Bible Fun Activity Book

Bible Fun Activity Book (written and illustrated by Yuko Green. (c) 2012 Yuko Green. Dover Publications ISBN-10: 0-486-48251-0) 46 pages

My first Bible theme book! This is an activity book to introduce children to the stories of the Old Testament with puzzles, such as crosswords, mazes, word searches, hidden pictures, secret codes and other activities. Each of the 35 puzzle pages is based on a specific story from the Old Testament and includes a caption with a Bible chapter and verse. Children can help Noah's dove find its way from the ark to dry land, connect the dots to discover who tricked Eve in the Garden of Eden, fill in the letters to find out what King Solomon's one wish was, and solve a coded message to figure out the meaning of Jacob's dream. Solutions included. My prayer is that these puzzles help children know some of these Bible stories while entertaining them. This is also the first book I illustrated all by computer. 

The book can be found here.

Art Workshop #23

January 31 - March 8, 2012
After School Art for Children (K - 5th)
Waikoloa Elementary School
808-883-6808
5 weeks, Tuesdays & Thursdays
2:15 - 3:15 pm (K - 2nd)
3:30 - 4:30 pm (3 - 5th)

This quarter's theme medium will be clay!

Meow! Meow!

I have been teaching after-school art program at Waikoloa School for 6 years now and I enjoy doing it more and more each year. Despite its some hardship of course (disciplines, no storage, etc.) I fall in love with children's "natural" abilities and attitudes toward creating their artwork. They don't pretend or afraid. Especially young children in K~2nd classes, I am convinced that what they are doing is experimenting, enjoying the process and  plainly expressing themselves, without concerning how their work would be perceived by others. I know this because many of my students fold their "masterpieces" into one eighth or so (!) to put in their backpacks after they finish (many parents report to me that they have to unfold the work to admire them or put them on refrigerators). Working more than 20 years now as a professional illustrator myself, how I appreciate learning from them about discovering something "new" all around us and expressing through art. There is no dull moment in life and in my art classes :D 
"Every child is an artist, the problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." - Picasso


Here are some of cat artwork K-2nd  children did.  I always try to read one picture book (that relates to the subject of the project) for this age to inspire them before they start their work. The book I chose for these cat art was When Cats Dream by Dav Pilkey. The illustrations in this book change their forms and styles dramatically from realism in a cat's real world view to free and imaginative styles in a cat's dream.  Children really enjoy this project; their wild colors and abstract forms are so inspiring, fun and wonderful! Enjoy!

Postage stamp self-portrait

Every year, in both K~2nd and 3rd~5th grader classes, we do self-portrait. With the changes in children's art skills and their rapid growth, comparing every self-portraits would be fun! In 3rd~5th grader class, students designed their images in postage stamps. The idea was using a bit of pop-art concept. Students first design the compositions with pencils, then used sharpie markers, and colored with oil pastels. Here are some of their work. 

The Mouse House Village

Happy New Year!
Praying everyone a healthy and blessed new year. :)
I have made some goals for this year; for both work and outside work...but main thing is going outside my comfort zone, trusting God. There are many things I have been shy away in my attitude in past, and I would like to make my effort to "reach out" more this year! :D 
As far as my own art, one of things I would like to do is to try my hands on different medium. Last year, one of my Japanese friends came to Hawaii and wanted to teach me Polymer clay. I was always curious about this versatile medium and wanted to try one day, so I gratefully accepted her offer. I alway enjoy to learn new thing! I made two little mice and have been dreaming about how to incorporate this fun medium into making picture book 3D illustration somehow... someday...I love these process...anything is possible.


So when I heard about "The Mouse House Village" I was so excited to visit. Yesterday, I finally had that opportunity to go with my cartoonist friend. It was a wooden, hand-crafted, miniature creation by beloved island paiter and Kona resident Martha L. Greenwell. Assembled more than 30 years ago, a miniature Christmas village is on display at the Isaacs Art Center at Hawai'i Preparatory Academy through January 5, 2012. 
I was so fascinated by the artist' cares and love for the smallest details, like mouse artists' art materials! Like Jill Barklem who created such a detailed illustration world of mice family, these artists surely have kindred spirits :) Though her realistic oil paintings have completely different mood and atmosphere I now interested in viewing them as well. I enjoyed this visit... which surely inspired me to keep creating my art "with love"...that Greenwell did whole life in Hawai'i.

The Isaacs Art Center is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday

For information, call 808-885-5884

Christmas paper-mache

Another fun and successful project with 3rd to 5th graders is this simple paper mache creations. We did it tis 2nd Quarter just before Christmas, so students worked on either Christmas ornaments or bowls with Christmas themes. They are both very fun ann simple, and same process. There are many You tube videos on paper mache, but I took most short-cut process, as I had only 2 class sessions (2 hours with some parents helps :D). This project is easily started as most materials can be found around your house.


Materials (per student)
balloons (12" for a bowl, or water balloons for an ornament or small cup)
many newspapers (cut into 1" stripes for a bowl, 1/2" for an ornament or small cups)
1" craft brush and several small brushes for painting
school glue mixed with water in 2:1 ratio in a bowl to make paste
acrylic paints
Sharpie pen
some wax paper for a working space
a pipe cleaner


Process

1.  Blow up a balloon. Setting it on a cup will make it easy while you work next step.
2.  Dip newspaper strips in the paste OR paint paste with brush on strips (both front and back) and cover the balloon.  Repeat this process and cover the entire balloon (no need to cover the whole if you are making a bowl) with many layers. Tip for the success in this process is laying each strips carefully removing any air bubbles. For the bottom of the bowl, make a small circle with pipe cleaner and secure it with many layers of strips. Let dry.

3.  When dry, pop the balloon and remove it. If desired, trim the edge with scissor this will make a straight opening for a bowl and cup. For natural looks, many students left untouched the openings which had irregular edges. Draw design with a Sharpie pen. Paint your design with acrylic paints. I instructed students to choose only three colors, white and black. They mixed colors to create new colors.
4.  For an ornaments, poke two holes at the top to string through and make a handle for hanging.

May you be blessed with the spirit of true joy at Christmas and always~!

metal embossing

Our 3rd to 5th graders tried on metal embossing and they had really good time (and outcome was amazing!). It is a century-old art form of relief sculpture in many parts of the world; called repousse or repajado (Mexico and South America). The designs are pressed with tools (we used colored pencils) into a sheet of metal to create 3-dimensional artwork. 
I ordered all materials from dickblick.com and please refer to their "teacher pages" for more detailed instructions. For my limited time frame I have simplified the project. Students really loved this project, but I recommend very easy, abstract designs, instead of concrete designs which will take long hours even for adults. I also recommend a small size as shown here.


Materials (per student)
Amaco ArtEmboss Soft Metal Sheets (I cut into 1/4 sheet per student)
Colored pencils (metallic colored pencils worked well too)
Copy papers for sketch (I cut into 1/4 sheet)
Small magazines, one per student
Optional (mat board 6.5" x 8", 2 mini pop dots)


Process

1.  Draw your design in a copy paper.
2.  Tape your design in the middle of metal sheet (so it won't move) and trace and press the     design onto metal sheet with a pencil. Remove the copy paper.
3.  Turn the metal sheet over. You can see the traced design is raised in front. Use colored pencils to color around this raised lines with some press, this will define raised edges. Suggest students not to press very hard, as it will make holes.

4.  After student finish coloring, mount the embossing work on mat board with  2 pop dots, so the work is raised from the board. 

Holiday Book Signing

Holiday Book Signing with Kimberly and Keli Jackson 

December 16, 12:00-1:30 at Kona Hualalai Resort

Tales of Tutu Nene and Nele

Tales of Tutu Nene and Nele (written by Gale Bates, illustrated by Yuko Green. (c) 2011 Island Heritage Publishing ISBN: 1-61710-087-0)


My new book came out yesterday:) This is an Island Heritage classic that has been updated with my illustration for 2011 edition. To enhance and deliver the feelings of the soft-feathery touch of Hawaiian nene goose, I used paper collage technique for this revised edition. In spite of my concern about expressing the neutral colors of this bird, I believe it came out all well and printed beautifully (thanks to the effort of product development department of the publisher). It is always a surprise to some degree how the colors change in printing from my original artwork, especially using various types of textual papers from around the world combined with my watercolor backgrounds, but this book came out very close to my original colors, and I am so happy about this.
This was my fifth book done in this style, and I continually enjoy this method to illustrate picture book. I think interesting dimensions created by textual papers is somewhat 3-d image and fun to look at for children. A first child whom I showed this book kept trying to touch the paper textures (which is actually flat in printed paper, of course). I am also thankful for talented author, Gale Bates who wrote this story to  bring awareness to preservation of the nene goose.  Can be purchased from www.welcometotheislands.com.

An Awesome World!

A few weeks ago I stumbled across this awesome book called "An Awesome Book of Thanks" illustrated by Dallas Clayton (AmazonEncore, 2010).

I loved it instantly - colorful child-like illustrations and rhyming story with a sweet heart-felt message of  sharing; sharing the world, sharing everything, lives we are given, and be grateful for all the wonderful things. It is unusual (for picture book) 84 pages long! Yet very suitable for young children as the poem is read like a quiet and soothing song accompanied with fun and capturing illustrations. You can even read the entire book online for free. This book is Clayton's second book, a sequel to his first popular book "An Awesome Book" that he wrote to his five-year-old son initially. 

This is an extra special book that touched so many people, including kids and big kids all over. It is about dreaming BIG, dreaming a dream ten times as big and keep dreaming "your" dreams. When I read this book it made my day, and I am sure it will do the same to you. Here you can read the entire book online for free. Cherish your dream~:D