John James Audubon

I mentioned in my earlier post about our bird study that my favorite part was our study of John James Audubon.  The pictures above are copies my 5 and 3 year old boys made of his work.  (I did the sketching and helped a little, at Logan's request, with the cranes eye.)

I introduced John James Audubon with a beautiful living book titled The Boy Who Drew Birds  by Jacqueline Davies.  This has become one of my very favorite children's books, perhaps because my son relates so well to Audubon in many different ways.  The pictures are beautiful and there are fascinating mixed media collages of the things Audubon would have studied.  When we went to order this book on Amazon they recommended Dover's Audubon coloring book which was well worth the purchase.  I love John James Audubon because he was a blend of naturalist and artist and he was a wonderful example of following through with your curiousity.  There is so much scope for the imagination of the child who reads about him.

Audubon was an inspiration in our nature study.  We were able to study his watercolors and tried our hands at painting in nature.  I felt it only appropriate to take my boys up into the canyon to have an "Audubon experience."

 As I mentioned before, I sketched the outlines of the birds onto watercolor paper, replicating the pages in our Dover coloring book.  I simplified Blake's a bit.  You could easily copy these as well.  You would just want to be aware that the ink might bleed with the application of watercolors (we learned this with a project a couple of years ago) and you'd need to be careful about the quality of the paper to avoid wrinkling. Taping the paper to your painting surface also helps with this.  I guess I'm a bit of an art supply snob but you never know what might turn out to be a favorite childhood masterpiece. : )

I applied masking fluid (available at art supply stores but a little pricey if your not into watercolor) to the areas of the painting that Logan wanted to remain white. This allowed him to brush right over it to create his sky and background.  When these areas were dry he simply rubbed it off like dried rubber cement.  This stuff can gum up your brushes so I chose to apply it myself.  If he wanted to try it again another time I would make sure he had his own brush that was designated for the fluid.

My nephew joined us for our outing.  He's our other little budding artist.

The Boy Who Drew Birds  focuses on Audubon's discovery of bird migration.  We had some great discussion about questions, experiments, and trusting your own ideas despite dissenting opinion.  Our trip to the canyon was hands down my favorite activity of the summer.