long time no post!

In y2 the other day we had a go at painting without drawing in pencil first. We drew elephants last week in our sketchbooks so just made the same marks but with a paintbrush. We added a bit of texture by scratching with a cocktail stick.

elephants

The y3's today had a go at drawing elephants. They did a before sketch and were then shown different ways of creating recognisable images. Can you spot the before pic?

                        

drawing

Today in FS2 (4/5 yr olds) we drew animals by starting with their initial letters. First try-out of the contents of my new book.

elephants

Today I showed the y3's a simple way of drawing recognisable images of elephants. They had a go first ( you might be able to spot their 'before' drawings) and then followed step by step instructions to portray elephants from the side, front and rear!

I think they managed - don't you?

Did you spot the 'A' starting points? Similar step by step guides to drawing a whole load of easily recognisable images can be found in my book - 'A is for Art' - available in my 'shops' ( shameless plug! )

print & puppets

Finally managed to catch-up with our y6's today. They've missed several art lessons due to trips and rearranged timetables. Although we won't now have time to do stencil or screen prints we at least managed to have a go with 'polyprint' - thin polystyrene tile that you impress lines into. We even got as far as trying our hand at the reduction process.

 

 

 

 
FS2 have been busy recently learning about jungles so we made some clay-headed stick-puppets.
Using simple push/pull techniques we were able to create recognisable animals.

today

I've recently had a go at a few bits and pieces clay-wise and here they are on opening the kiln after their final firing. You should be able to spot the footy supporter from last week (quite pleased with him), some small pendants (an experiment that I might pursue with members of my weekly art club) and various parts of a bird (pigeon?) that I've got a crazy idea to make into an automaton piece!

 

Meanwhile in Y4 we glazed our polar bears and carefully added basic facial details.

For those who had finished we then went on to imagine that there was a polar bear who was not like other polar bears - essentially the 'Elmer the elephant' story by David McKee, but obviously altered. We drew and coloured them. The class teacher became very enthusiastic at the writing possibilities that this threw up and is keen to explore the theme with the children - altered stories, shaped books etc.

elephants & basketball

 A pic of this years completed embroidered and appliqued Indian elephant pieces. Each square is approx. 20x20 cm. Felt with added beads, buttons and metal washers.

 

 

 

And 'basketball 'bot' ;

 

A5, ink & pencil on paper.

yay!

Today's doodle celebrates a gutsy performance from the lads last night (retro shirt).

 

 

We've also been working hard on, and have nearly finished, our embroidered/appliqued elephant pieces. Stitched flower patterns, beads and bling (small metal washers) have been added.

stitch

A bit more sewing with the y3's today. The embroidered/applique elephant pieces are coming along nicely. Might even decide to make them into small cushions.

 

 

red elephant

We've started to stitch our elephants onto a backing. This was the child's first ever go at sewing - I think they've done a grand job. Pins out, ear on next time.

 

 

STOP PRESS

Have just listed 'Manchester Derby' on ebay (see previous blog entry). Please feel free to check it out.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190906051650

Today in the parallel class we sketched elephants. I first got them to draw their version of a pachyderm in the top left -hand corner. I then showed them several different ways to depict an elephant - using a letter 'e', beginning with a circle and adding a letter 'g' and finally, starting from a square, then adding a 'g'. Hopefully from the pic below you can make out the different methods and see that they were certainly able to draw more recognisable images than at the start.

We then went on to using a 4x4 grid to create a very simple 'elephant' pattern that we are going to use to create embroidered, applique pieces.

caves

Today we made caves. We started out by making thumb pots, before turning them on their sides and reshaping them into cave-like structures. For added effect we embedded stones and twigs. For 4/5 year olds I think they did really well. They will be used to enhance their literacy work - story-telling.

 

 

The y3's have completed their embroidered applique elephant designs. En masse, pinned up on the wall, they look very effective.

pachyderms

Today has been 'elephant' day! The youngest ones pasted scrunched up paper onto a heavy card backing in anticipation of assembling the dried pieces into an elephant.

 

 

The Y3's completed their appliqued and embroidered Indian elephant motifs. We stitched on beads and washers (!) for leg jewellery.

doodles, elephants & vikings

A couple of recent sketches. The robot conker one was for a lad in my class - he brought me a conker in (!) so I gave him this pic as a thankyou. Well, the 'bot is playing with a sort of nut, so I'm sure it's within international conkering rules!




It's appliqued & embroidered elephant time again for our Indian topic. We made simple patterns from 3x3 grids.



A colleague is 'doing' Vikings. Did a figure based on the simple 'robot' model that I made ages ago. The blob of glue on the front is 'cos I was rushing it!

Got me to thinking that the basic template could be utilised for a whole host of figures/characters with very little effort.

indian doodle

We're looking at India in y3 and so I did a doodle in my pocket moleskine. We've looked at Indian elephants for art so I thought I'd do a procession - colours a bit washed out 'cos I had to take it with flash the on. Can you spot the 'A is for elephant' ?

scribblz

Whilst keeping my fingers crossed for a successful outcome with my wonderful 'can't think why no-one has done it before' book idea, I managed to do a couple of quick scribbles in my pocket moleskine.

Pencil underdrawings, inked over.

elephants in the room

Computer back and hopefully fixed! A few pics of what we've been up to lately - enlarging images using grids (after looking at Roy Lichtenstein's work) and appliqueing 'decorated' elephant designs (for a topic on India);

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!).

A is for African animals

Using the 'A is for Art' concept I 'invented' (?) - we drew African animals in our sketchbooks today. All pics started out as letter 'A's - we just detailed them as appropriate to represent each animal. The children were amazed to find that they could easily and quickly draw something that looked reasonably like what it was supposed to.

indian elephant

India today - and elephants (made from the template I concocted a few days ago).

Looks like he's wearing specs!

The howdah is a simple origami box that we learnt how to make ages ago.