I've really enjoyed delivering this lesson in my schools and the enthusiasm of the children during the lesson has been fantastic! Once I'd drawn a couple of items on my own shelves, such as pasta, a jar of cookies or a burst bag of flour, to demonstrate how the children might use their thick and thin pens to create different lines and patterns, their own great ideas just began to flow and there was no stopping them! They 'totally owned' (. . an expression I've learnt from my son!) their drawings, which was just what I'd hoped for.
We began by looking at a couple of illustrations from Roald Dahl's book, 'George's Marvellous Medicine' and discussed Quentin Blake's style of drawing. The children came up with words like messy, rough, untidy, scruffy, scribbly, sketchy and flowing to describe his work! I asked them to think about LINE and PATTERN and using just the black pens, to draw their own lines and patterns in their drawings, creating different marks. Taking away any thought of colour, really makes the children concentrate, focus and think of detail and they become much more aware of every detail and pattern in the everyday objects they draw. I also told them to put away all their pencils, rulers and rubbers as we'd be using just the black pen - some of them felt a little nervous about this and were worried they would make a mistake. I asked them to look again at Quentin Blake's drawings and notice how some of his lines crossover each other and his lines are squiggly and crooked. Then I told them to be bold, be brave and dive in with their pens!
So, first we talked about the grain in an old, wooden table and the patterns that could be made with black pen to show this. They looked at the patterns in their own classrooms and on some of their tables, discussing the circular shapes in the wooden pattern marks. Some of the children were able to identify this pattern as one you would see in a tree trunk cut down and also that the rings told us how old the tree was. Then we talked about all the different lines, shapes and patterns you might find in a kitchen; in the food jars, bottles, boxes and packets and in the items you might find sitting on and hanging from the shelves. Then the children began to draw . . .
The illustrations above were drawn by pupils in Primary 4 at Birkhill Primary School, who had been reading George's Marvellous Medicine, with their class teacher, Miss Sprunt. They produced some fabulous results. For the 3D element in these scenes, we used tin foil and black card to create a saucepan and for the coloured flames of the magical potion, strips of coloured cellophane, bubbling out of the top!
The patterns on the table tops above are all so unique, with their different shapes and wandering lines. You can see the washing, inside a machine in one of the drawings!
The pupils concentrated solely on their black pen drawings to begin with, only adding the 3D elements, once they had completely finished their backgrounds. I asked them to try and use just two colours when 'patterning in' their teacups, allowing them to become familiar with using a limited palette. They were allowed to use another colour for their drink and pink as an extra if they had marshmallows!! We used real teaspoons and tin foil, to 'fold and mould' a very realistic looking 3D teaspoon, to sit beside their cup and saucer.
I love the detail in the simple patterns above; the eggs all in a row, the hanging wooden chopping board, the string of garlic and the pheasant - ready to be plucked!
I also really like the 'sketchyness' in the lines drawn above. This was drawn by a boy at Inverarity Primary School.
This drawing has a food mixer on one of the shelves and you can even see the plug! Such fabulous attention to detail. The children began to put in personal touches, items that meant something to them, things they actually had in their own kitchens or a kitchen they know well. There were metronomes, books, trophies, kitchen scales, clocks, calendars, flowers, fish, birds, cats and dogs!
The drawings became very interesting and individual, with steaming kettles, burnt toast, ringing telephones, the movement of a buzzing bee outside a window, trophies and cups won, packages of food spilling off shelves . . . you can even see a troop of ants in one of the drawings if you look closely! Brilliant!
Here are some fabulous finished pieces to show off, the cooker in the background of this drawing is fantastic!
I also think the detail below, with the radio, is great. I talked about hatching and cross hatching and how we could use both to create different effects. In the background of this drawing you can see something cooking and a mouse running along the shelf! Eek!
I told the children I had a naughty springer spaniel, (I do!) who sometimes jumps on the kitchen table! She is still just a puppy really!! I said they could draw their own pets, but not on the table . . . well just the paws!
The wood grain in the drawing above with it's different shapes and lines is very effective. The wooden table below is also interesting and quite realistic, as the planks of wood run in the other direction, showing some perspective. The fish also look very fancy, swimming around with their feathery tails, beautiful!
This is one of my favourite pieces! This girl from Mrs Hill's class at Liff Primary School has begun to experiment with the idea of persepective, creating just a couple of shelves, but giving her room a corner and an arched door, almost like a scene from 'Alice In Wonderland'.
Another favourite is the one below, with a cobweb in the corner. This boy, also from Mrs Hill's class, has used a little 'pointillism' in the saucer for his teacup, creating a different pattern and the colours he has used might suggest he supports a certain Dundee football team too!?
Here are a few more of the drawings in progress, which were created by Mr Garden's Primary 3 class at Birkhill Primary School. I thought their wooden table surfaces were very individual, some of the tables had little cracks in them and one boy asked if he could draw a bit of dropped food on the table - sounds like my house!! This class also had a go, before we started, at turning a 2D shape into a 3D shape, on the whiteboard. Some of them have taken this and tried using it in their drawings, making cubes and cuboids for their washing machines, fridges and cookers - well done!
You can see inside the fridge in one of these lovely drawings and I love the drawing by the boy who has put a box of 'Frosties' on his shelf, with some of them falling out. The pattern in the drawing beside, with the kitchen roll, is superb and the fish are great too! One of the children has used a swirly, curly line to create the ring of a hob on their cooker and another seems to have an escaped bird in mid air in their kitchen, with wings flapping! The patterns on the table are also very good, because they have used both the thick and thin pens to make different marks.
Finally, this has to be one of my favourite drawings, because it is full of fun and mischief. The two cats remind me of the naughty Siamese cats in the film '101 Dalmations', who cause trouble and chaos in the house, which is exactly what these two are up to! Look at the cat standing on top of the washing machine and stretching up to try and catch the poor little mouse with his paw and the other one is trying to dip his paw into the fish tank to help himself to a free dinner! Cheeky!
Well done to all the children who produced such fabulous pieces of work - keep patterning!
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