Thursday 19 February 2015

Still LIfe Pears and some observational drawing exercises

When the weather is good I love to get the children to go out into the garden to do some observational drawing.  Its a great relaxing lesson and perfect for the first one of the year.


Its so important to teach the skill of drawing what we see rather than copying something else or just using our imaginations.  There are many benefits to observational drawing such as slowing down and taking our time, learning to concentrate on what we really see and noticing the small details.  Drawing what we see is difficult and children will learn that improvement takes practice and you need to make mistakes to learn from them.

We started the lesson with a Blind Contour Drawing (idea taken from the Camp Creek Blog).  We used paper plates on pencils so the children couldn't see what they were drawing.  We used flowers as the subject. These were done in our Visual Arts Diary which we will be using all year for such exercises and free drawing.

Blind Contour drawing.  The two wobbly flowers are drawn without looking (paper plate covering drawing) they then had another go when they could see what they were drawing.

We then moved onto drawing and painting Pears which I had placed all around the table. This lesson was inspired by one at Deep Space Sparkle - thanks again Patty!


What you need:
  • Tempera Cake Paints
  • Paintbrushes
  • Yellow, black and white oil pastels
  • Real Pears for display
  • White A3 paper

How To:
  • Hold a pear up and get the children to really look at its shape and colour
  • Ask them to draw 1, 2  or 3 pears on their paper with a yellow oil pastel
  • Paint
  • Let dry
  • Add black pastel for outline and white pastel for highlights
The Results:


Whilst the paint was drying on the pears the children did some observational drawing in the garden.

Rock climbing wall and slide in our garden

Cheers
Fiona

Tuesday 17 February 2015

Holiday Challenge Entries and Winners


I run a holiday challenge every holidays to encourage the children to keep creating even if they are not attending classes.  This is completely optional and usually about a third of my students participate.

Our challenge for the past summer holidays was to draw or paint your favourite holiday activity.  It was great fun looking at all the artwork produced and the different styles and mediums used. I also loved hearing about all the wonderful activities the children did - I have to admit I was a tad jealous of some of them....

All of the drawings submitted were wonderful and every single child that entered should be proud of themselves for creating something and giving it a go.  I've put photos of all the entries below.

I'm pleased to announce the following winners:

1st Prize - Esme (Saturday class)

2nd Prize - Romani (Tuesday class)


3rd Prize - Lizzie (Saturday class)


Highly Commended Award - Benji (Saturday class)


Highly Commended Award - Mia (Tuesday class)


Highly Commended Award -Harriet (Thursday class)



 All the other wonderful entries:










The certificates, prizes and returned artwork has been placed in the children's lockers.

If you are looking at some ways to introduce more creativity into your household Ana at Babble Dabble Do added a wonderful post today called 42 Creative Ideas for Families.  These are wonderful SIMPLE activities that anyone can do.  I've printed them out and put them on our fridge.  I totally agree with her that "EVERY SINGLE PERSON IS CREATIVE".

Cheers
Fiona