so summer is here.
the kids are home with no routine.
how does it creep up on me every single year?!!
we need that summer list made.
we need a plan and a bit of a schedule.
more reading and drawing.
less tv.
more crafting and baking.
less screen time.
more swimming. more sunshine.
less basement darkness with video games.
on friday… i started this project and it didn’t go too well… at first.
there was crying and door slamming and drama.
it had nothing to do with the project but everything to do with moods, feelings, sleep deprivation and new routine.
but i stuck with it.
i knew my mood needed adjusting too so i stayed right at that table with my owl i drew and kept on coloring… for like an hour!
coloring makes you feel better – it’s a fact.
and then one kid came back, saw the nearly finished project and said “WHOOOOA! Can i make that too?!”
🙂
and even after that… “WHOOOAA!!! annie did YOU draw that? I want to make one too! how did you do that?!”
i got to listen to her teach it from the other room.
pretty rad.
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what i say in the video (in case you don’t feel like watching) is that this is Continuous Line Drawing.
(or continual line? i don’t know)
it’s where you draw but don’t lift up your pen when drawing… everything is connected.
it’s very flowy and swirly.
not many straight lines… just letting the pen move freely.
then filling in each spot with color.
i made a super amazing video on how we made these owls!
just kidding.
i made a very average video of me drawing an owl for over 3 minutes.
but it may help you overcome your fears if you watch it so that you can make this project with your kids… i hope.
annie is a very professional videographer… 🙂
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these were a few different designs we drew.
and then you can see this one side by side of the drawing and the colored in drawing..jpg)
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each section… each time a line intersects with another we changed colors.
almost.
these take a long time to color but totally worth it.
you could use crayon… colored pencil… oil pastel… or markers like we did of course..jpg)
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now get going.
continuous line drawing is calling you.
and of course you could draw anything… it doesn’t have to be an owl!
Ashley - Thank you so much for sharing this awesome activity! We did this as part of our homeschool activities today and my kids LOVED it!! It was so much fun!
Jeanine - What a blessed life you lead. I was seriously born into the wrong family lol. I just caught up on your summer 2015 pictures AMAZING, GOD is GOOD!! Anyway, thank you for sharing this video! I TOTALLY love this project doing it now!!!!
Craft Monday - […] today we had nothing on the docket so I decided to steal another craft idea. I was terrible at drawing the owl. TERRIBLE. Violet actually drew both herself and her […]
Emily thompson - I am a avid owl fan and would love to possibly purchase a completed piece of artwork. These are truly amazing.
Continual Line Drawing | tinyartroom - […] I am so loving these continual line drawings of owls that my 3rd graders are working on. It is so hard for some of them to let go of perfection. They look at me like I am absolutely nuts when I tell them they can’t pick up their marker until they are completely finished with the drawing. Luckily, there is a great, short video on the original site for this project. It can be found here: megduerksen.com […]
Love the Little Things | ss_site_title - […] girls have had friends over almost every day so it’s all been a bit crazy! I did however read this post over on Meg Duerksen’s blog and watched her video tutorial which inspired me to get […]
Karen - You are an artist Mom who is serving The Lord with all your might! Your children are so blessed to have you!
What a great project! Thank you for sharing!
Laura Reichert - It is great to try this idea using other animals: turtle, zebra, butterfly, dragonfly, hippo. Lots of fun and variety.
Su - Just wanted to let you know that my daughter and I did these with a group of girls at a craft camp we run. Since they take such a long time to color, this is what they worked on if they arrived a little early or finished a project before everyone else or were waiting for their mom to pick them up. Thanks for the inspiration. I linked to this post so my readers could make their own Crazy and Colorful Owls. Here is my post if you want to check out the owls we created: http://www.susoutter.com/2014/07/crazy-colorful-owls.html
Kid Doodles: Drawing Outside The Box - Sunshine and Hurricanes - […] week, we discovered continuous line drawing after reading Meg’s post and spent a few days making all sorts of pictures with this concept. My sister and her 3 boys were […]
heather - what a wonderful idea! thanks for sharing
Hello Summer! | Leah's Thoughts - […] Drawings – I got this idea from Meg at Whatever. I’m not super artsy, but I’m willing to give this a […]
For Your Weekend | It's the Summer Slow Down - […] you to Meg at Whatever for this amazing easy and fun craft […]
Flower Patch Farmgirl - We’re on it!!
Vanessa - Thank you Meg! There are random owl drawing sightings popping up in different colors all over the house! My girl is in love with that art idea!
Jenny Logan - Hey there! I love how you advocate for wells and fresh water in Africa. I saw this on YouTube and immediately thought of you. :0) it’s people in Africa reading tweets from people in the US that are first world “problems” it really hits home to the ridiculousness of what some people are problems. Just thought I’d share with you. :0) here is the link: http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=kp&v=fxyhfiCO_XQ
Valerie - I love this idea – I love doing crafts with the kids. Mine are still young (2 1/2 and 5), but we might try it anyway. These are great! Thanks for the inspiration!
Alisha - Thank you so much for this ! It was great fun !
Kristen - We have gotten 11 inches of rain today, and I just want to say that your continuous owls have saved my patootie today. Bought me a few minutes of precious quiet time. Thanks ever so much!
Se7en's Fabulous Friday Fun #224 - se7en | se7en - […] I think we definitely need to get ourselves some new markers, well any markers… like really: Whatever’s Owls are just stunning!!! […]
Kerry - My soon-to-be 7 yr old made an owl today and did a really good job! I think she did better than her mom ; ) Thanks for the idea! (and my kids love your video…especially when you say “oops! I lifted my pen!”)
Seriously Sassy Mama - How fun. That would certainly keep my three girls busy!
kelly owens - these are amazing! My 7 year old is working on hers right now and loves this idea! She asked if you had other animals or patterns to share? If you guys make more please please post because this was a huge hit! thank you for your awesome video.
Julie C. - My kids and I did this project yesterday and we loved it! Thank you for the video tutorial, it was critical to our success! We’ve done many of your art projects in the past, this was definitely one of our favorites:-) Thank you!!!
Amy - I thank you so much for this!! I am only somewhat crafty and at first this looked difficult, but the video inspired me to try it with my 5-year-old and we sat and colored for a couple hours that morning. She did two of them and wants to do one with her daddy now too! 🙂 I told him that night that it just helped our day get off to a good start by me taking the time to do this. Thank you for the many ideas you list on here! Please keep them coming 🙂
Lisa - My 8 year old daughter and I did these today. I home school her, and it was a fun thing to do to end our last day of school. Thanks for sharing such a cute idea. I’m thinking of using it at a church function that I plan for the kids as well.
meredith - just made one! perfect art therapy!
melissa - love love love!! thank you so much for posting a video! definitely getting on this project asap! 🙂
Seamingly Sarah - Oh, you have drama too? I thought my six year old was the only one bringing it to the table these days. 🙂
I love this idea, I’ll add it to our summer list. Unfortunately “summer” for us doesn’t start until June 24th. Yuck.
Sara - I totally plopped down at the table during the baby’s nap yesterday and followed your video tutorial and started coloring! It was so hard to stop when the baby woke up! It was just the mental vacation I needed. Thanks for posting the video (thanks, Annie! great job!).
At first there was music drowning out your voice and I was wishing that you or Annie hadn’t done a music track because I couldn’t hear you talking us through the owl drawing. Then I realized that my Pandora station had automatically turned on when I opened the laptop. Ha! It was nice to hear your voice after reading your blog for so long (once I turned off the loud music…). 🙂
tara - in love.
can not WAIT to do this with my kiddos.
wonder if i can coax my boys into doing it with me?
lydia and i will BEG.
Kristin - These are so amazing! I need to draw and sit more. Thanks for the inspiration! 🙂
Stephanie - Thank you for lending this completely unartsy mom some inspiration!
Lisa - Love, Love, Love this idea. Thank you for always sharing and inspiring us.
Karina - I love these…I will be referring to your blog this summer when I introduce craft activities…long overdue, but better late than never, right? Our school doesn’t let out until the end of June, so I have lots of time to pin ideas! (I still need to know how you painted your railings, btw…please!)
Routhie - This is a great idea. My kids and I have to be out of our house after I pick them up from school tomorrow, so depending on their moods and the humidity, we could be at the park or sitting in a coffee shop. I’ll definitely bring everything for this in case they want to stay indoors.
Kristen K. - Meg, what a PERFECT project for artsy owl-lovers like us! I really love how yours turned out. THANK YOU! We still have 2+ weeks of school here in Philadelphia, but I’m hoarding ideas for summer like my life depends on it!!! Oh wait, it DOES! Our 4 tend to sleep too much, eat too much, whine nonstop, and beg to swim at Grammie & PopPop’s incessantly. And I just wanna craft! So this is just what we needed…thank you!!! Will be praying for you and yours, and the awesome goals of sun/fun/unplugged summer time!
Kerry - Meg this is SO cool!!! And easy enough for me to try even though I have ZERO drawing skills 🙂 Loved seeing you on Video again too! Kerry x
Julie - These are beautiful, all so individual, love the expressions on all their faces, especially love all that colour. Might be one of my weekend projects, while the hubby and kids are away. HMMMM
Dawn - I love this!! You actually make me feel like maybe I could do this.
Rebekah - I’m totally doing this with my girls this summer. Thank you!
Sami - But owls are in. And fun and cute and did I say fun? I’m SO doing this. Kids or no kids!
Marla - 10 month old in bed…husband at work….Totally just did an owl, turtle and a butterfly. love.
Kimberly - How cute!
Lori - Meg – you inspire me to be creative!!! From the pictures I would have said NO WAY! I can’t do this! But your video made it seem possible. Thank you, Meg! If you were to post a video once a week with either a kid or adult project like this – I would pay tons of money to subscribe! =) A virtual craft house!!
Amy K. - Those are amazing – adding them to the list for Make Something Monday, from a schedule I found here: http://www.somewhatsimple.com/summer-schedule-for-kids/ We have done it here for the last 3? years, and my kids like it so much, we use it for spring break too!
Jenn - Okay, these are awesome! We will be doing these. Thank you!
Kristen - Love this idea! And I’ve totally been stalking your blog waiting for the summer list . . . we made our own list last summer and are going to do it again this year!
Jamie - Thank you for posting this! School is out on Thursday and I cannot wait to try this with my kids!
Lorie - I am absolutely adding this to my girls summer crafts!! I love doing continuous drawing doodles and coloring them in different colors like you mentioned, but never thought of drawing something other than an abstract doodle! I love it!!
Katie Skiff - Love this. I think I’d have to draw for my 8yo, but then again, she might enjoy trying this. Good idea!! 🙂
Sue Linse - I can’t get the link to the video to work. I like to see you live…like you were still teaching crafts at MOPS 🙂
Deb Meyers - Love those owls! In college we did a self-portrait exercise where you look in a mirror and draw your self continuous(ly?)… don’t lift pencil… WITHOUT looking at the paper. Very fun!
Go gentle on yourself… new house, end of school… lots of replenishing needed. It won’t be long until screen time is not as attractive.
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Kristin F. - I am buying supplies for these today!! Thanks for the lovely inspiration.
Lisa - Oh my gosh! I love these! So very cool!
Kimberlee Jost - LOVE IT.
Raining day prepared…to do OWLS!
Amy Woods - Eeeek! You make me wanna have more kiddos! I only have one. My sweet 16 year old boy…Hmmm. I bet he’d do this with me! I’ll bribe him!! Thanks for sharing. You are a precious momma. 🙂
Gina - I love coloring too. I used to always have a coloring book and fresh crayons – even in college. Now I just doodle and color in. I can’t wait to make an owl. : )