Art class in Ulsan: Eric Carle Style books

Surprisingly, the end of the Summer Art Class came faster than I expected.

Halfway through the class, the girls asked if they were JUST making a book. They had seen the work of the Winter Art Class and were a bit disappointed by how few projects we were tackling, but as they began to see their stories and books take shape, all their reservations disappeared.

The girls did an excellent job, especially considering the lag in the middle of the course, when they weren't quite sure what they were working toward. During this class, I wanted to avoid giving too much direction, so I didn't have a finished book for the students to look at, at all. In retrospect a bit more direction, perhaps with an "empty" book, might have been a happy middle ground. It would have provided motivation, but it also might have taken away the surprise at the end!

After much work in class, and hours spent at home binding the books, the Eric Carle style, illustrated books are finished!

Here are the results:

Lena's book: Caterpillar's Story

One day there lived a caterpillar. The caterpillar wanted to be a butterfly.

So the caterpillar ate many leaves.

But the caterpillar just got bigger and bigger.

The caterpillar was sad.

So, the caterpillar visited a butterfly. The caterpillar asked, and the butterfly answered.

"Go to the branch." The caterpillar listened. She went to the branch.

At last the caterpillar changed into a butterfly.

At last the caterpillar changed into a butterfly.

About the author.

Emma's book: The Ladybug's Adventure

One day, the ladybug lived in a leaf, but the ladybug didn't eat anything. So the ladybug was hungry, and she found some food with friends.

First the ladybug found an apple at the fruit store. The ladybug said, "Umm ... It's yummy!" but they were still hungry.

The ladybugs found a leaf in the woods. "Yuck!" The leaf was so bad!

And the leaf was next to the honey. "Wow, this is sweet!" They ate the honey and ate snacks too.

So the ladybug was full.

The ladybug said, "Oh! I am a happy ladybug!"

About the author.

Ana's book: Bunny Has Many Friends

One day, there was a bunny. The bunny didn't have friends and the bunny wanted friends.

But, it had only one friend. It was a squirrel. One day the bunny visited the bird's house.

The bunny said to the bird, "I want to be friends with you." So the bird said, "I don't want to be your friend because you can't fly."

So, the bunny was sad, but the bunny didn't cry.

And the bunny went to the squirrel's house. "Hello, squirrel. I don't have any friends."

The bunny was very sad, so the bunny wept.

The bunny grew, and now the bunny is a rabbit, so now the bunny has four friends.

Two squirrels and two birds. The rabbit was so happy!

About the author.

Art class in Ulsan: Eric Carle Style Illustrations

As stated previously, Korean students study ALL the time. Even during break they go to academy or sign up for extra classes at their school. For me this has resulted in the wonderful benefit of an art class. (See Art class in Ulsan for pictures and information about the winter art class with four boys.)

The summer art class has taken a different turn entirely. This is partly due to higher expectations of the students involved and partly due to their longer attention spans and increased patience. What started as a seemingly simple idea to create books, has evolved into a full out course on Eric Carle style illustrations.

With the help of Eric Carle's website and a slideshow on his books, I introduced my students to the concept of creating illustrations and making stories in the style of Eric Carle. We did not have access to his actual books. Yet it all worked out for the best.

Based on Carle's illustrations, I had the students brainstorm and discuss what they thought the stories were about. I discovered that this opened a door to the creative process. They couldn't copy the stories because the stories weren't there to copy! Many students, especially studious Korean girls, want to do everything "perfectly", but in art nothing is right or wrong. Not having an "answer" available created a bit of confusion at first, but they have begun an awesome journey toward original stories.

After the students decided on a main character and worked on their stories a bit, we painted tissue paper.

The students were a bit surprised at what happened to the table underneath their tissue paper, but it was easily wiped off.

At home, I was lazy and didn't wipe between each piece of tissue paper. This is the result.

Unfortunately the time allowed in class for painting tissue paper wasn't quite enough, so I went home and painted MORE tissue paper because of our time constraints.