Insect Cubes

By Jan Miller

Jan Miller is an Art and Design teacher with more than 25 years’ experience working in formal education settings, currently teaching ages 4-15.  In this resource, facilitated with Year 8, learners were challenged to create observational and expressive drawings of insects set inside resin cubes, focusing on scale and materials.

The activity consisted of two one-hour sessions in which learners first worked on a small scale to explore the potential of different materials before moving on to larger drawings using a spontaneous, bold, and expressive approach. The distortion of the insects within the cubes, combined with the unusual angles and shifts in scale, made them ideal subjects for expressive drawing.

This activity celebrates messy, experimental, and individual responses, guiding learners through an exploratory journey with materials towards the creation of a finished piece.

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What We Like About This Resource….

“This project provides a real opportunity for children to engage with a range of different processes to produce truly individual final results. Jan Miller is an experienced teacher and connects her projects well with learning outcomes. In this case, children are encouraged to have a loose approach and to make their own creative decisions – which is such a valuable part of any child (or adults!) creative education”. – Rachel, AccessArt

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