merry christmas

Finished for hols today - the children were very excited 'cos of the overnight snow!

Hope everyone has a great Christmas.

Christmas decorations

In between finishing bits and pieces off, we had time to make a few decorations today.





Simple paper strips. The red/green one is suitable for hanging on a tree, the white one looks great hanging at a window. The children did really well with them - simple but effective.

naked pegs

Have been whittling again! A trio of peggy's, not yet painted or embellished. Have a few ideas going round in my little head about a different style of paint job - ie. not like previous ones where they 'represented' footy players etc (see previous posts). The actual design has also been tweaked slightly (can you spot the difference?). Might be after Crimble before they get done though.

xmas cards

In between giving a mini xmas concert (cornets, clarinets) to the rest of school + parents, we had a go at making some crimble cards today. We stitched and origami'd various designs.

collage version

Here's one I collaged earlier.

sketchbook

A sketch, in a new style I've recently been playing with, done in my pocket moleskine.

factors

Trying to help the children understand factors/products - came up with this Christmas themed way of representing them to make it a bit more interesting.

artist visit

Today our school hosted Sue Deighton - an UK-based artist. She began the day by delivering a couple of presentations to the whole school - a thoroughly entertaining start for the children. Not only did they learn about her techniques and style of working but were treated to a wealth of stories about her encounters with various animals - elephants figured largely! She spent most of the day working intensively with classes and small groups.

All of the children enjoyed her visit tremendously and went away with new-found knowledge and 'tricks of the trade'. They produced some wonderful pieces, which when dry, will make for a fantastic display.

Thankyou Sue for a terrific day. (nb. Mustn't forget Chris, her husband, who lends an extra pair of hands and ensures everything keeps on track, running smoothly - a marvellous double act!).

draw a reindeer

Have been putting together quick and easy drawing guides for the staff to share with children and thought I'd put one of them on here. This is for the 'artistically challenged'amongst us - though if you can write 7, 7, 4 you should have no problem. Hopefully the notes are self explanatory - have fun.

reindeer digi stamps

Still plugging away with the idea of digi stamps on etsy. Just put this listing into my shop - 4 images of reindeer to cut and paste, colour, re-size till your hearts content.

sound drawings

Today, after looking at several images representing sounds, we listened to various instruments and had a go at showing them as marks/'pictures'.

We then listened to pieces of music and did likewise. Next week we hope to introduce the idea of colour to further enhance our impressions of sounds with a view to creating a finished piece that can be displayed on our science wall - we just happen to be studying sounds in science too!

Have also been sketching - 'Ebearneezer Scrooge';

pastel pics

Y5 today produced 'blitz' oil pastel pictures (in the style of van Gogh!). We used dark blue sugar paper and masked out the searchlight beams. Yellow, orange, red, purple and blue stripes were laid onto the paper before being blended by adding marks of the colours either side (if that makes sense!). Searchlight beams were picked out in white before a dark silhouette was added in the foreground.

woodburner

The big excitement of the half term hol was getting a woodburner installed into our humble little house in France - up till now we've had to make do with a gas heater and electric radiators.

For those who are interested, it's a Villager 'A' with canopy.

dynamic images

Following on from our sketches using the mannequins we ended this drawing 'unit' by looking at Futurism. We then had a go at creating our own dynamic images, where, to save time, we drew around the mannequins to produce a picture that had 'movement'. We think we were quite successful - tho' we didn't manage to complete them today.

figure sketches

Y5 sketchbook work. Sketches produced before using the paper mannequins we made, are on the left - the 'after' pics are on the right.

littl' black dress

Just made another peg doll figure - this time dressed in a little black felt number. Not sure how to make it stand independently, other than the ubiquitous wooden stand - posed it on the edge of a glass for now.

autumnal abstracts

Finally managed to display the artwork we started weeks ago - added 'fallen' leaves and other details today. Work is pinned up ready for final fixing.

Need to add a few more touches - photos of the process etc.

proportions

We made some paper mannequins today to help us get our figure proportions a little more realistic - their previous drawings had the usual large heads/little bodies. We will add detail next time.

digi stamp!

After advice from a fellow etsyian I've taken the plunge and listed a 'digi stamp'. Apparently folk pay for an image to be zapped straight to them - so that they can colour, re-size and print it exactly how they want. This is definitely new territory for a technophobe like me. The home-made blue watermark is to deter scoundrels from simply saving the image straight from the listing - not sure how effective it is though!

cards

Here's a pic of what the cards actually look like.

hand-drawn cards

Have just drawn (ink just about dry!) and listed some cards in my etsy shop.

a is for pirates

Had parents meetings today - during the lulls I doodled a few pirates - all using an 'A' as a starting point. No luck yet from agents/publishers but then again I've only contacted those on the first few pages of the listings. I know the concept has potential, I'm just waiting for a publisher to think likewise.

portraits

Y5 this week had a go at drawing realistic portraits. Their initial 'before' sketches are in the top corner and the 'after instruction' larger. Looks like they listened - they were certainly impressed with the results.

ww2 display

Managed to get some of the houses onto the 'interactive, time-lapse' display today - blutacked them on 'cos things are going to happen!

Not heard anything about the book proposal I put out there but am still keeping everything crossed. Have, however, had an article published in an art magazine for schools, about links that can be made between art and maths - mathARTmatics - am looking forward to getting a copy to see how it looks in print.

collage buildings

We started making some small (A5) collage houses and shop fronts today ready for a WW2 street scene. We're hoping to make our display interactive and will be updating it as the war progresses ie, we will add blackout curtains and 'tape' to the windows, all metal fixtures and fittings will disappear, 'telegrams' will be delivered to certain houses, barrage balloons will appear over the nearby factories, some buildings will get bombed (replaced with a 'destroyed' collage) etc.

we painted today

This afternoon my new class and I painted. We started out with tree-like silhouettes which we then abstracted into patterns and designs. It was nice to spend time like this before the onslaught of chasing targets and levels.

book proposal

Have put a drawing book proposal into the ether - well, e-mailed it to a few agents anyway. I've developed a unique and very simple method for creating easily recognisable pictures and have got to the point where I am tentatively pushing it out there. Probably way above my humble station but you never know.

back from hols

All good things must come to an end - back to school tomorrow!

Whilst on holiday in deepest, darkest France we found these tiny (less than 1cm diam.), vintage mother of pearl buttons at a local brocante. They are supposed to go into my daughter's stash of goodies for her to use in her upcoming fashion & textile studies - but she says I can have some! I'm thinking baubles on hand-stitched Christmas cards - is it too soon to begin producing these and listing them on etsy?

(Wow! - now over 1000 visits - I should go away more often!)

exhibition

Today we had a temporary, informal gallery of work that was produced throughout the school during last weeks Art Week. Different year groups looked at Mexico, Ancient Egypt, Australia, Africa, India - we could only cover things superficially but hopefully some children went away inspired - we shall certainly be going over things in more depth next school year.

School hols are almost upon us, so there will probably be no more posts until the beginning of september as I'll be down in deepest, darkest France with no internet connection.

Have a great Summer!