 Hi, I'm Xandria. Hi, I'm Liz. And this is Art Lab, a place to explore and create with art. In this episode of Art Lab, we will be creating our own bug buddies, inspired by the works of Henri Matisse. In previous videos, we explored color, paper weaving, and surrealism. Now it's time to combine them and try something new. If you've missed the other videos in this series, make sure to check out the playlist in the description down below. Today, we will learn to draw with scissors, like Henri Matisse. Henri Matisse was a famous artist, known as a painter, sculptor, draftspin, and printmaker. As he got older, he became ill and bedridden. He was not sure he would ever paint again, so he turned to using paper instead. His famous explorations of color and line exploded into energetic collages known as cutouts. Besides using plain paper for his cutouts, Matisse would also paint on paper to create interesting texture. Take a look at this piece based on a story from 1001 Nights. Start from left to right, and you can see the lamp lit at nightfall. We go past the stars and other symbols as we make our way to another lamp, which has gone out with the rising sun. Pause our video for a moment. Take some time and look at the artwork. What other shapes do you see in Matisse's composition? Shapes can mean different things to different people. What do the shapes mean to you? What do the shapes mean to those around you? What new story might you be able to tell us using the shapes you see? Matisse was inspired by the shapes that he found all around him and used them repeatedly, like the shape which was taken from plants in Matisse's studio. He used not only the shapes that he cut out, which are called positive shapes, but also the paper from which they were cut, which would be the negative shapes. What shapes inspire you? Now that we have been inspired by the work of Henry Matisse, it's time for us to explore shape by creating our own bug buddies. Let's gather our supplies. You'll need a pair of scissors, glue or a glue stick, and a pencil. You'll also need paper and paint, crayons or markers. Once you have your supplies, you're ready to get started. For this project, we will be creating our own bugs using Matisse's technique. First, we're going to create some color for our bugs. Grab a piece of blank paper and start coloring with whatever tools you have available. This is a great way to use up some art projects that might not have gone the way you had hoped. You can use colored paper if you have it. Once you have a few pages of color, you can get started on your bugs. Our bugs are made up of a few different parts. You've got the head, the body, and arms and legs. Some bugs have antennas, wings, and stingers. And since these are our own made up bugs, you can add anything else that you want. Use whatever method you'd like to come up with your bug, brainstorm, or you can even write out what you want your bug to look like. Draw the outline of your shape on your colored paper and cut it out. Now you can draw the bug parts on different pieces of colored paper. Or try free handing your bug body parts and see what interesting shapes you come up with. Remember, we are drawing with our scissors. Once you have your parts cut out, you can start gluing your bugs together. Once you have your bugs the way that you like them, play around with the composition on a background and glue them down when you're happy with it. You can use a piece of plain paper or create a fun background yourself. The choice is yours. Now do it all over again. Then sign and date your work. Now your bizarrely beautiful buggy buddies are now ready to hang. Try making your bugs super weird. Try making your bugs match. Try using colors next to each other on the color wheel. Try making a mural on an adult-approved part of the house with your bugs. The refrigerator is a great blank canvas. Try creating a background for your bugs. Is your bug resting on a leaf? Or are they climbing up a building? Or are they in your sister's hair? If you try this out and want to share, we'd love to see what you come up with. Use the hashtag LBPLArtLab and don't forget to tell us your process. We want to try it as well. That's it for today. This has been Art Lab, brought to you by the Long Beach Public Library. See you next time.