WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING THE WATERCOLOUR?

 We have been working  on these Escher inspired tile patterns for a few weeks now.  The complexity of the designs really surprised me, the children got so much detail in, I was worried that they would be frightened to add colour in case they obliterated it.
 My first instinct was to have the children use coloured pencil to colour a light layer on the repeated pattern, and some did.....and they looked very nice......

But then in the back of a drawer, I found "BRUSHO". ( It probably has many other names in different places)  I thought its watery qualities would be just the thing to use.......  and it was....... 

  

And now I can't put it down   "BRUSHO RULES!"

SAY HELLO TO AUTUMN "BRUSHO" LEAVES

This talented child is only 5!

AND A LITTLE BIT OF HALLOWEEN

Some of me younger classes drew a spooky house first before the blew a tree shape

And they all enjoyed spraying the watercolour with the toothbrushes, although we did have a few sprayed the wrong way and had spotty faces for the rest of the day!

Purple Haze

 

I had a lovely day last week at Isla Primary School.   Isla Primary is a tiny rural school housed in a brand new timber framed building within a varied often remote community in the Angus hills and glens.  Very often their needs are challenging, exciting and inspiring!  

I found myself working with the children to a brief.  We had three canvases, 32 children (from 4 - 12) and a staff room that needed cheered up.   Oh, and the colour scheme was purple!

We splattered, swirled, printed splodged and spotted paint and ink on every conceivable variation of purple: mauve, lilac, heather, dark, light.   On black, purple and white paper.  Cut hundreds of circles and attached them to the canvas, adding a button on top.

Some days in my schools I am not the only specialist visiting, in fact we had an archer and a cake decorator instructing too!  

So the inspiration was easy, we created targets, or were they cup cakes?!

At The Dentist

Observational drawings.

One of my favourite infant drawing lessons, great results every time.   

Even pupils with the most basic of drawing skills produce exciting, detailed and well observed drawings.   These examples were drawn by 4, 5 and 6 year olds.   I love black pen drawings.

The children start off by drawing a large circle for the mouth.  This seems to make them think differently about drawing a face, approaching it from a different aspect, it makes them listen to instructions and observe more closely.  Although some still draw the nose and eyes within the confines of the mouth because it is a familiar face shape, most end up making really true representation of the subject.

AND THEN THERE WERE CUBES

As part of my Maths/Art themed term, I have had some of my classes creating cuboid structures on isometric or rotated squared paper.

They love the effect and can't get over how "sticky-outy" it becomes.

  

           

It's important to start with a top, then add three vertical edges and the bottom two edges.   Its a great way to reinforce all the previous 3D mathematical language that they have learned.  Words like face, edge, corner, diagonal, vertical and horizontal are all covered.  When the grey and black tones are added the whole picture really comes alive and the children want to experiment with holes in the larger blocks.  

I had to bribe most of them to finish and go home at the end of the day!

SPHERES

My older classes are at the stage where they want to make drawings with some element of realism.  This lesson ticks all the boxes.  It gives confidence and pleasure. 

I showed the class this M.C. Escher image to inspire them.  They all thought that it would be something that would be well beyond their capabilities.

I told them that I would show them how to draw a simple sphere.

The class all drew and cut a perfect circular stencil (they thought it was going to be really easy by now!) .   

The children added a linear pattern without drawing an outline.   Using the stencil to mask the paper, a perfect circle is created. They used pen and  scribbled, stroked, and  textured on the patterns. 

 Most of the pupils realised that if they drew slightly curved lines it added to the 3D illusion. 

Still with stencil over the circle, the pupils were shown how to render the tone with pencil and learned to use finger and graphite smudging to add really subtle form.

The next stage will be to make spheres using charcoal and add a shadow to create a standing form.  Watch this space for the next instalment!

LINEAR ILLUSIONS

Drawing block for my P5's and P6's.  We are looking at line, and giving it movement and form.

We are also linking the theme with pattern and tone.

Some of the classes have experimented by adding screws, buttons and bolts.

I can't decide if I like the coloured ones or the monotone.

A bit of creative pinning has given them an extra dimension on the wall. 

This class made their lines into ribbons.

NEW YEAR NEW TERM NEW CHILDREN NEW IDEAS

The summer is over although many would argue that it never started at all!  
This year I have the privilege to work with some of the younger children in some of my schools.  Oh!  How I have missed the wee ones.  The chalk came out, the painting overalls went on and the drawings just kept on coming.

We looked at the art work of Joan Eardley for inspiration and in particular her drawings of the Samson children.  Joan lived in Glasgow and befriended the children that lived close by.  Her portraits of them are charming and poignant, and they have inspired many generations of artists since. 

One of the classes have added patterned clothing using found object prints. The hands and arms add an expression of joy and excitement.

Some of my other classes used oil pastels instead of chalks, a different effect, less subtle but great colour.  The class teacher will add bodies and arms to these, can't wait to see the results.

 

The children loved the pictures of the Samson children and watching a little video clip of the portraits in progress.

 Joan Eardley often gave the children some of her chalks to play with after they had sat for her in the studio.  The street, close and tenement where the children lived was soon decorated with their own little drawings and of course games of hopscotch.   Now I didn't need any excuse to take the children at Cortachy Primary out to the playground and do the same.