A Book: Where the Wild Things Are

I woke this morning to the news of author Maurice Sendak’s death at age 83 (June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012).  His signature book, Where the Wild Things Are, is well know and loved at our house.  How amazingly fitting that I have a guest post from Fi today, showing how to create a special activity for children (and adults!) inspired by the book.

Guest Post from Fi from Destination Bali

This week I said to the children, “I love the illustrations in this book.” Apparently I say this every time I read Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak…and we read it a lot.

We decided to draw monsters in the same style as the book.  This made the kids really look at how the illustrations were done. The cross hatching, washes and final colouring, the lack of straight line and the interesting textures.

The children kept going back and really, really looking. The idea was to draw monsters the same way and then try and do a completely unrelated object but in the same style a few days later.

Materials

Watercolour paper

Watercolour paints

Pencil

Fine point black pen

Water colour pencils

Instructions

1. Initially it was a sketch in pencil.

2. A watercolour wash in the areas we needed it.

3.  Added lot of fine detail in a thin black pen. The artworks were left out and the children went back to them and added more detail.

4. Then more colouring with watercolour pencils for stronger colour.

Make sure the grown ups in your household have a go too.  You can do this with any illustrator you love!   Next up for us is The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss.

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This series of posts follows Fi and her family as they experience a 6 month family getaway to Uluwatu, Bali. If you want to know more or catch up on previous entries, visit the first post in the series here: Family Tropical Adventure in Bali.

Posts in the series

1. Family Tropical Adventure in Bali

2. A Walk: 6 Months on a Tropical Island

3. A Tree: The Journey Begins

4. A Place: The How and The Why

5. A Scare: The Highs and the Lows

6. A Drama: Lemonade from Lemons

7. A Mistake: Why not easily fixed?

8. A Preview: Of things to come

9. A Penny: Economics 101

10. An Escape: And a Special Moment

11. A Box: Small, Smaller, Smallest

12. A Chat: It’s All in the Timing

13. A Reality: Living in Bali

14. A Nest: What you can do with plenty of time

15. A Colour: Green

16. A Book: Where the Wild Things Are