Chinese New Year - of the Rat, 2020. Adult Art Class student display, 2/3/20

Chinese New Year of the Rat - 2020

We worked from reference pictures of the decorative designs created each year. This year's celebrations began on Saturday January 25 and continue for about fifteen days.

Exercises included practicing a Rat drawn in a few calligraphy strokes. We had cut a sheet of paper into quarters. Color a piece all red, (crayon). Now turn it red side down against a clean quarter sheet. Draw a rat on the back using a good bit of pressure with a number 2 pencil - or use a colored pencil. You have to draw firmly and directly. No futzing and sketching. You should have a kind of carbon copy on that clean sheet. Decorate as you wish.

We did simple papercuts too. Color a quarter sheet red. Cut out a rat figure so that you have a nice papercut and you have the background piece as a papercut. Arrange your quarter sheet creations onto a full sheet and attach. We used masking tape turned into double stick tape just by forming a short section of tape into a loop - sticky side out

Happy Chinese New Year, of the Rat! Digital phone drawings, 1/25/20

Happy Chinese New Year, of the Rat! Digital phone drawings, 1/25/20

Let’s just make it a good one. We can hope for a good one too. Or at least, make it as good as we can.

Last year was the year of the Pig. I think that was how Cat ended up with Pig. I’m not sure they’re ready to part. Does Rat replace Pig?

Does Rat join Pig, and Cat? Do Pig and Rat go around together? Maybe Pig and Rat take turns with Cat!

Year of the Pig - Chinese New Year, student adult art display, 2/4/19.

We started right in on the project without exercises. We used references of New Year Pig images and art. Some of the references are papercuts and would have been cut using a craft knife. Scissors would not be able to cut such designs within the figure. So we drew our designs using black crayon over red colored pig figures. One reference creates a pig figure by incorporating the year numerals into the figure's structure.