Today’s art is a dot inspired by Peter H. Reynolds‘ picture book The Dot. In the book, a girl named Vashti thinks she is terrible at art. Her art teacher encourages her, and Vashti jabs a dot onto the paper. The art teacher asks her to sign it, and the next day Vashti finds her dot hanging on the wall in a gold frame. She creates more dots, and in one of my favorite pages she even creates a dot by not making a dot (she designs around the outside, leaving a large white circle in the center). The book is very inspiring, as is the follow-up book ish. We use The Dot in a family literacy program I run at the library where I work, and I am always amazed at the wonderful insights the children have about the book.

Ever since I first read The Dot, I wanted to try making my own. I have watercolor colored pencils (Crayolas), and I first used the pencils to make a spiral, then colored in sections with different colors. Then, using the brush that came with the pencils, I added water and the pencil-shaded areas became watercolors. I will definitely try this technique again, but next time I will use one color at a time, then add water, then another color, etc. And let the water dry in between so it doesn’t get runny!