WHEN I GROW UP . . . . .

Mrs Hardie wanted to be a vet, a pig farmer and then a journalist, when she was growing up - now she wants to be an artist!  Mrs Milne asked some of the younger boys and girls what they wanted to be when they grew up and I wanted to share the fantastic black pen drawings they created with her, at Birkhill - aren't they fabulous!  

The detail always comes out in this work, as the children are concentrating so hard on line and pattern, as they aren't distracted by the complication of colour at this stage.

PRIMARY ONE AT LIFF DO IT AGAIN!

I am SO impressed with the boys and girls in Mrs Stewart's class at Liff Primary School . . . they never cease to amaze me with their wonderful attitude and gritty determination to have a jolly good go at experimenting with different materials.  More wonderful drawings for their sketchbooks, of leaves (using chalk on black sugar paper and black pen on brown parcel wrap - one of my favourites) were created.  They had to think about lines and patterns and making their drawings bigger - scaling them up, which they have become very good at indeed.  Printing next - so watch out for more wonderful work from the Primary 1 class at Liff!

LIFE IS SWEET!

My pupils have been learning about different watercolour techniques and when to use them in the work they create.  In our first lesson, we used the wet-in-wet technique, to blend together the primary colours and create our own secondary colours.  A wide range of greens, oranges and purples appeared in a variety of tones.  The children then learnt that if they waited until their painting was dry, that they could use the wet on dry technique, to paint the detail, without the edges blurring or smudging.

They also tried holding their brush not just at an angle to achieve a thick line, but also upright like a flagpole, so that they could create some very fine lines aswell.

As always, Mrs Jenkins put up a fine display of the work her P6 class created.  She incorporated their beautiful little paintings into a display alongside the class work they had been doing on similes.      

These look so good you could eat them!  The teachers had great fun picking out their favourites and imagining what they might taste like.  The children took their favourite ones home and put the rest of them into the giant class jar - yum! 

CHAMPIONS OF THE WORLD AT GRANGE PRIMARY SCHOOL!

The boys and girls from Primary 7 at Grange, produced some really spectacular illustrations - move over Quentin, here we come!

We initially completed some observational drawings with luscious 6B pencils, of feathers.  These included various pheasant feathers - quite apt given that their class book was, the wonderful 'Danny the Champion of the World'.

We watched some short video clips of young pheasant chicks, which were fostered by my own hens at home, as the pheasant mother had abandoned them.  Some of Mr Findlay's class managed to then sort the photographs I had brought in, into the correct order on a timeline.  Then we used black pen and water in our next lesson - to do some 'penting', a cross between painting and drawing, with black pen.  

Choosing their favourite illustration from the book, the pupils drew a very simple line drawing with the black pen and then using a small brush, with water, they gradually added tone to their images, creating real atmsophere - the results I'm sure you'll agree are impressive!

I suggested the same technique could be used on other surfaces, including brown parcel wrap.  The suggestion was taken up and Jack designed and made the wrapping paper you see below - just beautiful!  The added bonus was that I was given a book, as a present . . . wrapped up in the lovely handmade paper!  Thank you P7A and I hope you enjoyed the roast pheasant too!

The wrapping paper made by Jack in P7A - could start up his own company selling this!

FLOATING. . . FLUTTERING. . . FEATHERS . . .

A selection of beautiful feather drawings follow, by a wide range of pupils from a number of my schools.  This is a favourite lesson of mine and great for developing the observational drawing skills of all ages!

The drawings above were by pupils in Primary 6 at Birkhill and look great up on display in their classroom, as seen below.

  

 

The sketches and paintings below are inspired by the very same feathers, but created by much younger children, 'learning to look' - well done Mrs Stewart's Primary 1 Class at Liff!

Nearly time for snack too -  there's a lovely shadow beside the apple. . .could you draw that?