This term, students will be given the opportunity to expand their skills in drawing. They will explore techniques and materials that require them to develop their imaginative capabilities as artists, drawing on their visual memory and a range of prompts that support new ways of expressing a subject matter. Students will be supported each week to create a series of imaginary creatures using a range of exploratory techniques, approaches and processes. They will create a series of painted, collaged, and drawn creatures that they will embellish and manipulate using a variety of pen and ink techniques, inspired by the work of Sarah Fanelli, Shaun Tan and Maja Safstrom. The final part of the process will be to create a 3D model of their favourite drawing, and create a painted imaginary creature using paper clay.
Maja Safstrom’s ink wash drawing
Week 1
In week 1, students were encouraged to draw from their Imagination and create a creature. This could take any form and was created using pen and watercolour wash.
Sarah Fanelli’s ink and watercolour wash drawing
We explored what it is to use our imagination when drawing and students came up with some of the following reflections:
- “Imagination is the ‘Third Eye’, it is not real but seen in your mind.” Itsara, Year 3/4
- “Imagination is something or an idea that you play around with in your mind” Year Poppy 3/4
- ” Sometimes we can use our imagination to take ideas from other sources to make something new.” Thomas Year 2
Week 2
It is this comment, Sometimes we can use our imagination to take ideas from other sources to make something new, that became the main focus of our creative attention this week.
We created new images of imaginative creatures through the re-configuring of existing images, drawn by Swedish illustrator, Maja Safstrom. We took her line drawings of extinct animals, cut them up and re-configured them to make new creatures. We then used a black pen to further develop the drawing by adding more detail and patterning.
Week 3
This week we explored a new technique to exercise our imaginative drawing skills. We embarked on an activity that exercised our imagination and ability to see. we were inspired by the following quotes:
“When you look at a wall spotted with stains… you may discover a resemblance to various landscapes, beautiful with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees. or again, you may see battles and figures in action, or strange faces and costumes, and an endless variety of objects which you could reduce to complete and well-drawn figures.”
Leonardo Da Vinci
and
“How many ‘faces’ lie hidden, waiting for the time when curious eyes will find them in their secret places. In the heart of a leaf or the bark of a tree. In a frozen pond or the turning sea. In the twist of a chair or the look of a key or the shrivelled skin of an elephant’s knee.”
Irwin Dermer
We explored the technique of ink blow painting. Students placed a blob of Indian ink on the paper and then used a straw to blow the ink to create a random stain. Students played around with this technique and created a few sheets in preparation for next week when they will find images in the ink stains. This is very similar to finding images in clouds.
Week 4