Making Art. Just Make More.

Drawing for early finishers Op Art Hands for 4th/5th grade

Here is the worksheet you can download that has the lines remarked. If you have higher level students, have them mark of their paper in 1/2 in on both sides of the paper.

I shared Bridget Riley and Chizuko Yoshida. I think it’s interesting how the different parts of the world artists were influenced by each other. I shared one Western and the other an Eastern artist. Riley is still living at this time, but Yoshida passed on in 1917.

I’m using this with my 4th/5th grade students who finish their project this week. Good luck and happy art teaching!

Line Print Out Download

Resources for Digital Artist

Hi Everyone! Summer is in the swing of things. I’ve been busy doing artist visits, and summer camps this year. I have been working hard to also get my freelance illustration career going.

I wanted to share some helpful resources that another illustrator posted on their Instagram their handle is anngee.foote.creations and I found some extra ones for color I wanted to share.

I find that it’s great to get some jumping points to start by collecting a library of visuals. Then I can look and curate things based on the needs of the visual story I want to tell. If I need things to be an emotional dark scene in the children’s book how have other medias forms created that feeling?

I hope these resources help!

Happy Creating!

Film Grab had some great compositional shots for you to look at for ideas. There is a long list of films and you can sort by the creators. I thought what a great site for compositions, color, and light studies!

https://film-grab.com/

Explore 3D models from any angle for drawing!

https://sketchfab.com/

Do you need references of heads a

http://referenceangle.com/

Need some ideas for color palettes?

https://coolors.co/

Adobe Color

https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel

https://www.makethedot.com/textile-design-templates

Ideas for composition, color stories, lightning, etc.

https://animationscreencaps.com/

Art Teacher and Illustrator

Working as an art teacher and a freelance illustrator has been a balance. I discuss the two aspects of my career in an interview with TeMika Grooms, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Design and Illustration Manager.

My work was also featured on the homepage of the SCBWI website. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my love of teaching and children’s book illustration. I’ve been slowly but steadily building my illustration career while being an art teacher part-time. Both give me great joy!

Sewing with K-4 grades

It took us 8 – 45 minute class sessions but we got some cute stuffed animals finished by my students!!!

Can I saw they turned out too cute. They ran off with their stuffies so fast, I barely got a photo!

If you do an art lesson with sewing I would recommend starting with an easier project first such as a pillow. I grew up with fixing and mending things, but no all students have had that experience. You could also start with hand stitching lesson first with burlap. I did that in the past.

I made my students create their own paper patterns using a tabloid size paper and a basic pattern. I’ll have to share that pattern with you all. It’s hard explaining seam allowance to kids. Once they did it and turned them right side out it made more sense to them. It’s one of those things you need to do first to understand.

Super cute!!

#artlesson #sewinglesson #elementaryartteacher #kidart

My Creative Life Guest, Charise Harper, author/illustrator

I chatted with

@ChariseHarper, the award-winning author, and illustrator of numerous children’s books and series, including Just Grace, Fashion Kitty, and I Can Not Draw a Horse.

Listen: http://anchor.fm/nmillerillustration/…

Thank you for listening! #podcast #kidlitauthor

Messy Art Teacher YouTube Channel

Over the past 15 years I’ve uploaded videos that I used with my students. I made it to 1000 subscribers! Wow!

Thank you to everyone that has been watching the videos.

To check out the channel visit Messy Art Teacher Youtube.

2022 Messy Art Teacher Update

There has been so much that has happened since I last made a post on this blog. I finished my MFA and started a new teaching position. I have spent the past 2 years improving my portfolio to work in the children’s book market and even started writing stories for children. I decided it was time to return to the blogosphere, add new art lessons, and share my art and how I’ve improved as an artist. I appreciate the support I’ve gotten from the art teacher community.

On to 2023 for a bigger and brighter year!

Instagram Reels

I finally tried the Instagram feature to add a reel. I am late to the party. I do like adding the audio in the app. This is a cut paper illustration I was working on not long ago. Fun times!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nancy So Miller (@nmillerillustration)

Season 8 of My Creative Life Podcast

Things have been crazy busy with classwork and life in general. I’m late posting the wonderful artists I got to speak with for my Season 8 interviews. Here they are below.

11/21 8.01 R Gregory Christie, Author and Illustrator @gasartgifts
11/28 8.02 Robin Mallory, Illustrator and Painter @rgmallo
12/5 8.03 Norma Black, Illustrator @normacreates
12/12 8.04 Will Terry, Illustrator and SVS Learn @willterryart
12/19 8.05 Caroline Hanlon, Illustrator @caroline.imagines
12/26 8.06 Russell Barnes, Illustrator @chromatic.habitat
1/2 8.07 Angela Shenk, Author and Illustrator @angelashenk
1/9 8.08 Steph Calvert, Illustrator and Artist @stephcalvertart
1/16 8.08 Tara Garrigan, Illustrator @tara_garrigan
1/23 8.10 Charlie Carter, Illustrator @kingcharliestudios

I hope you’ll take the time to check out their work and listen to the interviews.

Here is a link to the My Creative Life Podcast.

Free Teachers Pay Teachers Resource for Surface Design from the Messy Art Teacher

Hi Everyone, sharing a free resource I just posted. I enjoy patterns and surface design with this worksheet. Includes finished examples. Here is the link to the Surface Design Shoe Worksheet for K-12. It is a PDF.

My Creative Life Season 6 Podcast Interviews

I’m into season 6 of my podcast interviewing creatives and how and why they create their art. I decided this season should focus on animation. Though I struggled dearly with creating works for my animation class I had so many supportive and friendly classmates in my animation class. Here’s the list of accomplished people and I’ll be making a recap at the end of what I learned. I seem to get a lot more listens when I do that. I would normally do separate posts for each person, but I’m short of time and have been super busy with personal and side projects. There seems to never been enough time in a day or week for that matter. Really lovely group of people and I hope you’ll take the time to listen and check out their work on their sites. Links have been provided below. Thanks for everyone’s support and listens to the podcast please like and subscribe! I’m nearing close to 3,000 listens.