How to learn Spanish

Please click on 2010 [to the right] 2009 and 2008 under Blog Archive to see all my posts and how I am growing as an artist.

A great thing to draw is Loteria Cards and I like the pictures so much. I am happy when my friends and their families come to visit me at our home in Mexico. I feel lucky because I speak Spanish. My grandmother whispered it in my ear when I was very small. I listened carefully to her words and now that I am 8 years old I can talk to people in my town like the man who leads the donkeys down the hill in front of our house or the taxi guys who drive green cabs. I can order ice cream and my favorite flavor is guanabana and that is a hard word to say but not for me because I practice.

The first thing I like to do when a family visits us is break out the Loteria cards and it is a fun way to learn Spanish. There are all these great pictures and it is like bingo but instead you shout out ¡Loteria! We use frijole beans to mark the ones we get like El Alacran and La Campaña. I did this drawing so you will know what it is like. There is a very great artist and friend named Beth Krommes. She sent me scratch magic paper that is really fun to use so I could practice art that is a little bit like what she does. Thank you Beth. She made a beautiful book called The House in the Night that won the Caldecott Medal because it is super amazing. I sent her one of my Loteria drawings because she is really special and I'm so glad she liked it.

Chile God

Yesterday we had tacos and my Dad keeps getting me to try little bites of different salsas. I had a good one yesterday that had cranberries in it but some of them are just too hot!
We have been studying the Greek gods and goddesses in 3rd grade.

I decided to draw this picture of my own Mexican chile god breathing fire. He keeps trying to trick me to try one more chile. That is why I drew the two angels of reason carrying the lantern, shield, candle and flashlight to guide me in making good choices when eating salsa.

This Wednesday my Dad and Mom are coming to our class to work with Mrs. Lau our teacher. We are going to help my friends draw Greek gods and goddesses for playing cards. Dad and I came up with a very simple style using shapes this morning and I am excited to show you these drawings I made and tell you what I learned by doing them. You can draw things so they look real or you can stylize them like this. Check it out.

Let's Talk Turkey

Grandma Lo-I can't wait to have Thanksgiving with you and here is what I want to eat!

Exploring Greek Myths through drawing

In my third grade class with Ms. Merrill we have been reading Greek mythology. I loved these stories so much I wanted to draw them. I asked my mom to take me to the library so we could check out more books on myths and Jason was very strong and clever.

This first drawing is of Jason leaping into action with the Argonauts rowing their mighty ship.























Phineas the blind man was tormented by Harpies who kept stealing his food. These strange creatures are part human and part bird.


















The Argonauts used nets to capture the Harpies and in return Phineas told them how to find the golden fleece.

















In this scene Jason and the Argonauts are traveling through a dangerous area with rocky cliffs to get to the golden fleece. That's Hera wife of Zeus carved out of wood on their ship to watch over them.

In Mrs. Lau's class we worked in groups to tell stories about Greek myths by drawing them on 3 by 5 cards. Then we had to fill out little pieces of paper about our classmate's storytelling. Here is what Evan wrote about my drawing of Zeus.





















Thank you Evan for your question about how do you learn to draw.

Now I want to tell you the answer.

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE and remember to have fun!

I really like Mike

Can you believe it?
This is Mike who draws cartoons for Nickelodeon. He came to our school to talk with us and answer questions. He was really nice and we got to sit outside while he drew pictures and I kept telling all the other kids to get over here and take a look at him draw. Wow he can draw really well. You have to go see his blog and some of the great characters he made.
When you draw you have to put lots of personality into your figures and he knows how. I want to thank Mike for coming to see us and for making me this wonderful picture that I am putting in my room.

Here is his blog:
http://michaeldougherty.blogspot.com

Celebrating Halloween and Day of the Dead

I made this picture for a ghost story I just made up. Here it goes....

Once upon a time there was a ghost. He would always come to each and every house and say BOOOOOOOO! Then he saw a jack-o-lantern. One day a person was walking and then the ghost came to your house and then he came to our house, he came to everybody's house. The last house he came to didn't have anyone living there.

Suddenly, the door fell down and blue smoke came out. The ghost crawled inside the door and when he got inside he saw something covered up in a white cloth. He pulled the cloth and it fell down and a bunch of bats flew out of it.

The ghost got scared and turned around, then he ran out of the house and back into the forest as fast as he could. The bats chased him. They came to a playground and then there came a storm. The wind blew, leaves began to fall and all kinds of stuff fell. The swings began to move and the lights burned out, dead rats, mosquitos, scraps of paper, all of it came blowing through the air. The ghost ran back to the forest and went up a tree.

THE END

I have always liked to draw and tell stories. This picture of me was taken when I was five years old around Halloween. We went to a Day of the Dead Celebration and my mom and I drew pictures on the sidewalk about Grandad Jer. In Mexico people throw big parties on November 2nd and make altars and remember with candles, flowers and music the people they love.

Kids Growing Libraries

I made this poster for my third grade Peace Project. I had to come up with an idea to show other people what my project was all about. My idea is to grow a library for my school. Please check out the blog my family helped me make for this at:

http://kidsgrowinglibraries.blogspot.com