Preparing for doing Art in the Mission Field

In preparation for mission, each person on my team created a "practice" version of the guided reflection that we were going to do in the mission field using the themes "journey" and "homeland." No one on this team would define oneself as being an artist or even "artsy" so it was a challenge to think reflectively about these two themes and how they could illustrate them on a 10" x 10" piece of art board. The simple steps for reflection include:
1) Choose a color that reminds you of home and either use that to paint the background or as a significant color element in the collaged piece.
2) Identify a symbol that reminds you of home and draw it using "stick figures" just like a child would.
3) Choose a stamped image that reminds you of something from home and imprint that on the page.
4) Identify something about your current location and drawn or imprint an image to illustrate it.
5) Doodle/embellish as desired.
6) Feel free to revisit the piece in coming days and add to it; enhance as desired.

The lizard represents the (unkind) childhood nickname.

 The example to the left illustrates the "home" portion (Columbia) on the left with coffee beans, sunshine, and rain, and the new home (Texas) is on the right. The artist's heart is located in both places: with her parents and brother still in Columbia and her husband and son living in Texas. The triangle with three people below the tree represents the isolation she sometimes feels in Texas because of the great distance for her friends and family in Columbia.

The tiny heart represents a child who died in infancy and is in heaven.

Broken wedding rings; broken hearts.

Crayon with watercolor for the background with simple symbols, mountains, and bright flowers.

Wax Relief is Empowering Art for Children

Wax relief can be the basis for a variety of simple art projects for children. We had the VBS kids make greeting cards to send to men and women serving overseas in the armed forces. First, the kids use crayon to decorate a piece of watercolor paper. They can use words and/or decorative art (far left). Then they paint a wash of watercolor over the top and the crayon creates a wax relief. After the front is dry, have the children write a letter and decorate the inside with rubber stamps or additional art.
The same concept works to illustrate a page in a book that the children created during summer VBS to illustrate the biblical theme they had learned. We read the story in 1 Kings 5:1-14 of the little servant girl and the proud general (Naaman) who had leprosy. The older kids used words (humble/pride) & the little ones used art (sword).

Wax relief creates beautiful instant art that makes the children feel very empowered and proud of their artistic ability. (Actually, the same empowerment happens for adults with this simple, yet lovely, art technique.)

Christmas Cookie Cutter Watercolor Tree Ornaments

Top three are wax relief; bottom four use mixed techniques with watercolors; the tree on the far right middle uses layers of "sponge painting" in three shades of green with large and small bubble wrap.

 

Use a pencil to lightly outline around the outside of Christmas cookie cutters on watercolor paper. Cut the shapes and decorate with a variety of simple watercolor techniques for a kid-friendly project that is festive and fun. I designed this project for Christmas VBS and as a simple art project for children at the annual Wassailfest in downtown New Braunfels. The easiest way is to have the shapes pre-cut. Use a paper punch to put a hole for a ribbon at the top of the shape. If you have more time and are working with older children or adults then they could outline and cut their own stack of shapes from a sheet of watercolor paper.

Basic supplies: a selection of cookie cutters, watercolors, glitter crayons, and watercolor paper.

Watercolor technique options:

Wax relief: Use glitter crayons to decorate both sides of the ornament—press hard so the wax is bold and heavy on the paper. Paint with watercolors on both sides and tie with a ribbon. Wax relief also works well for custom gift tags. Write the name in crayon and then watercolor over. Affix the tag onto a package using double-stick tape or punch a hole and tie with ribbon.

 

Watercolors Mixed Techniques: Practice different watercolor techniques such as wet on wet so the colors blur together; dry on dry so the watercolors have a more distinct edge; layers of watercolors—force try between layers so they don’t turn muddy. This variation reminds me of the "egg yolk paint" cookies we made as children--cookie dough that was sweetened with honey and then the shapes cut out and painted with food coloring in egg yolk and baked until the colors glistened.

 

Sponge painting: use a variety of materials including sponges, bubble wrap with large and/or small bubbles, and wadded up tissue paper or paper towel.



"Sponge painting" with bubble wrap--paint the bubble wrap with watercolors and press bubble side down onto the ornament.
 

Layer with different sized bubble wrap and different shades of green. Force dry with a hairdryer between colors.
 



Notice the layers of size and shade in the (upside down) tree. If you allow to dry between layers (or force dry) the edges remain more distinct. You also can layer wet on wet for softer edges, but be careful that the colors don't muddy. You also can layer colors on the bubble wrap for one smoosh in several shades. 

Theological Reflection for Kids

Children of all ages can use simple art techniques to express theological themes from a Bible lesson. Begin the process by helping the children to break down the story to simple words that reflect what the message means to them. For example, during summer VBS talked about the story of the humble servant girl and the proud general in 1 Kings 5:1-14. The servant girl had to forgive her captor in order to share news about the great prophet who could heal him. Meanwhile, the captor had to humble himself to follow the simple words of the prophet in order to be healed. After the children identified the essence of the story, the next step was to illustrate the theological themes through art.

 

The older children used words, but the little ones illustrated their journal pages with a drawing the represented the proud general (sword) or the little servant girl(heart). The art technique is "wax relief" which is simply putting "wax" on the page first (crayon or oil pastels) and then covering the paper with one or more layers of watercolor.