New School Year, New Classes, New Inspiration

THE JAMMY DODGER

By name and by nature.

I have seen so many of these little guys in the past few weeks, the sweet sickly smell both turns my stomach and makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.  New water soluble graphite pencils.....so worth the investment.  Such a simple and effective way to create a sense of shadow.  

I have done these with 5 to 8 year olds, but I think all age groups would love to do them.  

RECIPE   

• The class start by drawing 3 hearts, before the biscuits are even produced, this ensures that the hearts are drawn bigger than life size (and adds an air of mystery....) 
• the biscuits are opened and divided up, for observational purposes, not consumption.  I get the children to draw the splodge pattern and then the outer circle.  Starting with the nearest biscuit.   If there are issues with shapes overlapping, the further away circles will be neatly tucked underneath.  you will need to point this out, but once they see the effects, they will be delighted.

• a thickness is added, to create 3 dimensions (and a layer of jam), then a shadow.
• water can then be painted over the biscuit thickness, shadow and carefully round the splodge shape, thus creating a a wash and really simple, effective hint of realism.

the same effect can be achieved with black  Berol pens with water

 

FROM MILK CARTON TO ELEPHANT

Last term at school and all the budget is spent....time to get creative.  Saw this idea somewhere and thought it a good one....and it was.  Hundreds of milk cartons later, here are some examples.

Our inspiration was a London elephant parade.  http://www.elephantparadelondon.org/  

Organised to protect Asian elephants and their environment.  Fitting nicely into my environmental/recycling theme.

It also gave me an excuse to dig out the wee bits of fancy papers and shiny odds and ends that were (always) tucked away in the far recesses of all my schools, workshop and studio. Cathartic!

It did, however, involve transporting bags of smelly plastic milk cartons the length and breadth of Angus.... with the windows open.

The children just loved these projects.  There were no 2 elephants the same. Some classes wanted to write stories about their elephants, some wanted to make little animations with them.  Well worth doing.  So now I need an idea for a milk carton for next summer...got any?