This week each class experimented with colour and texture using a range of media! 

Maroon, Amber & Turquoise Class

Our reception, year 1 and year 2 artists experimented with wax resist techniques. We collected different textures by creating rubbings of various surfaces using oil pastels, and then added Brusho paint. We also drew ‘secret pictures’ using candles- it was tricky because we couldn’t see what we were drawing, but once we brushed paint over the paper our drawings appeared!

Magenta & Violet Class

Our year 3 and 4 artists used a wide range of drawing media to depict feathers in different ways. We got some beautiful results! We are going to use this work as collage material for next week’s project, which will be a combination of drawing and sculpture.

Emerald Class

Our year 5 and 6 artists also produced some wonderful feather studies. We’ll be making some very bright and colourful bird sculptures next week!

This week we were all working on showing a range of tone and texture in our drawings. We used charcoal, chalk, rubbers and watered down paint to draw some landscapes. 

Maroon, Amber & Turquoise Class

Our reception, year 1 and year 2 artists practised showing varying degrees of tone in their sketchbooks. We then went outside to create some large scale group pieces- we drew trees inspired by those in the garden and from our imaginations. We used a variety of marks to show different textures, and added areas of wash. At the end we dripped paint onto the picture to show the rain! 

Magenta & Violet Class

Our year 3 and 4 artists chose scenes to draw- Magenta Class worked in the studio garden on large sheets of sugar paper, and Violet Class visited the churchyard with their sketchbooks. We chose scenes that we thought would work well to show tone and texture- we looked for lots of contrast between light and dark areas. We produced some lovely studies!

Emerald Class

Our year 5 and 6 artists also took their sketchbooks across to the churchyard. It was lovely to sketch on location, and the group made some very successful studies in tone. (We also did some gymnastics!)

This week was all about drawing from the imagination! Each class used soft pastels to invent imaginary landscapes and characters.

Maroon, Amber & Turquoise Class

Our reception, year 1 and year 2 artists worked on an imaginary landscape inspired by photos of rainbow eucalyptus trees. We discussed the colours and patterns we could see, then spent some time investigating the different kinds of marks we could make using soft pastels. We got rather messy but we made some lovely, colourful drawings!

Magenta & Violet Class

Our year 3 and 4 artists created characters inspired by the poem The Hippocrump by James Reeves. We listened to the poem and identified information it gave us about the appearance of the Hippocrump, such as having eight legs with hideous claws, three humps on his back, and one hundred teeth! We used our imaginations to come up with a character design incorporating the features mentioned in the poem- everything else was up to us. It was really interesting to see how each artist’s interpretation varied.

Emerald Class

Our year 5 and 6 artists also worked on character development. We chose three animal body parts at random from a selection (such as antlers, claws and a tail) and sketched a mythical creature, combining each element in different ways. We then completed a larger portrait of our character in soft pastel. We came up with some really interesting designs!

Term 6 classes at Art Stars are focusing on drawing! We’ll be working with a variety of different media including graphite, charcoal, soft pastel, oil pastel and inks, and will be taking advantage of the (hopefully) sunny weather to complete some large scale drawings outside. 

This week we’ve been working on observational drawing techniques. Each class warmed up with some spatial awareness exercises in order to develop the relationship between what our eyes are seeing and what our pencils are drawing. We started by spending some time following the outline of our chosen object using only our eyes to familiarise ourselves with its form. We then repeated the exercise, this time drawing the object in the air, before finally drawing onto paper. We made sure to keep our focus on the object rather than the drawing so that we weren’t relying on memory.

We then practised these skills by creating a collection of drawings of natural forms, using a variety of media including graphite, charcoal and fineliner pen. It was nice to work outside, though it was rather windy!

Maroon, Amber & Turquoise Class

Magenta & Violet Class

Emerald Class

This week was all about representing varieties of texture in different media. We used pens, colouring pencils, water soluble pencils, oil pastels, soft pastels and watercolour paint, working entirely in blue to encourage us to focus on the texture of an object rather than its colour. We discussed the texture of various objects, creating a spider diagram of adjectives in our sketchbooks for future reference. We then had a go at recreating different textures, making our own choices about which media we thought would be most successful for each one. Some groups went on to have a go at drawing some of the objects to put our line, tone and texture skills into practice, whilst others experimented with media on a variety of textured papers.

Please click on a photo to enlarge it.

Turquoise and Magenta Class

Violet and Emerald Class

We had a lovely first week of classes! This half term, each class is focusing on developing drawing techniques in various media. We started off with a warm up, experimenting with different grades of graphite pencil from 2H to 9B to create a range of different marks. We then headed outside to put our mark-making skills to use, drawing natural forms from observation. We’re going to be using our sketchbooks every week to record our progress.