For the first part of this term we are going to be focusing on colour and patterns for our topic. Today we have been having fun trying out oil pastels! For our first task everyone drew round their hand and tried making patterns using opposite colours in the colour wheel!
Everyone enjoyed exploring mark making with the oil pastels and the vibrant colours they create.

For our second task everyone made some fantastic monsters! Some of the children had a go at sgraffito (put a layer of a light colour down and then put a darker colour on top, then use a pointed instrument such as a plastic needle or wooden craft stick) on their monsters to add details such as hair on their monsters body. We also had some googly eyes available to add to the monsters where they wanted.
We decided to arrange the monsters on the table to take a class photo of them like they were monsters at monster school.

One of the children spent a long time near the end of the session making a sgraffito fireworks picture. I thought I would share it with everyone as you can see quite well how sgraffito works. For the bottom layer they used lots of different colours and then for the top layer they used black, this was the most time consuming part. Next they used a plastic needle and a glue spreader to scratch firework shapes into the black oil pastel, revealing the colours underneath.

Today we started our canvas painting mini project. The children decided they enjoyed the more express style of illustrations and cartoons. Since their last session they had planned their final piece at home and spent today finalising their drawing and beginning to paint, using what we had learnt about colour mixing last month.

Next Friday Strutts Community Centre will be shut for Good Friday and the following week we are shut for Easter so we shall see everyone after Easter where we will finish off our paintings!

As something a little bit different this week we had several activities available today. We had egg painting, daffodil collages, pom-pom chicks and Easter colouring pages. Everyone loved painting eggs and making collages! The pom-poms were tricky and we ended up only getting three done, we probably need more time if we make pom-pom chicks again, but the pom-poms we successfully made look awesome!

Have a lovely Easter everyone and see you after!

Today we have been planning our canvas painting for next week. The children had the choice of painting a self portrait, painting of someone they know or an imaginary character.

After choosing what they wanted to do they drew and had a go at painting the figure/portrait. This helped with practicing colour mixing and finding what colours work for what they were trying to achieve. They also had the opportunity to test out different mark making tools, for example using a plastic needle to add freckles to a face or add blades of grass. We also had a hair dryer available to dry the paint so that they could practice layering paint up.

Next week we will be creating our canvas paintings.

Today we had lots of fun painting pictures based on our favourite stories. Some chose to paint scenes from their chosen stories and others had a go at recreating the book covers.
There was a choice of different sized brushes, sponges, cotton wool, wool, cardboard, bubble wrap and plastic palette knives to use. Everyone had their own palette with red, blue, yellow, black and white to use to practice their colour mixing skills.

Next week we are going to have some Easter themed activities ready for the Easter holidays. We’ve got pom-pom chicks, Easter egg painting and tissue paper daffodils to have fun with.

Today we had a look at some different illustrations of characters and the children chose an illustration each to have a go at recreating. First they drew the outline with pencil and then they used fine liner pens to ink the outline before colouring them in using some brush tip pens. One of the children said they felt weird trying to draw in a different style to what they are use to but enjoyed using the brush tip pens.

For the last part of the session the children had a go at drawing a girl in their own personal style. They tried to include some of what they had learnt about colour schemes in their choice of colours.

We also had a new person join us today so we briefly went over colour mixing again, this time we used watercolour paint instead of acrylic paint.

Next week we will be using what we have been practicing so far this month to plan a picture for a mini canvas painting project. We will be using what we have learnt about colour mixing, colour schemes, construction lines and the stylised method of illustrators.

Today we have been doing some observational drawings of some plants. The children had lots of different materials to choose from to create their art and we ended up with a variety of different pictures! Some of the children even decided to turn their art into cards for family members.

Next week we will be experimenting with different mark making tools and paint to create pictures based on our favourite stories.

Today we practiced both our observational drawing skills and using construction line to help us to draw accurately.
During the first part of the session we drew simple pencil sketches of a person from a photograph and had a go at doing some shading. We also had a go at trying to fill the page more.

During the second half of the session we drew a person from a different photograph and then had a go at colouring them in accurately; testing out colours before using them on the picture and using pencil strokes to try and represent the texture of hair.

Next week we are going to have a look at some illustrations and how they are different from observational drawings.

Today everyone has had so much fun recreating their gardens at home or creating an imaginary garden using lots of different materials. We had tissue paper, wool, pompoms, boxes, ribbons, buttons, fabric and lots of different types of paper. Everyone loved all the different shiny materials we had! They also enjoyed practicing their scissor skills cutting things into the right shape!
Next week we are going to have a go at drawing some plants, the perfect way to practice our observation skills. We will try doing some different drawings using different materials such as: chalk pastels, oil pastels, charcoal, graphite, pencil crayons and pencils.