NEWS!

Sorry for the scarcity of posts of late - have been extremely busy with lots of exciting new projects - more news to follow.
The big news is that my book 'Little Red Riding Hood...' has been shortlisted for an award! I would really appreciate it if you would consider voting for it.







http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/book.php?id=1437




Many thanks.

No pics

The 'big' computer is playing up. I've tried two system restores at different points in time but it still refuses to work properly! Windows 8 and Compaq don't seem to have been a happy mix for me. I hope customer service at Curry's/PC World is up to scratch when I take it back at Xmas.
So, am unable to upload any photos of all the wonderful stuff the children are doing or list any more goodies in my 'shops' - but please don't let that put you off having a look in them anyway because there are still some wonderful bargains to be had.

today

In our maths lesson today, inspired by the 'picture pie' work of American illustrator Ed Emberley, we reminded ourselves all about simple shapes and fractions by creating pictures from circles. 

 

ice cream

As part of our German lesson we went to the local ice-cream parlour today. The children all had to ask for their choices in German. Back at school we only had about 15 mins left before home time - so I dug out one of my ideas from way back when and showed them how to create recognisable images of people using an ice-cream cone as a starting point!

Should you be interested, I've got copies of the how-to book - 'Snow-cone Figures' - listed in my Etsy shop.

greek shipping

As part of our Ancient Greek studies we've been learning about ships. Rather than just draw and label a pic I made a quick template to create a moving version. The tab moves the oars back and forth by means of a hidden linkage and the flag lifts to reveal a 'fascinating fact'. This is my 'here's one I made earlier' example - the template was very basic and left a lot of creativity open to the children.

little red riding hood

Have just listed copies of my unique, innovative book in my Etsy shop. Decided to get it out there before someone else comes up with a similar idea and am tired of waiting for a very slow response from the real publishing world. No wonder book publishers are being left behind and struggling to combat electronic alternatives- they are still working to an incredibly slow model that was fine a few years ago but doesn't even go near the mustard these days, let alone cut it!

I feel better for that! Please tell your friends to snap up a copy in time for Christmas - it will be the best stocking filler at pocket money prices that they will buy this year!! It's a story book, colouring book and a find the 'hidden' mouse book all rolled into one!!!

a is for...

In between tidying and sorting the classroom at the end of the school year, managed to doodle a few 'new' images, all based around the letter 'A'.

Am contemplating another 'A is for...' booklet - might do a mixed one like the first (a few copies still available! - please see my Etsy shop) or do a specific 'A is for...Animals'. Would appreciate any thoughts on this.

art week 1

Been trying to do lots of art this week - in between all the other frantic end of year stuff. The overall theme for the week is 'Line, shape & pattern' which hopefully gives all the staff quite a loose rein to cover a very wide range of stuff.
My class started off by looking at Picasso's use of line, in that he conveys and represents a recognisable image using the minimum of marks, often in the form of a continous line. Here's one of the children's pics;




Today we looked at Paul Klee and his mix of line and shape.We used watercolours to paint images in his style - these are looking very promising;

The idea is to, next week, hold a week-long exhibition of pieces created by the whole school. We're going for quality rather than trying to display every single piece by every single child. Hopefully serves as a bit of an incentive/pride thing.

Alongside the exhibition we are also holding a 'running auction' of celebrity 'artworks'. Several months ago I 'invited' over 100 celebs, film stars, sports & TV personalities to send in artwork based around the letter 'H'. Why the letter 'H' ? Because the proceeds from the auction will go to the charity 'Help for Heroes'. I've managed to get 20 pieces from: Korky Paul, Jan Pienkowski, Michael Morpurgo, Jacqueline Wilson, Bob Hoskins, Bernard Cribbins, Frankie Dettori to name just a few. Some are real works of art, some are doodles, but all are unique! Hopefully they should raise a bob or two. Might post some images up later in the week. If I was a bit more technically minded perhaps I could have listed them online at the same time thereby inviting internet bids. Never mind, maybe next time.

Phew- back to report writing!

life circles

In science we are currently 'doing' life cycles. In art therefore I showed the children how easy it was to create recognisable images from circles (life 'circles'). I demonstrated how they could use the same basic template to create pictures of a wide variety of animals - see my 'here's one I did earlier' pics for the polar bear, dog, lion and elephant. I also showed them that the lion could, by the judicious use of spots, stripes etc., become virtually any big cat.

Have put together a very rough dummy copy of my 4-way story book and have decided to send it off to agents/publishers to gauge the response - wish me luck.

more paintings

Found some more time (!) to paint up a few pics. The small canvases are actually brooches!! They have fixings bonded to the back. Thoughts? Wondering if I should put them in my shop??

mixed media on canvas, 8" by 8"

mixed media on canvas, 2" by 2"

Again, light has gone, hence the shine from the flash.

painted

Managed to paint it up. The brass is gold paint and actually shines (see 1st out of focus pic).

new pic

On the drawing board at the moment- a pic of part of a brass band. Hopefully will get around to painting it up but school beckons tomorrow (sigh).

robot, doll + ice-cream

One more sketch - another cute, whimsical pic of a girl 'bot cuddling her doll and just about to savour a delicious ice-cream.

collaborative painting

Y3 today, in a spirit of cooperation, produced a body of work that, en-masse, loosely represents a spring meadow. They each painted a bit and then passed it on, whilst receiving another piece to add to. This round robin proved quite successful, with the first class painting 'textured' backgrounds for the next class to add flora. A variety of techniques were incorporated including overpainting and scratching out.

Might well add other media including collage, oil pastel or even a bit of stitching!

cards

A few hand-drawn cards that I've done. A6 size - shortly to be listed in my Etsy shop

shapes

This week in Y3, it's shape! Again, trying to make it a little bit more creative, after the usual identification process, how many faces, edges, vertices etc., I gave them a quick tutorial on how to draw 3-D shapes. They were then let loose to see what wondrous images they came up with. (They had to annotate their pics to ensure it looked like they were doing some proper learning!)

This afternoon to tie in with Science ('Helping Plants Grow') and Literacy ('Wordplay'), we drew calligrams.

'bot sketches

A couple of 'bot sketches - a page straight out of the sketchbook.

Pen & pencil on paper. Toying with the idea of just putting pages straight from the sketchbook into my etsy shop but not too sure how they'd do. Only one way to find out I suppose.