a sunprint kit.

To make your sunprint, just place some leaves, flowers, or other objects on the paper and place it in the sun for a few minutes. Then rinse it off in a tray of water. If you don't have a photo-chemical tray, a clean, plastic take-out container works great. Watch this short video to see how much fun it is to watch your picture appear.

You can also use photographic negatives to make your picture. (Your parents probably have lots of them! Use them make new prints of old family photos.) Just place them on the paper, then put a sheet of glass on top to hold them down. (If you use a kit, it comes with a small sheet of Plexiglass for this purpose.) Your picture will be the same size as your negatives. If you have some 35 mm negatives, you can print a whole strip of them on one piece of paper.

You can even make your own negatives. Print your favorite photos, drawings, text, or collages onto clear ink-jet transparencies that you can buy from an office supply store. Clear ink-jet mailing labels make nice little negatives too.

If you get hooked on sunprinting and you want to try some more advanced techniques, you can buy a cyanotype kit from your local photography supply store or order it online from Photographers Formulary for about $20. This kit includes two chemical solutions that you mix together and apply to paper using a brush or a glass rod. (If you're a teenager and you read the directions carefully, you can do this yourself. Younger kids will need an adult's help.) Coating your own paper will let you make prints as large as you want, and you use different kinds of papers. For a traditional look, try a nice watercolor paper, or for a more experimental look, try brown paper shopping bags, cardboard or fabric.

Look what other artists have done using cyanotypes!

Cyanotype images of dresses, glassware and sea animals by artist Dan Peyton

A cyanotype quilt by New York artist Sandra Sider

Artist Bily Renkl used cyanotypes along with other techniques to make mixed-media collages.

[ This post is by Kris Vagner ].

Elementary, My Dear

Anshul Samar is CEO of Alchemist Empire in Cupertino, California, and designer of Elementeo, a card game that brings chemistry to (surreal) life.

Samar has the eager, toothy smile of a 14-year-old. Oh, wait! He is a 14-year-old. Poloppo interviewed the fast-rising game-design star by e-mail about his creative process.

Poloppo: When did you first conceive of the Elementeo game?

Anshul Samar: I thought of Elementeo some time in elementary school. I always used to see kids interested in fantasy and fun and parents interested in learning and education. I wanted to combine those two worlds together in one action-packed, fun, educational game.

P: Have you thought of other games in the past?

AS: I haven't thought of many games in the past, but I've always been interested in forming companies. In second grade I wrote a story on how I will beat Microsoft, and in fourth I made a newspaper for my elementary school.

P: Do you draw? Have you ever drawn in the past?

AS: At one point I was oil painting and I took painting and cartooning classes in my summer break. In fact, in the very beginning prototypes, I had to hand-draw many card pictures. I then took a picture of them, uploaded them into my computer, edited them with free printing software, and then inserted them into the template.

P: Would you consider yourself to be evenly balanced between creative and scientific, left and right brain?

AS: I'm not really sure. First of all, science and creativity are those two types of things that are extremely similar but at the same time extremely different. I don't think you can compare them. In both creativity and science you have to think out of the box and solve problems. In both you have to create combat and conquer. And both of them you have to venture out and explore new possibilities. But then again, in some sense creativity is limitless, and science is related only to facts. Science comes from creativity and you think creatively in science. I don't think that really answers your question about how balanced I am... I really don't know. Maybe I am more creative.... I am always into thinking up of new ideas... it is what I love to do!

P: How highly do you value your creativity?

AS: First of all, without creativity the world would be a black-and-white photograph. There would be a pile of boredom in our lives, and color would be gone from every aspect. Creativity creates variety. Creativity causes new ideas, which create new technology and more things that can make our lives cooler and more enjoyable. Creativity is a gift that everyone has. If someone were to take creativity away from me that would be like taking the fish from the ocean and putting it in a small tank of water. Fun and excitement would disappear from my life. So yes, I value my creativity.

P: Do you consider creative development (especially the capacity to think "out of the box") to be an important part of your education?

AS: I think the more our schools can get me to think out of the box the better it is for me and for the whole world. The schools do a great job of creative development with projects and math. Out-of-the-box thinking allows people to find those hidden solutions in the corners of their minds to solve problems from disease to technology.

P: Do you have other games in mind for development once Elementeo takes off?

AS: There are many logical extensions of Elementeo, but I'll keep that as a surprise.  : )