By Sarah Longley

This resource documents a project facilitated by artist educator Sarah Longley, working in collaboration with a primary school and a daycare centre in Scotland. Sarah talks about how she was inspired by the Exploring Identity pathway to deliver a project that sought to produce vibrant portraits inspired by the stories of participants.

In this project, children interviewed elderly people from a daycare centre and produced portraits inspired by their stories. Sarah explains how she facilitated this project by navigating funding, building community relations and celebrating important social history through portraiture.

This project took place over several weeks, with three sessions to prepare children for the visit to the daycare centre and three sessions to complete the portraits. Sarah also details how she managed to get the whole school involved in the project, which resulted in two wonderful exhibitions, a book and a film.

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Pathway for Years 5 & 6

Disciplines:
Drawing, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That we use the word form to describe a three-dimensional shape.

• That when we draw on two-dimensional surfaces we can use line, mark making, value, shape, colour, pattern and composition to help us create an illusion of form, mass or volume.

• That contour marks can help to describe volume and form/mass.

• That we can mix colours and use a range of media to create atmosphere and meaning in drawings.

• That drawing and sculpture share a close relationship, and can inform each other.

This pathway enables pupils to consider how 2 dimensional drawing can convey a sense of form/mass and volume. By looking at the drawings of Sculptors’ Henry Moore, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude we can explore the ways in which they portrayed an illusion of form and meaning in their drawings.

Pupils will explore a range of mark-making, taking inspiration from artists’ work and will have the opportunity to experiment with a variety of materials.

Medium:
Drawing materials, Loose sheets of paper varying in size, shape and quality.

Artists: Henry Moore, Christo and Jeanne-Claude

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Additional Pathway

This pathway is an additional pathway to help you extend, develop or further personalise the AccessArt Primary Art Curriculum.

We suggest this pathway is used to replace a “Drawing and Sketchbooks” (Orange) Pathway  “Typography and Maps” (Years 5 & 6) or “2D Drawing to 3D Making” (Years 5 & 6).

You may also like to use the activities in this pathway with a smaller group of children in an after school club or community context.

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

Maths: 2D and 3D shapes, weight, symmetry, angles, mass, volume

Science: Properties of objects, shadows, rocks

PSHE: Collaboration, Peer Discussion

I Can…

• I can describe the difference between shape (2d) and form (3d).

• I can explore how artists use their skills to make drawings which capture form.

• I can use my sketchbook to record and reflect, collecting the ideas and approaches I like which I see other artists use.

• I can use line, mark making, tonal values, colour, shape and/or composition to give my drawings a feeling of form.

• I can share my work with others, and talk about my intention and the outcome. I can listen to their response and take their feedback on board.

• I can appreciate the work of my classmates. I can listen to their intentions and share my response to their work.

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Loose sheets of cartridge paper, Handwriting pens, Soft B pencils, Water-soluble graphite, Wax crayon, Watercolours, Ink

Pathway: Exploring Form Through Drawing

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• The Aim of the Pathway

  This pathway gives pupils the opportunity to explore how we can convey 3-dimensional form through drawing, conveying a sense of mass and volume. Inspired by the work of Sculptors Henry Moore and Christo and Jean-Claude, pupils will make creative responses through a series of drawing exercises on loose paper, resulting in a collection of drawings for a backwards sketchbook.

• Week 1: Introduce an artist
  

  Introduce Henry Moore’s Shelter Drawings

  

  Introduce students to the work of Henry Moore. Find out how Moore’s practise as a sculptor impacted his drawing style in this resource exploring “Henry Moore’s Shelter Drawings“.

  Use the “Making Visual Notes” resource to help record on loose paper.

• Drawing Exercise
  

  Drawing Hands

  

  Create continuous line drawings of cupped hands to explore the word ‘concave’ and what this means in relation to form. Use the “Drawing Hands” resource to run this guided session. Create the drawings on loose sheets of paper.

• Week 2: Draw and Collage
  

  Explore 3 Dimensions using Lego

  Invite pupils to create simple drawings of lego blocks on sheets of paper, considering angle and perspective. Use the “Explore 3 Dimensions using Lego” resource to help you guide this session. Work on loose sheets.

• Week 3: Ink and Pen Drawings
  

  See Three Shapes

  

  Explore outline, form and shadow using the simple “See Three Shapes” exercise. Create drawings on loose sheets of paper.

• 
  

  Drawing with a Ruler

  

  Challenge children to create observational “Drawings with a Ruler“. Consider how mark making can be used to contour, giving mass and form to the drawing. See “Ruler Drawings” created using more spherical subject matter and see how the drawings change. 

  Ask pupils to consider their favourite exercise from the session, which did they prefer and why?

• Week 4 & 5: Introduce an Artist
  

  Introduce Christo and Jeanne-Claude

  Introduce pupils to the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude using “Talking Points: Christo and Jeanne-Claude“. Explore their drawings of wrapped monuments to see the first stages of their concepts.

• Drawing and Painting
  

  Drawings With Mass

  

  Bring in a physical subject matter, in this case potatoes and pebbles, and combine with the mark-making skills learnt previously, to explore how we can create a sense of form and 3d shape through line. Use the “Drawings with Mass“ resource here. Work on loose sheets of paper.

  What kinds of lines might they use to make a drawing of an object which feels heavy and solid? Where is the shadow? Where is the light? How can they make it feel rounded?

• Week 6: Sketchbook
  

  Backwards Sketchbook

  

  Invite students to create a “Backwards Sketchbook” filled with loose works created throughout the pathway.

• Share & Celebrate
  

  Share, Reflect, Discuss

  

  Time to see the work which has been made, talk about intention and outcome.

  Invite children to display the work in a clear space and walk around the work as if they are in a gallery. Give the work the respect it deserves. Remind the children of their hard work.

  If you have class cameras or tablets, invite the children to document their work, working in pairs or teams.

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

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Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

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What We Like About This Resource…

“This activity highlights how visual communication can be used to convey emotion. When artwork is relatable in a human and emotive way it can be really powerful. Learning how to translate feeling into mark-making is a really important skill and can help children break down the essence of a range of their own emotions, and communicate it to others. Explore colour and a range of materials to enrich this experience.” – Tobi, AccessArt.