Dan Mihuta introduces the Art Chest and begins the show with lessons on the paintbrush. He introduces line concepts, varying the thickness of brush strokes. Various strokes make up a railroad tie.
Rather than copy the ""coloring book"" principles, Mihuta draws figures with no outlines. He shows techniques for drawing trees and other natural objects when no outline is there.
The best kind of design may be the pretty kind, according to some. Mihuta begins his design by cuttinhg symmetric pieces of paper and glues them down. He wants his design to be pure: something that doesn't remind him of anything else.
Out of the Art Chest comes a teddy bear. Mihuta talks of the contour method, thinking of the animal as he draws it. But in this program, Mihuta draws the dog with circles and rectangles as structure lines.
Mihuta illustrates the difference between chalk and crayons. This precedes the major lesson, involving one's finger, wrapped in a paper towel, to smear chalk to fit one's design.
Out of the Art Chest come two paintings, one of a tree and one of flowers. The instrument responsible for such an intricate feel? The sponge. Mihuta uses a tiny sponge to create a textured feel to his painting.
Out of the Art Chest comes an Alaskan eskimo mask. Mihuta makes a face decoration of his own with construction paper.
What good is a torn piece of paper? A lot, especially if it's in the Art Chest. Mihuta tears certain pieces of construction paper and cuts other paper with scissors, depending on the feel of an object in his picture.
Mihuta shows a photo reproduction of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. The Impressionistic period inspires this crayon art lesson.
Mihuta draws the outline of a person, with no facial details or creases in clothing. That is what ""stylized"" means: simple. Mihuta cuts out two stylized people in preparation for a Thanksgiving-themed place mat.
Inside the Art Chest is a paper-sculptured bird. Mihuta tells viewers of the upcoming lesson: choose paper strips with three different colors to make an animal structure of some sort.
Mihuta wears an apron to begin working with clay. At the outset, he wedges the clay to drive out the air bubbles. Then he forms the clay into a ball, makes a hole in it, and uses his thumb and forefinger to check the thickness. All this to make a clay bowl without a potter's wheel.
Out of the Art Chest is a gift for Mihuta, wrapped in homemade wrapping paper. He demonstrates how the unique design was made, doing a crayon rub over a cutout placed all over (or under) a piece of paper.
Mihuta takes one sheet of construction paper to make a Christmas tree on one side and a Santa Claus on the other.
Imagine a drawing of a house. Mihuta folds a piece of paper and cuts it to have an outside drawing of a house lift up to reveal the inside drawing.
Out of the Art Chest comes a tray of scrap materials: spools, blocks, a golf tee, a sponge, and an eraser. Mihuta uses these things for a painting project. Dab paint on one side of these objects and press them on paper. That's scrap printing.
Out of the Art Chest comes a jittery paper butterfly. Mihuta points out its symmetry. It's all made from folding paper which has paint on one half.
Mihuta gets tempera paint out of the Art Chest. This time, he blows out of straws to spread the paint out for this project.
For the only time in the series, Mihuta brings in two guests to help in an art lesson. One helps to pat a wet string into a small bowl of paint. The other squeezes excess paint off the string with sponges. Mihuta lays the string on one half of a piece of folded paper. Then he and one helper keep their hands down on the paper while the other helper pulls the string out. And just look at the artwork they made.
Mihuta uses a starch-solution as a base on his piece of paper before practicing his finger-paint techniques.
Out of the Art Chest is a letter that Mihuta wants to deliver. He uses construction paper to make a mail truck.
What do you do with old colored chalk? Mihuta does a wet-chalk drawing, wrtting his paper before applying the chalk.
Out of the Art Chest comes a sheet of paper, crayons, and something wild: imagination. Imagination improves the more it is used. And it's important on the techniques used here. Mihuta does scribble art, from which objects can be seen and worked on. Then he uses letters and numbers for the basis of drawing objects.
Out of the Art Chest is pulled a crumpled piece of paper Mihuta calls an ""I can't do it."" Mihuta says that art projects are not failures, but merely experiments. Thus he experiments with paints. He calls this ""free painting"" because it doesn't require drawing an outline for anything.