What is Imagination? It is the ability of our minds to invent, envision and daydream.

People use their imaginations in careers in the arts like dance, theater, music and visual art. Designers, fashion, interior, industrial, computer-related and other careers use their imaginations too! Inventors and Fiction writers rely on their imaginations to get the job done!

Today, we are going to use our imaginations by adding to a magazine or photographed image(s).

Materials

-Paper for drawing

-Graphite (regular) pencil and eraser

-Crayons, markers or colored pencils

-Magazines or a picture printed out from the internet

Steps

Daydreams come from our imaginations! Let’s watch a read-aloud video about daydreaming to inspire our imaginations: “Happy Dreamer – By Peter H. Reynolds | Kids Books Read Aloud” at www.youtube.com/watch?v=edJHW-BsGnM&t=8s.

Find a picture(s) you like in a magazine (or print out from the internet). Make sure they are not too big because you will need page space to draw.

Diagram 1

Cut around the whole picture (or cut a piece of the picture if it is larger) and glue it onto your drawing paper (position it so you have room to draw around it).

Using your pencil, add to the picture by continuing any partial pictures.

Diagram 2

Use your imagination to continue the “story” of your Art! Here is really where your imagination can shine. You can make any kind of background you can dream up! It can be the beach, forest, a bedroom, a store or even outer space! It can be anywhere you can dream up.

In my second version, I added a table and patio around the cat and plants. Then I drew a Contour Line Background, showing a backyard in the Negative Space.

Diagram 3

Last, add color, details and maybe even patterns (I used crayons). Your imagination can have fun here too. You can go crazy and draw imaginative colors making your artwork more abstract, or you could color it realistically with colors and textures we find in our real world. I chose abstract, crazy colors and patterns.