Artist Melissa Pierce Murray led a series of workshops for AccessArt’s Experimental Drawing Class  in which the teenagers modelled a head in clay. There are four resources in this series, beginning with constructing an armature and making preparatory drawings, then studying the bone structure of the skull before moving on to features.

The work was done over 8 sessions of 75 minutes each, but could be adapted to two or three longer sessions. The workshops took place at over a term at Cambridge ArtWorks.

Part One – Armature

Teenagers construct simple armatures out of cardboard and build a form for their clay heads out of paper and clay. Read More

Part Two – Preparations

This post looks at two preparations for making a clay head: drawing to help us learn to see the form in the round, and taking measurements from life.Read More

Part Three – Skull

In this post we concentrate on developing the shape of the cranium and forehead, the structure of the eye sockets, cheekbones, jaws and teeth.Referring to anatomical drawings or to a model of a skull will help students begin to see this bony underpinning to the skin and muscles of the head. Read More

Part Four – Features

We look at how to form the features: eyes, ears, mouth. We look at ways to finish and embellish the form using hair, clothing or inventing horns. In the class we talked about how the muscles attach to the bones, and how the skin smoothes over the surfaces. Read More

This is a sample of a resource created by UK Charity AccessArt. We have over 1500 resources to help develop and inspire your creative thinking, practice and teaching.

AccessArt welcomes artists, educators, teachers and parents both in the UK and overseas.

We believe everyone has the right to be creative and by working together and sharing ideas we can enable everyone to reach their creative potential.

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Back to InSET & CPD

Teachers Battle it Out in Conversation with Marks on Paper

Teachers embarked on an exercise whereby they made marks on paper to have a conversation with a partner. This was a playful and fun exercise and teachers very much enjoyed both the process and outcomes.

Teachers Explore Pattern, Shape & Texture with Charcoal, Graphite, Masking Tape and Pastels

This was the second session in the series and an introduction to pattern, shape and texture with charcoal and graphite, and an opportunity for teachers to break down any preconceived ideas about what drawing is and who drawing processes is for.

Play and Placement: Teachers Explore Approaches to Drawing

This was the third and final session in the series, and an opportunity to play with creative mark-making and explore context and placement as an introduction to larger scale drawing and concepts around installation art.

UK Charity AccessArt welcomes artists, educators, teachers and parents both in the UK and overseas.

We believe everyone has the right to be creative and by working together and sharing ideas we can enable everyone to reach their creative potential.

Join AccessArt from only £3.50 per month and enjoy full access to hundreds more resources!