I'm not a painter, but I might look like one....

Explaining to kids that I'm an artist but I don't paint can be tricky.  When I ask them to please raise their hands and share what they know about being an artist, 99 times out of 100 they respond very eagerly that I draw and/or paint.  I am admittedly not very proficient at either of those skills.  Then there's a long silence... the children are completely baffled about how I could possibly make pictures without drawing or painting...  Well, I do draw a little bit, just enough to create a "cartoon".  A cartoon in mosaic is a shape with volume, not a lot of small linear details, and spaces that can be filled in.  Using contrasting colors, shapes, and movement, the cartoon is filled in with small pieces.  It doesn't take them long to figure that out.  Often they work faster and more spontaneously than I ever could.  It's usually the not-quite-perfect work that I love best.  Many kids working together also achieve this effect by the blending of their individual choices into one work.  At the end of our time together I ask what each participant has observed, or learned, or would like to share, and inevitably, there is just one little voice that proclaims, "You're an artist, but you don't paint!"