Water and Rock: Teenagers explore building drawings with graphite and modroc

By Sheila Ceccarelli

It’s AccessArt’s belief that art and design, like language, breathes and manifests itself in all subjects and that skills gained by students in the art room, can be drawn upon as tools to explore and understand the surrounding world.

In this resource teenagers look at pieces of chalk and flint and explore the physicality of rocks and geological processes with graphite and plaster.

Teenagers from AccessArt's experimental drawing class, explore image making and building a drawing with modroc and graphite — Teenagers from AccessArt’s experimental drawing class, explore image making and building a drawing with modroc and graphite

Graphite and plaster, materials I used in my own practice, are themselves found in the earth and seemed like the perfect medium for exploring these inspiring pieces of flint and chalk and the physicality of rocks.

In this one and a quarter hour long session, teenagers had the opportunity to explore drawing rocks and building drawings with modroc and graphite.

Students build their drawings with layers of modroc and graphite to echo the very forming of the rocks — Teenagers build drawings with layers of modroc and graphite, a process inspired by the rocks themselves and how they were formed

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Drawing Source Material: Inspirational Stadiums

A collection of imagery and sources which you can use to prompt drawing in schools and community groups.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control.

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate.

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks.

Inspirational Stadium Designs

Use the film below to enable students to explore inspirational stadiums around the world. Try to create a sense of momentum – for example you might pause the video 4 times and ask the pupils to make a 1 minute, 2 minute, 3 minute and 4 minute drawing at each pause.

Encourage close and slow looking by talking as they draw – use your voice to attract their attention to different qualities.

Try the same exercise using different materials, ie handwriting pen, ink and nib, using a ruler to make all the lines etc.

When pupils are more experienced, you can also try getting them to make their drawings as the videos play – making quick gestural sketches.

Teachers Start the New Year with Sketchbooks

Life Drawing: Using Tone by Hester Berry

Drawing Source Material: Polar Bears

A collection of imagery and sources which you can use to prompt drawing in schools and community groups.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control.

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate.

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks.

Polar Bears

Use the film below to enable children to explore drawing polar bears. Try to create a sense of momentum – for example you might pause the video 4 times and ask the pupils to make a 1 minute, 2 minute, 3 minute and 4 minute drawing at each pause.

Encourage close and slow looking by talking as they draw – use your voice to attract their attention to features of the polar bears.

Watch the full documentary The Polar Bear Family & Me

Free polar bear image, public domain animal CC0 photo.

public domain animal CC0 photo.

Free polar bear image, public domain animal CC0 photo.

public domain animal CC0 photo.

Free public domain CC0 photo.

Life Drawing: Understanding Foreshortening by Hester Berry

Life Drawing: Drawing Hands and Feet with Hester Berry

Life Drawing: Drawing the Head by Hester Berry

Red to Green: Wax Resist and Scraffito

Red to Green: Steps to Observational Drawing

Red to Green: Monoprinting

Life Drawing: Capturing Gesture by Hester Berry

Red to Green: Taking Rubbings and Making Compositions

Red to Green: Patterns in Nature, Line and Wire

Aspire to Create: Inspired by Nature & Empowered by Creativity – Red to Green

One: Casting

Exploring mark making into wet clay, mould making, mixing and pouring plaster

Two: Patterns in Nature, Line and Wire

Using drawing to look at designs and patterns in nature to inspire the creation of wire sculpture

Three: Taking Rubbings and Making Compositions

Recording the surrounding world by taking rubbings

Four: Block Printing

Learners are introduced to block printing

Five: Monoprinting

Exploring texture, pattern and mark making through monoprinting

Six: Steps to Observational Drawing

Four steps to enabling observational drawing

Seven: Making Sculpture

Learners explore sculptural principles of form, space and balance

Eight: Wax Resist and Scraffito

Introducing colour with wax resist and scraffito techniques

Life Drawing: A Collection of Resources by Hester Berry

How to Run a Life Drawing Class

Introducing Hester and providing an overview of how Hester sets up and facilitates a life class.

An Introduction to Life Drawing

Getting started with life drawing and some simple warm-up exercises to help you become familiar with your drawing materials and the life model.

Capturing gesture

Hester provides some helpful advice along with a series of short drawing exercises, that will enable you to identify the essentials of a pose and successfully record the movement and gesture of the life model.

Drawing the head

Drawing faces can be daunting, but Hester explains how you can tackle them successfully using simple and logical steps.

drawing hands and feet

Hands and feet are tricky subjects and often get omitted because the forms seem too complicated to draw. Hester shares a secret shortcut to understanding and drawing these complex forms …think mittens and socks!

Understanding Foreshortening

When drawing the life model, it can be difficult to process your view of a 3D form into a 2D representation. Hester explains clearly and concisely how to successfully achieve a foreshortened figure to create the illusion of space in your drawings.

Using Tone

Hester explains how to use tone effectively to give your drawings more definition and an increased sense of volume and suggests ways of using tone when drawing short poses, that will build your confidence and skills.