In my art class we were given an assignment to make a project out of certain materials we liked to use. And of course, I picked popsicle sticks. I also enjoy to paint, so I chose to paint also.
I started my project with a layout on paper, choosing four scenes from life to put on each side, I came up with about 10 but ended up choosing these four. I had plenty of supplies including over 100 glue sticks, and about 1,700 sticks.
I decided I would make two big sides and two small, making the project resemble a building. The larger sides made of two stories of 28 sticks. The small sides made of 22.
If it was going to be a building, it would need a roof. To be honest, I didn't think I the roof would turn out. I had never made an angled roof before. The support for the roof took a long time. I started making this triangular support design out of six sticks that was very simple.
Then I decided I would wait until I finished the sides to make the roof.
I went straight to the barn, making a 22 stick bottom and supporting the back. Then to make the window I took 10 sticks, pushed them together in the straightener and drew a few lines. I then cut them, and layed them down next to the 9 stick sections that would be on the opposite sides of the window. I supported them together.
I painted that a caramel color. Then I came up with the barn door design using 6 sticks, painted and attached them.
I started work on the city wall now. I had made a watercolor on a paper plate of what I wanted it to look like a few days before. I made a 22 stick section, and did a trial painting on it using reddish colored bricks and a dark background. I didn't like that one, so I started making another stick section.
I painted the sticks a light brown color, then I made bricks out of masking tape and attached them. I then went over the tape with a blackish-brown color. I liked that, but I didn't make enough of the colors to do another the top story.
I made the next section, and painted it with colors that were close. Then I let everything dry, the bottom story's bricks were a lot lighter than the top, so I went over them both with a pinkish brown color, they looked good after that. Then I went around all of the bricks without tape with the a blackish color so both stories would match.
I went to the house side next. I made a 28 stick section, and painted a few coats of white. I had been trying to come up with a window design, so I decided to make a window with shutters. Each shutter was made out of 5 sticks. I painted them a dark blue after a few trials with blue colors. Then I painted a grass design out of four different greens, and three flower colors. I made a door outline out of 5 sticks, but didn't paint it yet.
From then on I just skipped around, finishing the barn side by painting a cattail design with a few dried grass colors. I made the 22 stick sections for the park and glued them together. Then I used an old park bench and transformed it into a more sleek design with a pointed top and painted it down with a completely watered down brown.
Then I started painting a banana carefully on the city wall and adding features to it. Then I went to the carrot, I had a lot of trouble with the paint not wanting to dry where I wanted to paint the face, so I went back to the house side.
I started to paint a light blue (almost aqua) as a door background leaving a window spot towards the top. When that dried I decided to paint the door outline the same color as the window shutters. When that was dry I outline the door's window in gold, and I cut out a door knob from the rounded edge of a stick. I colored that gold also, and attached it. Then I placed the window about where I wanted it and traced the outline of the inner window, and painted a striped indoor pattern, out of three colors. When dry I attached all of the window and added to white sticks to define the window.
I went back to the carrot and did a face and added a banner in between both of them.
Now I was finally ready to start painting the park. I started with a pathway, using a brown, and watered down other darker colors and went over the brown. Then I added grass out of five different greens. I made a sky color out of lots of white and some blue, and brushed that across what would be the sky. Then I started on the tree, making the branches and main trunk. Then I did the leaves brushing, dabbing, and blotting, trying to get the most real look I could.
I realized that on the short ends (22 sticks) I couldn't really have the roof overlap the top section, and that these sides would need to be flat. I went back to my original triangular support design, and came up with some ideas.
Then I attached one frame-like edge piece of wood on each corner to hold all four corners together. I used four smaller ones to across the top edges to hold up the triangular supports, I decided to make six that would span across the top. On the first and last triangle I created a brick like design to go straight up from the city and park designs and decided I would paint those also.
I set these across the long way, one for every five or six sticks, and because they had rounded edges they sat in between the gaps in the sticks well. Then I put little stick fragments outside of these to hold them in place. Then I started to place sticks across in the different direction to help hold the final roof placements for the barn and house. I had used about 46 sticks on both sides.
Then I painted up farther because of that roof addition(peak) and on the park I extended the tree and added more sky. I used other stick fragments and painted them white for a cleaner look. On the city I used a blackish color as a solid, and made the stick fragments a real wood color.
I made the barn's shingles by cutting all of the rounded edges off. Then I layered the sticks. After finishing the bottom layer I overlapped another layer up higher. I went to the house side and left the bottom rounded edges. I placed the sticks in an up down pattern. Then for the higher layer, I added little sticks with the bottoms out farther.
I had used so much paint I had to get as much paint out of the brush as I could. I made a few touch ups here and there.
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