Draw + Paint Lab

SESSION 1 — BUILD THE IMPOSSIBLE!

Theme: “From Real to Ridiculous”

Children learn strong drawing fundamentals and then discover how far their imaginations can take them.

Weeks 1–2: Draw a realistic animal using shapes, shading, texture and highlights.
Week 3: Transform that same animal into something impossible.
Week 4: Create an environment for it using perspective.
Week 5: Add dramatic color with watercolor, acrylic or colored pencil.
Week 6: Halloween Transformation Portrait — turn yourself, an animal or a character into something fantastically strange.

SESSION 2 — TINY WORLDS & SECRET SPACES

Theme: “Look Closer!”

Children explore the enormous visual world hidden in tiny things.

Week 1: Giant insect drawing
Week 2: Flowers/plants from an insect’s viewpoint
Week 3: Magnified snowflake or natural pattern
Week 4: Draw a tiny room in one-point perspective
Week 5: Winter animal portrait — fur, texture, light and shadow
Week 6: A World Inside a Snow Globe painting

SESSION 3 — CREATURE LAB

Theme: “Wildlife to Fantasy”

Start with observation. End with imagination.

Week 1: Realistic wolf or fox
Week 2: Shading, fur and expressive eyes
Week 3: Bird of prey — wings and feathers
Week 4: Combine two real animals into one believable new species
Week 5: Design its habitat
Week 6: Paint the finished fantasy wildlife illustration

SESSION 4 — ART THAT MOVES!

Theme: “Make a Flat Picture MOVE.”

Week 1: Gesture drawing — people in motion
Week 2: Animals running, jumping or flying
Week 3: Wind, water, waves and movement
Week 4: Perspective — something coming right toward you
Week 5: Color that creates energy and motion
Week 6: Giant action painting combining everything learned

SESSION 5 — THE YOUNG ARTIST CHALLENGE

Theme: “Think Like an Artist.”

Week 1: Draw what you see — observation
Week 2: Draw it realistically — shading and dimension
Week 3: Draw it from a crazy point of view — perspective
Week 4: Change reality — surrealism
Week 5: Tell a story using paint and color
Week 6: Young Artist Masterpiece — each child chooses realism, surrealism or fantasy and creates a finished piece using the skills learned all year.