#makeyourthingtoday

Thanks to everyone who followed the Design Adventure Club for the last two weeks. I think school curriculum is back on line and now there are plenty of things to keep people focused. I may post some design challenges here and there so keep your eyes out. I made this illustration last summer and it seems like an appropriate image for our current situation. Hopefully the clouds will part soon! Stay strong, everyone! #tbt #makeyourthingtoday #illustration #staystrong #wecandothistogether #yougotthis (at Richmond District, San Francisco) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-OZwBGhVhx/?igshid=4pqfm7o3jq6m

Pull out one of your houseplants and get ready to paint! If you have a backyard, you can focus on a plant or a tree or a flower. As always, focus on process not product and if your painting ends up very different than your subject, that is perfectly alright. Fill the page, make your subject large and make sure the background has some color too. Thanks to everyone who's been giving these challenges a try, I've loved the images coming my way! #thedesignadventureclub #makeyourthingtoday #dailydesignchallenge #designcounts #comics#minicomics#onepanelcomic #onepanelstrip #illustration #homeschool #stayhome#artschool#artclass #artteachersofinstagram #watercolor #watercolour #watercolourpainting #timelapseart #staystrong (at Richmond District, San Francisco) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-JLPQVhlRl/?igshid=ijszdstw3jr

This one is great fun. At least my kids and I thought so. It may seem intimidating at first, but remind your artist that it's ok to cut things up and start over or make changes. And I know what you are thinking, silly glasses? Is this really helpful? Is this really design? YES! For you wearer of glasses out there, how different would your glasses fit if the arms of your glasses were just 2 cm shorter? Or Longer? So there are some really practical skills here around making something that specifically fits one's face. My kids insisted on adding mustaches, which I thought was the icing on the cake. Good luck! #designadventureclub #makeyourthingtoday #designmatters #dailydesignchallenge #comics #minicomics #illustration #howtocomics #glasses #homeschool #artschool #artteacher #prototype #prototypeit (at Richmond District, San Francisco) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Go2w1ByXK/?igshid=18h7gaz1g0x18

I spent hours and hours as a kid making maps of imaginary places. I used to sit and stare at the map from the Hobbit. My kids love the map from My Father's Dragon. So, this was a must do for a design challenge. Like yesterday's challenge, I thought this would be over in a few minutes, but my 5 and 7 year old wouldn't stop. Your key doesn't have to look like mine, encourage your designers to come up with their own symbols. Just curious for those out there in T.V. Land, are these challenges helpful? Do you want more challenges for next week? Stay strong everyone! #designchallenge #illustration #comics#makeyourthingtoday #minicomic #howtocomics #island #map #artschool #artteacher (at San Francisco, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B98U06_ho-s/?igshid=gquj2ms97uxs

Thanks to everyone for the awesome feedback on these Design Challenges! Feel free to spread the word for anyone looking for a home schooling activity. This turned out to be a good one with my kiddos. I thought the whole thing would be over in 20 minutes but we ended spending nearly an hour and a half on this. You can build in a bedroom, the living room, the kitchen, whatever it takes. The hardest part was making connections with rubber bands and clothes pins and it took us a few minutes to get the hang of it, which is why I recommend starting with two chairs and a blanket before going big. My kids added a flag at the end to mark their territory. Send me your solutions and I'll post on my story. I hope everyone is hanging in there. Stay strong, friends! #makeyourthingtoday #designchallenge #comic #comics #minicomics #dailycomic #makeafort #artschool #drsignschool #artteacher #wecandothistogether (at San Francisco, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B95tDCrh-k9/?igshid=aafd7ibtryjw

Design challenge number 3! This one may not be super exciting on day one, but it will keep them coming back every day and you will see results pretty quick. We started our celery about 5 days ago and it is noticeably different. If you have soil in the house that’s perfect for potatoes and ginger. Check out the photos of our food lab. You’ll see the ginger plant we started a few weeks ago and onions grow super fast too. The best part is it’s all scraps and would just go into the compost. Is it art? Is it science! Yes! Document daily changes and hone your powers of observation! #dailydesignchallenge #makeyourthingtoday #designchallenge #comics #minicomics#cartoonist #infocomics#howtocomics #illustration #art#science #artschool #homeschool #wecandothis (at San Francisco, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B93SDFYhC3G/?igshid=volmngws5g70

Thanks to everyone who sent images and tried out the challenge yesterday! Today's challenge is a classic. Make something out of the cardboard roll left over after the toilet paper is all gone. Collect these as you go and you can revisit this one in many different ways. And I'm hoping you have toilet paper! The shelves are devoid of T.P. here in San Francisco. So let's focus on what we have: the little rolls from the T.P you had from before things got wacky. For the littles out there, let them cut shapes out from paper or up-cycled paper you can get from your recycled bin. Keep it simple: Rectangles for arms and legs and circles for heads. Next, glue it onto the roll. White glue works great, but there is a trick: You have to hold the attachment for about 30 seconds for it to set up. And before you say, "My five year old can't wait that long," I say: don't let them pull that one on you! It can be challenging, but tell them: "good things come to those who wait." (Like Toilet Paper) I had a lot fun with this myself by adding a 10 & up challenge: you only get to glue on what you cut away from the roll. This takes some planning. I cut away some rectangles to reveal legs, and then glued those on to make arms. At the end I got out a felt pen to add patterns and details. Pretty zany outcome but I enjoyed myself. Check out my pictures to see how our family ran with it. Again though, for the littles: let them do whatever they like and if their animal ends up looking like a bi-plane or if their human ends up looking like a couch, just go with it. And tell them they worked hard! For tomorrow you'll need one of the following: an onion, celery, an old potato with eyes, Ginger, a head of garlic, a few mushrooms, or some lettuce with the base still attached. I like celery and onions, because you end up using the part that was just going to get composted anyhow. "How will food scraps end up design," you ask? Tune in tomorrow! Stay strong, everyone, you're doing a really good job! #dailydesignchallenge #makeyourthingtoday #artschool #wecandothistogether #staystrong #homeschool #comics #minicomics #cartoonist #infographic #howtocomics #toiletpaper #designmatters (at San Francisco, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B90nDH1hy-N/?igshid=1qa3053du580r

Well, tough times indeed. For those of you who are home bound because you have had school closures, here is a basic supply list that you can get at your local grocery store. You don’t necessarily need them all, you don’t need these exact things and you can use what you have. Pentel flair pen or ballpoint pen, crayons, watercolor set, pencil, sharpener, eraser, glue stick, white glue, needle and thread, scissors, and markers. Reuse paper, cut up boxes and packaging and use the backside for paper. Don’t go to Amazon and buy anything fancy. Use what you have, support local stores. Over the next few weeks I’m going to post a series of daily design projects that you can do together as a family. They will be for all ages and I encourage you to do them together as a family. Many of them will be art based but you’ll be surprised to see some projects that don’t seem like it but really are design based. Keep smiling. Hug your loved ones. Treat strangers with kindness and smiles. Be patient. Be hopeful. We can do this together. Have a good weekend and report back here on Monday morning for your first assignment! #makeyourthingtoday #design #designeveryday #artteacher #artschool #makesomethingeveryday #staypositive #dailydesignchallenge #arteveryday #artandscience #wecandothistogether (at San Francisco, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B9rrktSh3v-/?igshid=1633ds8l37cjp