Author: Johanna Bilak

To stimulate our imagination, we looked at Picasso’s portraits from his Cubism period; we also used a collage technique that was an important landmark in the history of Cubism. We started drawing fantasy portraits with pencil, and then we ‘designed’ many kinds of patterns using only black or white paint on coloured paper. Afterwards we cut out these patterns to follow through our mask ideas. We glued the pieces onto the drawings of the face and, where needed, we outlined the most important parts with a black pen. I take a lot of pleasure in the results; I hope you like them too :-). Great thanks goes to Luca Pals for her assistance.

 

 

As a warm-up exercise we freely drew to music while using different pencil grades and pressures in order to create plenty of shades. Our still-life was composed of fruits and vegetables because of their incredible shapes and colours. We learned about the importance of looking at objects instead of thinking how they should look. In order to draw a still-life our eyes must continually move from the piece of paper to the object and back.
Finally, we used gouache paint to complete our drawings. We just touched briefly upon the subjects of volume, light, perspective, mixing of colours, contrast, brush strokes… What a blessing to work with these dedicated little artists!

During our first art session we went freestyle, playing with black ink and water on aquarelle paper, exploring contrast between black and white and also all shades of grey. This was a moment for pure fantasy: what do you see in the black ink spots and can you create a story based on them? As a second task we experimented with a ‘tape-paint-peel’ technique and added a final touch of ink drawing. Naturally, we achieved very different but equally wonderful results and the group is just great to work with!

Children from our group seemed to be naturally interested in drawing 3D letter shapes so we went on to study how they are constructed. Lego blocks served us well for building a few real letter models. We emphasised that the process and sketches are more important than the final result. At the end kids became T-shirt designers, creating their favourite T-shirt to wear.

The butterfly theme gave us the freedom to spread our arms and draw with both hands big symmetrical wings on a large piece of paper while listening to rhythmical music. This warm-up exercise aimed at encouraging drawing and employing the entire surface of the paper. Then we moved onto making a collage from our previously painted circular patterns (inspired by Kandinsky). We discussed and valued individual expression, and despite the same process, obtained highly unique artworks. The butterfly’s wings didn’t have to be perfectly symmetrical but rather based on feelings and fantasy. Children could choose to work with black ink, oil pastel or gouache paint to finish the collage; some of them wrote short stories to express their ideas.

The inspiration for this class came from Wassily Kandinsky: squares with concentric circles / colour theory / colour mixing / emotions / making patterns / collage / illustration / butterflies / nature… to be continued next time!

Inspired by the previous dance class, we took the children’s favourite dance pose and drew that particular ballet pose on a large-format paper using charcoal. Special attention was paid to observing body proportions. We then moved onto exploring complementary colours, and painted a free figurative composition with gouache. It was a great learning lesson but also fun for the kids, who worked in a concentrated way, demonstrated by the wonderful results. Time flew by so fast that suddenly it was the end of the class and we hadn’t even realised that we hadn’t taken a break.

We said hi to our new friends by observing their faces, looking at their proportions and facial expressions. Faces also show our emotions and age! We used charcoal first for a quick drawing on the floor. Later we looked into the mirror to study our own face, drew it with pencil or black marker and coloured it in with watercolours. The background comes, of course, from our imagination, dream or fantasy!