Category: Visual Art

(Group B) What we have been dreaming about has finally happened! During these two sessions we teamed up with my friend Odeta to prepare an introductory animation workshop for our children. First, we learned some basics about stop-motion animation, and then we chose paper cut-out animation as our technique. Initially, we invented our main characters and imagined them in a story. After this, we drew them in black pencil, coloured them in with markers and cut them out. We focused on eyes, mouth and hair as a way of expressing emotion. Some children chose to make short animations about themselves, while others made them about spaceships or their favourite animals. We were astonished to see everybody, including the very young children, embracing these techniques with lots of excitement and with ease, in a rather short time. These results are the very first attempts, which will become better and better if we continue practising.

Group B: (24-05-18): YouTube Playlist Animation B
Group A: (17-05-18): YouTube Playlist Animation A

(Group A) What we have been dreaming about has finally happened! During these two sessions we teamed up with my friend Odeta to prepare an introductory animation workshop for our children. First, we learned some basics about stop-motion animation, and then we chose paper cut-out animation as our technique. Initially, we invented our main characters and imagined them in a story. After this, we drew them in black pencil, coloured them in with markers and cut them out. We focused on eyes, mouth and hair as a way of expressing emotion. Some children chose to make short animations about themselves, while others made them about spaceships or their favourite animals. We were astonished to see everybody, including the very young children, embracing these techniques with lots of excitement and with ease, in a rather short time. These results are the very first attempts, which will become better and better if we continue practising.

Group A: (17-05-18): YouTube Playlist Animation A
Group B: (24-05-18): YouTube Playlist Animation B

(Group B) To make the most of getting close to an animal, we invited another neighbour’s dog to pose as a model for our project. He is a friendly white labradoodle, a cross between a labrador + poodle, called Tijs. We looked at several famous artworks where dogs played a central role. Then we observed Tijs carefully, and started to draw him in pencil, and after he left we carried on by using photographs of him. The children worked hard to capture ‘man’s best friend’ realistically, although they could still use their imagination to create the situation where the scene is set. The next step was to paint Tijs’s portrait in gouache. Each artwork is unique – as is its creator 🙂

(Group A) On a sunny day like this we just had to be outside, drawing in nature! We took advantage of beautiful chestnut trees in the nearby park. The assignment was to draw a tree of the child’s choice using the whole surface of the paper. Our goal was to observe the dense net of tree branches and to imagine them reaching beyond the paper: drawing the lines until the edge of the paper helped to create a mosaic-like structure of the tree’s negative spaces. Later, in the studio, the children then painted the trees’ negative spaces with intense watercolours in line with the child’s fantasy colour scheme.

(Group A) During this session we were lucky enough to welcome a special guest: Cato, the sweet dachshund belonging to one of our neighbours. We invited Cato along to be our model and, of course, so we could cuddle her! We talked about dogs (and especially dachshunds) in art. We looked at portraits of dogs by three famous artists, all of whom were inseparable from their dachshunds: P. Picasso, A. Warhol and D. Hockney. Then we observed Cato carefully, and started to draw her in pencil. We also used photographs of Cato after she had left. The aim of the exercise was to capture ‘man’s best friend’ realistically, although the children could imagine the situation where the scene is happening. The next step was to paint Cato’s portrait in gouache. David Hockney’s artwork Dog Days served as inspiration for the use of colours (especially pastel yellow, blue and green).

Between the classes the letters were fired in a ceramics workshop. Then, during the second class the kids painted them with colourful gouache paint in order to express their ideas and to add more detail. All letters collectively create a fun alphabet!

(Group A) We first covered the whole surface of the paper with a thick layer of oil pastel. Then we went over this colourful base layer with black paint. When our black layer was ready we started to scratch off the paint with wooden skewers. There was a bicycle in front of the children, which they could use as a model for their drawing, but they could also use their imagination, drawing the bike of their dreams and adding a story to it 🙂 This drawing technique encouraged the kids to work faster and to take advantage of the paint still being a bit wet. They also enjoyed the unpredictability of it, when revealing random colours from the base oil pastel layer.

(Group B) We were busy making ceramic letters during two classes. All the letters of the alphabet were put in a bowl and the children were asked to pick three. Once they had chosen their letters, they sketched their ideas on paper, thinking about which object/animal could represent each individual letter. The assignment did not involve many instructions but we did say that the letters created out of clay should be able to stand up…

(Group A) We spontaneously chose the topic of Fashion as it was International Women’s Day and we were exclusively girls at this session! Reflecting on the limitless possibilities of patterns and styles, we drew in pencil three or four figures, each in a model-like pose. They could be wearing an extravagant dress or a hat or shoes. The children created a base for our collage work with colourful paper. We finished off the background and important details with black ink; some girls chose to continue with watercolours. It was fun to work with these talented young fashion designers!

(Group B) We were learning about comics: the definition, the difference between comics and cartoons (animation), the vocabulary of comics, the process of image simplification, use of typeface and colour, etc. For those who are interested in exploring the art of comics in more depth, I recommend reading a fascinating book, Understanding Comics: The invisible art, by Scott McCloud. The kids not only made up their own characters and stories, but they also managed to translate their ideas into a rich comic strip that was finished off with the use of intense watercolours.