(bright guitar music) ♪ Good morning to a brand new day ♪ ♪ Time to learn and games to play ♪ ♪ Learning things is so much fun ♪ ♪ Learning is good for everyone ♪ (playful music) - Hello, early learners.

Welcome back to the art room.

We have a great, great study plan for this week.

We're going to be doing the ABCs of art.

So I'm going to do it for 26 days.

So, you're going to learn a lot about the alphabet and art together.

So let's sing our hello song.

♪ Hello, nice to see you, everyone ♪ ♪ Hello, nice to see you, everyone ♪ ♪ Hello to you, hello to you ♪ ♪ Hello to you, hello to me ♪ ♪ Hello, nice to see you, everyone ♪ And because today is Monday, it's Mystery Monday, and let's take a look in the suitcase.

I've put three things in there that are about the alphabet.

And one is the book I got that really got me started thinking about rhymes and rhymes that are associated with art.

But since I didn't get permission from the author to use her pictures, I made up my own.

But it's called the "ABCs of Art."

And she has made this board book, and each page has an alphabet that goes with something with a famous artist.

And this one, she said A is for apple, but I did A is for artist.

But let's put this book right here in case we need to look in there again.

Now, I wanted to tell you also I wrote a little song about the alphabet in art and it goes like this.

♪ A, B, C, D, E of art ♪ ♪ That's the way that we will start ♪ ♪ A is for artist ♪ ♪ B is for bridge ♪ ♪ C is for cat walking on a ridge ♪ ♪ D is for dance ♪ ♪ Earring starts with an E ♪ ♪ Art and the alphabet, A, B, C ♪ Now I wanted to tell you first about a ridge, because a lot of us don't know about the word ridge.

And on a mountain top, the very edge of it is the ridge.

So I made that rhyme up about a cat being on a ridge, because I didn't think of anything else that rhymed with bridge.

But each day this week, we're going to do an alphabet, an artist, and something in one of their art pieces that goes with that letter of the day.

And today, we're starting with A.

And this is a self-portrait of our artist, Henri Rousseau.

Now, many of us in pre-K know about Rousseau from the "Jungle Book."

This one, "The Rainforest Grew All Around" and it's a song book.

And it goes.

♪ The rainforest grew all around, all around ♪ ♪ And the rainforest grew all around ♪ So if your teacher has this book or you can borrow it from the pre-K teacher at your school, you will have that story also.

So here's Henri Rousseau.

Interesting facts about him.

He claimed to have created or invented the portrait landscape.

So a portrait is when it's a picture of a person.

And here he is, but he put it in a landscape, and he put it in a landscape of France.

And there are flags from France.

The background, you can see the Eiffel Tower.

Here's a bridge over the river that people take a gondola down.

And they have him standing there with his palette of paints.

And he has on his artist beret, and he has painted himself in a Paris sky.

It also has a sun setting in the clouds.

So what Rousseau has done is added to the landscape things that he loved.

He loved living in Paris.

He loved painting things about Paris.

But the funny thing is, many of his paintings are jungles and he has never been to the jungle.

Well, how did he know what a jungle looked like?

They didn't have internet then.

How did he know?

Well, he went to botanical gardens and sat there and did sketches.

And he painted the jungle to look like the picture of the flowers that were there at the botanical garden.

So when you see a tiger surprised, he knew what a tiger looked like, but he had never been to the jungle.

So today, we're going to draw ourselves with a landscape behind us with a few things that we like.

And I've thought about all the things I liked and what I would add to it.

And I thought, "Well, I hope there's enough room."

So let's think about our portrait.

We can think about the shape of our face.

His face is looking straight out.

You might be turning your face sideways.

You'll decide how you will do your portrait.

And we'll talk about the body parts, just like we do with the Mat Man, how he has a rectangular body, rectangular sleeves, rectangular pants, rectangular shoes, but he has an oval head.

Now, I know when we're doing our own portraits, you can make your skin color any kind you want.

I've seen children draw themselves purple with green hair and if that's what you want to do, but I want mine to be inspired by Rousseau's.

And here's the little rhyme I wrote for it.

A is for artists, creators of art, and creators means maker.

So, A is for artists, creators of art.

Rousseau's self-portrait is where we will start.

So we're going to start with this.

And there are two people close to the edge of the water.

Will you be a person that loves the ocean?

Or are you a person that likes the forest?

Are you a person that loves being in the city and all the hustle and bustle of the buildings like we did with Faith Ringgold, remember this?

We did this picture of Faith Ringgold and us flying over all of those buildings.

Yes, I finished all of my art and brought it back so you could see how I finished it up.

I even put the quilting around the edge of my piece.

But back to Rousseau.

So I'm going to set this aside.

I have brought today, my colored pencils, my watercolor colored pencils.

And I am going to draw these on my little tabletop.

Let's put the paper here.

Since I'm going to do mine standing up, I will start with my tan color because I am a tan person.

And I kind of look at this pencil and I think, "Yeah, that looks pretty brown."

So I'm going to think about his head will go here.

Oh, my head will go here.

My body here and my legs here.

So I have to split it into three.

So I'm going to put my head up here.

(lead snaps) Oh, I broke the lead.

So glad I brought my pencil sharpener.

Boys and girls, if you have good colored pencils, don't use an electric pencil sharpener 'cause it sharpens too much of it.

But this kind that you can turn around and around in a circle is what we prefer for our colored pencils.

Another thing I want to warn you, they're very soft, our pencils are.

So if you tap, tap, tap your pencil, you have to know that it sometimes breaks off inside.

So I'm just going to draw my oval.

There's my oval head.

And I have kind of dark hair, but I like to put my ears in the middle of my head so I can kind of see where my eyes will go.

I'm going to turn this so you can see.

Here is my head, and I'm going to color in some of it so you can see where I've gone so far.

I don't want to do too much that I won't be able to draw my eyes in.

But I wanted you to see that my eyes are dark, dark brown.

When I was younger, my eyes were black, and everyone said, "Why do you have black eyes?"

And I said, "Well, because that's how I was born."

Some people change their eye color by wearing contacts.

But I don't wear contacts because I'm wearing glasses.

So here are my eyes.

Oh, I made them very big, kind of like it though.

Without coloring in very much, it looks like I have a beard.

I'm going to go around my eye and make my nose.

'Cause when I paint this in, you'll see I can go over the whole thing with my water and get it all painted on there.

I'm going to do my mouth.

And I think for, I like to put some pink color pencil as my rosy cheeks.

So I'm going to have that in my hand but I'm just going to put red lips on mine.

And since I'm happy... (lead snaps) Oh, I'm really pressing too hard, boys and girls.

This is not good news.

You have to wait while I sharpen it.

I have to press a little less hard and keep it shorter.

So I'm going around here and rub, dub, dub.

Then I will use my paintbrush with water, and just paint in my face, staying away from my eyes because they are darker brown and they'll make a big smudge.

So I'm just painting this in with my watercolor pencils on my white paper.

I have to remember that I need to add a neck because even though Mat Man, when we're teaching about that, we forget that he doesn't have a neck.

So you just have to add a neck later.

Now, I'm going to add my rectangle body and I put the shoulders out and down.

Let me turn this toward you so that you can see.

And then, of course, I'll put my sleeves and put them down.

Two more rectangles.

There was the rectangle.

Oh, I made it a little into much, so I can just move it over, color it in.

Do you remember how I taught you to do the hands?

Where if you go down to the end of your sleeve, if you have long sleeves, you'll make a circle, and then you'll add five fingers.

So I made my circles.

I put my two thumbs, which point toward my body.

Thumb in, thumb in, and four fingers.

One, two, three, and four.

One, two, three, and four.

So I can color that in.

Now, this project, because I'm taking such a long time to introduce the suitcase and all of the other things, I'm going to have to finish this later.

And so will you, because if this takes a while...

I'm putting my pink cheeks on 'cause that makes me look a little rosy.

I think I better get some hair on me before I get too much like a baldy.

And I have, today, I have straight bangs.

And where my paper is wet, my colored pencil kind of makes it darker and you know how curly my hair is.

So I'm going to put my curly hair around here.

If you don't have curly hair, don't put curly hair if you don't want to.

You would put straight hair.

Straight bangs, and curly hair.

I'm going to add a different color to my shirt.

I think I'll make it orange and white striped shirt with red sleeves.

You make your shirt whatever color you want, whatever is your favorite.

And I will keep doing this.

Now, about the landscape.

I need to put something in here.

So you remember to do your landscape later as you finish it.

I'm going to give myself a skirt.

Maybe it will be a black skirt and get my legs in there.

So I don't color over where that is.

Because time ends so quickly here.

Whoop.

Now, I'm going to make the background with some grass on this side because I like to take rides on my bike on pathways lined with grass.

But over on the other side, I am going to add water.

Boys and girls, tomorrow, we are going to be making the bridge with Monet.

And I'm bringing white paper, and masking tape, and paint, and a brush, and some water, and sponges to make the bridge that Monet made.

So, I will see you tomorrow, bring all of those things.

And I want you to finish this art too.

Boys and girls, see you tomorrow.

Bye-bye.

(bright guitar music) Boy, a landscape.

♪ Good morning to a brand new day ♪ ♪ Time to learn and games to play ♪ ♪ Learning things is so much fun ♪ ♪ Learning is good for everyone ♪