Amber & Turquoise Class

This week our reception, year 1 and year 2 classes investigated the work of Spanish painter and sculptor Joan Miró (see examples below). We discussed the composition of Miró’s abstract paintings, thinking about how artists choose where to place objects in an image in relation to each other. We played a game to familiarise ourselves with different lines and shapes used by Miró, then put them together on our paper using marker pens. We thought carefully about where each shape should go and how big it should be. We added some colours to our designs, using red, yellow, green and blue to match Miró’s paintings.

Magenta & Violet Class

Our year 3 and 4 artists thought about composition too. We worked on an exercise that challenges our creative thinking and problem solving skills. Each of us wrote down 20 objects that we wanted to include in our compositions, then took turns drawing a number from a hat. For each number we added the corresponding object to our drawing using our chosen medium. The challenge was to add each new object in a way that worked with the previous ones- we had to take into account size, position and how it would relate to the previous objects. The more rounds we did, the trickier it was as our paper was getting very full! We ended up with some very interesting compositions.

Emerald Class

Our year 5 and 6 artists experimented with the concept of doodling to create ideas, using mixed media. We worked with various media to create ‘prompt pages’ in mini sketch books, using collage, ink, pastel, pencil and watercolour to produce abstract backgrounds. We then listened to different pieces of music while allowing ourselves to doodle without having too much of an aim in mind- we drew inspiration from the music and from the backgrounds we’d created. After each piece of music we swapped to a different medium. We ended up with some really creative pages which suggested ideas for further illustrations.

Cyan Class

Our Bronze Arts Award group have been busy getting to grips with the drypoint intaglio printmaking process. This is for part a of the Bronze award, which involves taking part in the arts. We sketched designs for our images before tracing them onto acrylic plates using drypoint etching tools. We applied ink to the plates, then used scrim (a loose weave fabric) to clean the plate- some ink was left in the scratches made by the tools. We laid the plate onto the mini printing press, positioning a dampened piece of watercolour paper over the top. We then rolled the plate and paper through the press, causing the inked image to be transferred to the paper. We are going to evaluate our results before creating additional prints another week.

Indigo Class

Our Silver Arts Award group are still hard at work producing illustrations to accompany their chosen poems, which will come together to create a collaborative anthology. We’re looking forward to sharing our finished work!

Amber & Turquoise Class

This week our reception, year 1 and year 2 artists created ‘doodle books’. Doodling is a great activity for exploring mark making, texture and composition. We started off with a mini book made from coloured paper. We glued pieces of collage into the book, choosing images, textures and patterns which appealed to us. We then chose a medium to doodle with from a selection, including colouring pencils, markers, graphite, chinagraph pencils, oil pastels and soft pastels. We let our minds and pencils wander, listening to different kinds of music to inspire us, and using the collaged pieces as starting points. After each piece of music we swapped to a different medium. We discussed our results- we got some very interesting pages!

Magenta & Violet Class

Our year 3 and 4 artists created their own picture books in honour of World Book Day! We designed characters in our sketch books, then chose a setting from a selection of images. We used a story mountain template to structure our stories, splitting them into Beginning, Problem, Climax, Resolution and Ending. We then shared our picture books with the group.

Emerald Class

Our year 5 and 6 artists also worked on producing their own picture books. We came up with some very creative storylines and characters to share!

Unfortunately most of our classes this week were cancelled due to the snow! Only our Tuesday classes ran. Hopefully we’ll be back to normal next week.

Amber Class

Amber class embraced the spirit of World Book Day by making their own picture books! We discussed traditional tales, identifying the main characters, setting and problem within each story. We designed our own characters, then chose an appropriate setting from a selection of ideas. We took turns to take a ‘problem prompt’ from a hat to give us some ideas for possible problems for the characters in our stories to encounter. We then set to work creating a story using our chosen elements to show how our heroes solved the problem!

Indigo Class

Our Silver Arts Award group are busy working on their self-initiated project to produce an illustrated poetry anthology. They were working on collage and drypoint intaglio printmaking, amongst other things! W’ew looking forward to sharing the finished anthology after Easter.

This term we are focusing on drawing! We’ll be developing our drawing skills in line, tone, texture and colour using a variety of media. We’ll apply our skills through various small and larger scale drawing activities, working individually and collaboratively to explore different subjects.

Amber & Turquoise Class

Our reception, year 1 and year 2 artists worked on expressing feelings and emotions through mark making. We experimented with making different kinds of marks to represent feelings such as sad, angry, confused, terrified and excited. We then moved on to using Brusho inks to paint these emotions in the form of shapes. We discussed which colours could be used to represent different emotions. We then used marker pens to transform our ‘feeling shapes’ into characters.

Magenta & Violet Class

Our year 3 and 4 artists warmed up by experimenting with mark making to depict different emotions. We also used line to interpret journeys or actions, such as walking through a park, running to catch a bus, or being lost on a busy street. We discussed how colour is used to convey emotion, for example red to denote anger, green for envy and blue for sadness. We drew characters in marker pen, using a combination of facial expression, line and colour to show how they were feeling. We got some great results!

Emerald Class

Our year 5 and 6 artists worked on conveying emotion through their drawings too. We came up with some very expressive characters!

Amber & Turquoise Class

This week our reception, year 1 and year 2 artists tried their hands at monoprinting! We rolled out ready mixed paint onto a printing plate, then created an image directly into the layer of paint using a brush. We laid our paper over the top of the image and lightly rubbed it all over before lifting the paper off. Our designs had then transferred to the paper! We also used stencils to create patterns- we cut shapes from card and laid them on top of the rolled ink before taking a print. We got some exciting results as we were never quite sure what we would see when we lifted the paper!

Magenta & Violet Class

Our year 3 and 4 artists collaged some fabulous picture frames for their typographic prints from last week. Violet class also had a go at a bit of monoprinting!

Emerald Class

Our year 5 and 6 artists printed the second layer of their reduction block print this week. We cut out the animal shape from the polystyrene printing plates we made last week, then drew in some more details. We chose a colour that would contrast well with the first layer, then printed the second layer over the top. We had to take care to line up the images correctly. The results looked really effective! We then collaged frames and chose which of our printmaking projects to display in them.

Cyan Class

Our Explore Arts Award group presented their personal projects this week. We spent some time reflecting on how we thought our artwork had gone in our log books, then spoke for five minutes on what we enjoyed doing most, whether we had to overcome any problems, and what we would do if we had more time on it. Each student gave feedback to each other which we will record in our log books. Everyone made a successful presentation and it was lovely to see the finished pieces!

Indigo Class

Our Silver Arts Award students made a trip to the Key Theatre this week to see a thrilling adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s dark psychological fantasy, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde. We’ll be reviewing the play for part of the award which involves being the audience for a range of arts events.

Our talented Cyan class received their Discover Arts Award certificates this week! They worked hard last term to complete their log books and were all successful in achieving the required standard for the award. They’re now working towards the next level, Explore. Congratulations!

We’ve had two lovely afternoons of workshops this week! Here’s what we’ve been up to…

Scribble Collages

We listened to some different pieces of music and let our oil pastels dance along on the paper! We then added some watercolour to fill our page with colour. When the paint was dry, we cut our paper into strips, before rearranging them onto a piece of mountboard. When we were happy with our collage design, we glued the strips in place. We got some very colourful results!

 Yarn Wrapping

We used a variety of different coloured yarns to wrap sections of our chosen twigs. We also added beads and a few sparkly pieces of wool. This was a lovely, calm activity, and the twigs looked great when displayed together in their jars!

We also had a fantastic cityscape drawn on the door in chalk by the very creative brother of one of our students 🙂

Paper Sculpture

We tried out some methods of sculpting using strips of patterned paper, to create a variety of forms including bridges, loop-the-loops and spirals. We experimented with different combinations of these, and also thought of our own ways to build shapes. Some of us made snails to incorporate into our designs too. The end results looked fantastic!

Pet Rocks

We created some fabulous pebble characters using acrylic paint. Some of us made aliens or monsters- we also had a fish, a puppy, some bugs and a pig, amongst others! We used tiny brushes to paint details, and added pom poms, googly eyes and buttons. 

Well done to all our fabulous artists, we had a lovely time with you all! 

This week Indigo class spent some time bringing our Arts Award log books up to date, adding photos of the different art activities we have explored this term. We then worked on a canvas to be included in the Winter Exhibition- we used strips of fabric, PVA glue and pearlescent acrylic paints to create a water-inspired mixed media piece. We will be adding embellishments next week, using the sewing skills that we developed during our previous textiles project.