By David Allen.

In this Drama and Art series, teacher and Associate Professor David Allen explains the different ways in which drama and art intersect, and how the two subjects can be taught together to foster skills in creative thinking, communication as well as nurture an awareness and appreciation of art.

David has worked in primary schools for over twenty years as a teacher, senior leader and Deputy Head teacher. He now works part time as an Associate Professor in Learning and Teaching at The University of Hertfordshire. 

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AccessArt is a UK Charity and we believe everyone has the right to be creative. AccessArt provides inspiration to help us all reach our creative potential.

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Drawing and Making Flowers

Painted and Sculptural Plant Pots

Drawing Insects with Wire

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.

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Pathway: Mixed Media Land and city scapes

This is featured in the ‘Mixed Media Land and City Scapes’ pathway

Talking Points: Kittie Jones

Talking Points: Vanessa Gardiner

Talking Points: The Shoreditch Sketcher

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Pathway: Expressive Painting

This is featured in the ‘Expressive Painting’ pathway

Talking Points: Brush Work of Van Gogh & Cezanne

Talking Points: Marela Zacarías

talking points: Charlie French

Session Recording: Expressive Painting

What We Like About This Resource…

“We’re really grateful to Jake from Draw Brighton for sharing this activity which became so well received during lockdown 2020.

This is the perfect reminder that wherever we are in the digital or physical world, we have our eyes, hands and faces, and drawing provides a wonderful opportunity to come together in small groups to make sketches of each other. Use this activity as an ice breaker before a workshop, or as a transition activity between classes or events. Thank you Jake!” Paula, AccessArt

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Pathway: Exploring Identity

This is featured in the ‘Exploring Identity’ pathway

Talking Points: Njideka Akunyili Crosby

Making Physical or Digital Layered Portraits

Introduction to Portraits

Exploring Portraits in Graphite, Collage and Clay

The AccessArt Prompt Cards are a series of very short drawing prompts which can be used in a wide variety of situations. You can download the prompts below as a PDF.

Find the recording of the In The Studio session focusing on AccessArt’s Prompt Cards below.

DOWNLOAD THE ACCESSART PROMPT CARDS PDF

Using the Drawing Prompts as a Warm Up

The Drawing Prompts are a great way to help learners be open about what drawing is and how they make marks on a page. 

Before you work with the drawing cards, consider enabling learners to understand how they hold a pencil, how much pressure they apply, and how they move their arm will effect the marks they make. See Anatomy of a Pencil resource here. 

moving and drawing

teenagers make their own prompt cards

Anatomy of a pencil

Using the Drawing Prompts as an Aid to Well Being

The resources below share how you might use the Drawing Prompts to help learners develop their appreciation of drawing in the “now” – a useful skill to help build a sense of well being.

drawing as a tool for mindfulness

arts and minds

Using the Drawing Prompts as an Aid to Exploring

In the resource below, the AccessArt Drawing prompts were used as a way to help teachers (or learners of any age) explore artwork made by others (in this case an exhibition of the work by Degas at the Fitzwilliam Museum). The drawing prompts help learners collect information in a visual way and help make an individual creative resource.

Drawing in a museum or gallery

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Pathway: Stick Transformation project

This is featured in the ‘Stick Transformation Project’ pathway

Last week we looked at how we can use sound to help develop our mark making in a very intuitive way. Today we are going to look at how we can develop our mark making skills in a slightly more analytical way – through examining the work of other artists. By doing this, and by using our new mark-making vocabulary in the drawings we make, we can begin to understand how different types of marks create personality and meaning in our drawings.

As with all the AccessArt resources, we want to help learners aim high, but through a series of small steps. And at each of the steps we ensure we are encouraging open-ended, creative experiences so that the learning is really owned by the learner.

Find the recording of the In The Studio session exploring diverse mark-making below.

Activities which help learners identify new marks…

Finding marks through artists

thoughtful mark making

drawing clouds and mark making

Typography for children

Monoprint with Oil Pastel

Flat Yet Sculptural making

Making Sculptural Wild Things

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Pathway: Typography and Maps

This is featured in the ‘Typography and Maps’ pathway

Pathway: Cloth, thread, paint

This is featured in the ‘Cloth, Thread, Paint’ pathway

Session Recording: Finding Marks Made by Artists