By Belinda Lee Chapman

I started dancing when I was 3 years old. Apparently I had a lot of energy so this was a good way to burn it off! Dance soon became my passion and I was determined to become a professional dancer. With a lot of hard work and will power (and a few failed attempts) I gained a place at English National Ballet School. I Studied there for 2 years and subsequently had a successful career performing in many West End shows and touring internationally with Matthew Bourne’s dance company.

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Pathway for Years 1 & 2

Disciplines:
Printmaking (Mono Print), Drawing, Collage

Key Concepts:

• When we make mono prints we use mark making to create one off prints.

• When we make mono prints we create an impression of a drawing.

• That we can generate playful narratives and inventions through drawing.

• That we understand that using a range of marks will generate different effects when creating mono prints.

• That we can create creative responses to different stimuli and make the work our own.

Building on the exploration of drawing in Autumn term 1, this pathway starts with two explorations of drawing – one drawing from photographs or film, and two drawing from small, closely observed objects.

In both sessions pupils develop drawing and mark making skills.

Children are then introduced to mono print. They explore the work of an artist who uses mono print in his own work, and are introduced to a simple mono print technique.

Classes then have a choice of projects to develop mono printing and drawing skills, depending upon their preferred area of subject focus.

This pathways encourages children to take creative risks and use drawing as a way to playfully invent and create narratives.

Themes: Natural and Manmade Forms, Invention, Narrative

Medium: Graphite pencils, Oil Pastels, Carbon Paper 

Artists: Xgaoc’o X’are, Leonardo Di Vinci

This pathway will take approximately half a term, based upon a weekly art lesson.

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

See the recording of the hour long zoom CPD to introduce teachers to this pathway.

Curriculum Links

English: Link to English by asking children to draw upon their own experience for narratives.

Geography: Adapt to explore habitats, continents. 

Maths: Use language to develop understanding of symmetry (peeling back monoprints). 

Science: Animals, trees, materials. 

PSHE: Peer discussion. Collaboration.

Be aware that you leave the making open enough for the children to explore fully and freely (not constrained by working too closely to a theme).

I Can…

• I can make drawings using photos from films as my source material.

• I can look closely guided by my teachers voice, and work in my sketchbook or on paper to make drawings using soft pencil or handwriting pen. 

• I can look closely at small objects close to me and make drawings with soft pencil or handwriting pen at the same scale or size. 

• I can think carefully about which marks I will include in my drawing.

• I can share my sketchbook work with the class and talk about what I like about my work. I can listen to others talking about their work, and sometimes I can add my thoughts. 

• I have seen what a mono print is and have explored the work of an artist who uses mono print. I can share my thoughts on the artists work. 

• I can use carbon paper to make mono prints.  I can experiment with the kinds of marks I make, and think about how they help make my drawings interesting.

• I can base my drawings upon careful observational looking. I can slow down my looking and mark making and work for 5 to 15 minutes on a drawing. 

• I can explore a theme and make mono prints using my imagination to make my drawings personal.

• I can share my work and talk about what I like, and what I would like to try again.

• I can enjoy looking at the work of my classmates and sometimes I can share my thoughts about their work. 

• I have understood that through art, I can invent and discover.

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft pencils, oil pastels/wax crayons, handwriting pens, carbon paper, A3 cartridge paper, tracing paper.

Pathway: Exploring the World through Mono Print

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to encourage children to explore the world around them through monoprint. How can we use line, mark, shape and colour to make imagery informed by our own perception of the world?

• Week 1: Explore
  

  Draw from Stills & Film

  

  Children will spend the first week making drawings in their sketchbooks. Use the free to access “Drawing Source Material: Natural World” resource to inspire their drawings.

  Use the “Show Me What You See” resource to help guide the children’s drawing. 

• Week 2: Drawing from Observation
  

  Drawing Small

  

  Use the “Drawing Small” resource to help children become aware of the relationship of drawing, looking and mark making. 

  Pupils will work in sketchbooks or on larger sheets of loose paper.

  If you want further challenges, invite children to draw with their non dominant hand, create a blind drawing, a backwards forwards drawing and also a continuous line drawing.

  By the end of week two sketchbooks should be full of a variety of images – from drawings of the natural world capturing movement and energy made in week one, to collections of small, still,  found objects made in week two. 

• Recap
  

  Reflect and Discuss

  

  End week two with a short class or small group discussion about the sketchbook work. Encourage children to remember what they did and discuss whether pupils prefer drawings from week one or week two. 

• Week 3: Introducing Mono Prints
  

  What is a Mono Printing?

  Introduce pupils to the technique of mono printing with ink. Watch this video on “trace monotype” and find out how you can facilitate a lesson on printmaking.

  NOTE: In this pathway you will be using a slightly different method which is cleaner and easier!

• Introduce an Artist
  

  Explore the Work of Xgaoc’o X’are

  

  Explore the work of Botswanan Printmaker Xgaoc’o X’are using the free to access “Talking Points: Xgaoc’o X’are” resource. Use the questions on that resource to discuss his work.

• Experiment
  

  Mono Printing With Carbon Paper

  

  Use the “Mono Printing with Carbon Copy Paper” resource to start the print making journey.

  This activity encourages children to look carefully at their subject matter and make thoughtful marks in response. The addition of oil pastel enables children to experiment with colour and shape as well as line.

  Children can either draw from the same objects that they drew in week two, or new objects. The aim of the session is for pupils to explore and see what they can do with this technique – the journey is more important than any final outcome. Pupils will work in sketchbooks or on sheets of paper. 

• Week 4 & 5: Find Your Focus
  

  Choose a Theme

  

  Choose from one of the projects below, or adapt a similar approach to your own area of focus/curriculum theme. 

  All the resources below share the common aim of enabling children to explore printmaking with a focus on mono print. Whatever the focus or theme you attach make sure you give pupils plenty of freedom to play and invent.

  Give children plenty of time and space to explore, take creative risks, discover and share, without working towards a predefined outcome. Encourage and celebrate individuality.

  Have sketchbooks open on tables and encourage children to make notes (whatever form they take), and record and reflect.

• Option 1
  

  Mono Printing Session with ‘Change, Grow, Live’

  

  If you’d like to continue the theme of animals/natural habitat/natural world, then use the “Mono Printing Session with Change, Grow, Live” resource to make prints inspired by animals. (Pls note: the resource describes using carbon copy paper to print and also using ink and rollers to print. In this case use carbon copy paper). 

  Xgaoc’o X’are’s prints are inspired by the cave drawings made by his ancestors. It could be interesting to get children to think about a narrative involved in the animals that they choose to draw. For example an animal that they think represents them.

  Invite children to bring in animal toys or find images of animals with significance to them.

• Option 2
  

  Inventions Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci

  

  If you would like to continue working with small objects and link to curriculum areas such as materials, then you might like to use the “Drawings of Inventions Inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci” resource. 

• Week 6: Display & Reflect
  

  Present, Talk, Share and Celebrate

  If children worked on separate sheets of paper throughout the project, consider if they would like to make a “Backwards Sketchbook” from the experimental loose prints and drawings made throughout the half term.

  Invite children to display the work in a clear space, and walk around the work as if they are in a gallery. Open out sketchbooks. Give the work the respect it deserves. Remind the children of their hardwork.

  If you have class cameras or tablets, invite the children to document their work, working in pairs or teams. 

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

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Painting & printing the savannah

Give children the opportuntity to mono print, paint and collage

A collection of imagery and sources which you can use to prompt drawing in schools and community groups. 

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

This resource is free to access and is not part of AccessArt membership.

Oceans and Seas

Use the film below as source material to enable the children to draw things living in the ocean.

You can either choose to stop the video, and draw from a collection of paused images, or you can also choose to ask the children to work from the moving image. 

Find drawing exercises below to help your drawing exploration.

Drawing Exercises

1. Have the children draw in a quiet room, with the video on the whiteboard.

2. Stop the video at a chosen frame and use your voice to direct their drawing. Choose words which relate to the imagery, for example you might decide to focus their attention on vertical lines, so you might choose words like: line, growth, upward, downward, fall… or you might choose to attract their attention to the energy of a wave or the curve of an animals back. Think carefully about the words you use – they don’t have to be used in sentences – you can speak lists. 

3. Each sketchbook response might take just 3 to 5 minutes, then move on to another still. Create a sense of momentum. 

4. Direct pupils to use a chosen medium. You might like to start with soft pencil or handwriting pen. 

You May Also Like…

Pathway: Stick Transformation project

This is featured in the ‘Stick Transformation Project’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of sources and imagery to explore the work of Yinka Shonibare.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Yinka Shonibare

Yinka Shonibare is interdisciplinary artist. Within his practice he explored Western art history and literature to question contemporary cultural and national identities within the context of globalisation. 

Through examining race, class and the construction of cultural identity, his works comment on the tangled interrelationship between Africa and Europe, and their respective economic and political histories. Find out more on his website here.

Watch “Who is Yinka Shonibare” -Tate Kids.

Earth Kids

“The wild is far from unlimited. It is finite. It needs protecting.” – David Attenborough 

This series of new sculptures by Shonibare reflect on the connection between the history of colonial domination and humankind’s domination of the natural world and the exploitation of its limited resources.

Questions to Ask Children

In your own words, what do you think that the artist is trying to say through his work?

Do you like the sculptures? Why?

How do the sculptures make you feel?

Wind Sculptures

We can’t see wind, but we do see its effects. Here the dynamic movement of a piece of fabric in a gust of wind is rendered in solid fiberglass at monumental scale.  

What we now regard as traditional African cloth is based on Indonesian batik fabric first brought to Africa by Dutch traders in the 1800s. For Shonibare, and for Wind Sculpture, identity is always a richly layered and dynamic set of relationships. – Public Art Fund.

Questions to Ask Children

In your own words what do you think the artist is trying to say with this series?

How does that artwork make you feel?

How do you think the scale of this sculpture impacts the viewer?

What do you like/dislike about the sculpture?

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Exploring Identity

This is featured in the ‘Exploring Identity’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of sources to explore the still life paintings of Dutch and Flemish artists between 1600-1800.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Jacob Vosmaer

A Vase with Flowers, Jacob Vosmaer (Dutch, Delft ca. 1584–1641 Delft) 1613, Oil on wood, 33 1/2 x 24 5/8 in, Purchase, 1871

Questions to Ask Children

How would you describe the mood of this painting?

How have the colours impacted the mood?

How does the painting make you feel?

Jan Davidsz

Close up of Flowers in a glass vase by Dutch painter Jan Davidsz. de Heem, 1606-1684, Oil on wooden panel, height 93.2 cm x width 69.6 cm – from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Questions to Ask Children

How does this painting compare with the first painting of flowers?

Which do you prefer and why?

Rachel Ruysch

Still life with a rose branch, beetle and bee (1741) painting in high resolution by Rachel Ruysch.

Explore another painting by Rachel Ruysch in close detail on Art UK, featured in their The Superpower of Looking project.

Questions to Ask Pupils

What stands out to you when you look at this painting and why?

How would you describe the atmosphere of this painting?

Melchior d’ Hondecoeter 

Peacocks, Melchior d’ Hondecoeter (Dutch, Utrecht 1636–1695 Amsterdam), 1683, Oil on canvas, 74 7/8 x 53 in. (190.2 x 134.6 cm), Gift of Samuel H. Kress, 1927

Questions to Ask Children

What can you see in this painting?

What time of day do you think this painting captures? Why?

Do you think that the animals in this painting get on? Why?

Why do you think the animals have congregated together in this painting?

What do you like/dislike about this painting? Why?

Peter Claesz

Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill, Pieter Claesz (Dutch, Berchem? 1596/97–1660 Haarlem), 1628, Oil on wood, 24.1 x 35.9 cm, Rogers Fund, 1949

Questions to Ask Children

What can you see?

What do you think the painter was trying to say with this painting?

What do you like/dislike about it?

How does this painting make you feel?

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Exploring Still Life

This is featured in the ‘Explore Still Life’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of sources to explore the art of Paul Cezanne.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Paul Cezanne

Cezanne was a French Post-Impressionist painter.

It is said that he formed the bridge between late 19th-century Impressionism and the early 20th century’s Cubism.

Cézanne’s often repetitive, exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of colour and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields. His interest was not in the objects themselves but in using them to experiment with shape, colour, and lighting. He arranged his still lifes so that everything locked together. The paintings convey Cézanne’s intense study of his subjects. Find out more here.

Explore this Google Arts and Culture resource on Cezanne.

A Table Corner (Un coin de table) (ca. 1895) by Paul Cézanne. Original from Original from Barnes Foundation.

Questions to Ask Children

“It is understood that the artist places himself in front of nature; he copies it while interpreting it.“‘ – What do you think Cezanne meant by this?

What can you see in this painting?

What do you like/dislike about this painting?

How does it make you feel?

Whats your favourite part of the painting?

The Peppermint Bottle (ca. 1893-1895) by Paul Cézanne. Original from The National Gallery of Art. 

Questions to Ask Children

What can you see?

How does the colours in this painting make you feel? Talk about the use of cold and warm colours.

What kind of atmosphere does this painting capture?

Paul Cézanne & Rococo Vase (1876) still life painting. Original from the National Gallery of Art. 

Questions to Ask Children

What do you like/dislike about this painting?

How does this painting compare with the other two paintings above. What are the similarities and differences?

The Three Skulls (ca. 1902–1906) by Paul Cézanne. Original from The Art Institute of Chicago. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.

Questions to Ask Children 

How does this drawing differ to Cezanne’s paintings?

What do you like about the drawing?

Why do you think Cezanne included colour washes in his drawing?

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Exploring Still Life

This is featured in the ‘Explore Still Life’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of sources to explore contemporary artists who study still life.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Hilary Pecis

The imagery in Pecis’ work comes from snapshots taken from trips, visits with friends in their homes or restaurants, and the artist’s surroundings. Pecis focuses on specific details that evoke the feeling of the moment. Pecis then uses texture and brushstroke, colour and pattern, and perspective as tools to create a sense of place. 

Pecis often includes stacks of monographs, exhibition posters, and works by other artists within her compositions, allowing Pecis the opportunity to include different styles of painting in one composition. Cultural art and historical references within her paintings allow the viewer to understand the time and place. – Rachel Offer Gallery

Sleeping Dog, Hilary Pecis, Painting, 2020

Watch the video above as teacher, so you have an understanding of Hilary’s work. Then pause the video at set places to introduce the pupil’s to Hilary’s paintings.

Questions to Ask Children

When you look at one of Hilary’s paintings, what words come to mind? How would you describe it to someone who couldn’t see it?

How do Hilary’s paintings make you feel?

Do you have favourite parts of the paintings? Do you recognise anything you have at home? 

Think about your interests and hobbies- what objects might you include in a still life that reflects snapshots of your life and memories? Could you write/draw them in your sketchbook.

Nicole Dyer

Nicole Dyer creates vibrant paints, drawings and mixed-media assemblages and sculptures that explore contemporary life and everyday objects.

Dyers creates playful still lifes using materials such as paper-mache, collage techniques and impasto, putting a twist on traditional still lifes. 

Find more of Nicole’s work at “Talking Points: Nicole Dyer“.

Palegrino, Nicole Dyer, 2019, Acrylic, flashe, and insulation foam on canvas, 10” x 8”

Questions to Ask Children

Is this a painting or a sculpture?

How would you describe it to someone who couldn’t see it?

What do you think the artist was trying to say with this painting?

What do you like/dislike about this painting?

How does this painting make you think differently about still life paintings?

Bas Meeuws

Bas Meeuws is a digital florist artist. His work inspired by the still life paintings of dutch and Flemish artists in the 18th Century.

“The bouquets actually were impossible constructions, with flowers from different seasons, all in full bloom. I like to emulate this in my work, and to transcend time. The consolation of photography, that is how I see these timeless works.” – Bas Meeuws

Questions to Ask Children

Meeuw’s takes lots of photographs of flowers and other objects and then manipulates the images into one still life. What does this enable him to do, which he couldn’t do if he just took a photograph of an arrangement of flowers? 

In the video he uses a dark background for the photographs. Why do you think he does that?

In the video he mentions 17th century still lives. Take a look at “Talking Points: Flemish & Dutch Still Life” and see if you can see the links between the work of the old painters and that of Meeuw.

What do you like about Meeuws’ photographs?

“I just start and work until I get stuck, then I’ll start something new and go back to it later on,” says Bas Meeuws in the film. Why do you think working like that helps him?

Hirasho Sato

Hiroshi Sato is focused on contemporary realist oil painting. He draws influence from past and present artists including Vermeer, Andrew Wyeth, Euan Uglow and Chuck Close. Sato explores the illusion of form and flatness in space.

Explore more of Sato’s work here.

Questions to Ask Children

Pause on one of the still life paintings in the film (or visit his website) and discuss it with the class.

What words would you use to describe the painting?

Look at the way the shapes and colours are arranged on the canvas in relation to each other (the composition). Where does your eye want to look? 

Can you see a foreground? A background? Is there a difference in the way the artist has painted the foregound and background? 

Can you see any negative space?

What do you like/dislike about this painting?

How does this painting make you feel?

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Exploring Still Life

This is featured in the ‘Explore Still Life’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of sources to explore the work of Hannah Rae.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Hannah Rae

Hannah Rae is a textile artist based in Cambridge. Her work is formed of embroidery and free motion embroidery. 

The works are responses to the environment and the passage of time. The surface of Rae’s work are pieced together through stitch, rust and eco printing, dyeing, painting, and applique; faded and weathered by use and the elements, fragments of past times.

Website

Questions to Ask Children

How does this image make you feel?

Describe the texture of this piece.

How do you think the artist made this work?

Questions to Ask Children

Draw the different marks that you can see.

How would you describe the colours?

If this was an aerial view of a scene, what might the scene be?

How does this piece differ from the first that you saw?

How does this work you feel?

Questions to Ask Children

What do these 3 pieces have in common?

What is different about the 3 pieces?

Which one is your favourite? Why?

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Cloth, thread, paint

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

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of sources to explore the work of Frank Bowling.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Frank Bowling

‘Frank Bowling has been hailed as one of the finest British artists of his generation. Born in British Guiana in 1934, Bowling arrived in London in 1953, graduating from the Royal College of Art with the silver medal for painting in 1962. By the early 1960s, he was recognised as an original force in London’s art scene with a style combining figurative, symbolic and abstract elements.’ – Explore Frank Bowling’s website.

Questions to Ask Children

What objects would you choose to include in a painting? Why?

How would you describe the way he works in one word?

How does scale impact the way that the artist works?

Questions to Ask Children

How does Frank Bowling’s work make you feel?

What do you like/dislike about Frank Bowling’s work?

How does scale impact the viewers experience of the work?

Which geometrical shapes would you include in your abstract painting? Why?

Choose one of Bowling’s paintings to look at in class:

Ask children to describe the colour palette, movement and texture. If you can see objects on the paintings take a closer look and think about why he might have chosen them.

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Cloth, thread, paint

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

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Find out how pupils can respond to artists work in sketchbooks

Show me what you see

Enable close looking and drawing with this exercise

A collection of sources to explore the work of Alice Kettle.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

 This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Alice Kettle

Alice Kettle is a contemporary textile/fibre artist based in the UK. Alice originally trained as a painter and will often begin her work with a painted background which she then embroiders on. Her large scale work is composed of individual tiny stitches, which combine to form great swathes of colour, painterly backgrounds incorporating rich hues.

Alice Kettle, Odyssey, thread on canvas (2003)

The Scalloped Edge

“The project uses stitch as a common cultural language to make connections through motif, process and metaphor. The sharing and exchange of the tacit knowledge with the local community in a series of collaborative works forms an important part of this collection.

Embroidery in Madeira as with British stitchwork, is undertaken primarily by women. The exhibition uses distinctive elements of Madeiran embroidery reinterpreted into my contemporary works in machine and hand stitch. Titled the scalloped edge, which is a feature of this embroidery, it draws upon the characteristic palette of white or blue and the repeated flowing lines in satin stitch and long-and-short stitch.” – Alice Kettle

Watch the first 4 minutes of this video about the project.

Sea Figure, Alice Kettle, 2016, Thread on linen, 223 x 128 cm

Questions to Ask Children

How does the work make you feel?

How do you think that collaboration benefitted the community and the artist?

What connections can you see to the sea in these works?

How does scale impact the viewers experience of the work?

Threadbound

Watch this video to find out more about Alice’s recent collection for the exhibition ‘Threadbound’.

Questions to Ask Children

What do you like/dislike about the work that you can see in this video?

Did one textiles piece stick in your mind? Why?

If you combined an image of yourself with a plant, what would you choose? Why?

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Cloth, thread, paint

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

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of imagery and sources which you can use to prompt drawing in schools and community groups. 

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

Food

Use the film below to enable children to explore drawing food. Try to create a sense of momentum – for example you might pause the video 4 times and ask the pupils to make a 1 minute, 2 minute, 3 minute and 4 minute drawing at each pause. 

Encourage close and slow looking by talking as they draw – use your voice to attract their attention to qualities of the food.

Try the same exercise using different materials, ie handwriting pen, ink and nib, pastel, watercolour…

You May Also Like…

Pathway: Festival Feasts

This is featured in the ‘Festival Feasts’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of sources to explore the work of Lucia Hierro.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Lucia Hierro

Lucia Hierro is a Dominican American artist who fuses photography and sculpture to explore identity, community and consumer culture. 

Lucia is curious about objects, their histories and the identities that are associated with them. 

Find more images of Lucia’s work on her website.

Watch the videos below to find out more about her work.

Explore how Lucia Hierro brings food and culture into a collaboration with Adidas.

Watch this interview with Lucia Hierro exploring where sculpture and photography lines blur.

Marginal Costs Mural & Casita 2021 Digital Print on Cotton Fitted Sheets, Upholstered Twin Mattress 39 x 76 x 5

Mondeo para Baby Chowder 1, 2019 Poly-organdy, Felt and Foam, Digital Print on Brushed Nylon 42 x 57 x 5 inc

Questions to Ask Children

Describe what you can see.

How do the colours in the installations make you feel?

How does her work make you feel?

How would it feel to be in that space, interacting with the sculptures?

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Festival Feasts

This is featured in the ‘Festival Feasts’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of sources to explore the work of Claes Oldenburg.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Claes Oldenburg

The video below shows how Oldenburgs sculpture ‘BLT’ is built and rebuilt for every exhibition.

Watch the video below to find out more about Claes Oldenburgs ‘Store’.

Watch this video of Oldenburg discussing Shoestring Potatoes Spilling From a Bag (1966) on Vimeo here.

Questions to Ask Children

How do his sculptures make you feel?

Which food sculpture is your favourite? Why?

How do you think the sculptures feel?

If you created your own sculpture store, what would be in it?

How would it feel to be in that space, interacting with the sculptures?

What do you think Oldenburg was trying to say through his artwork?

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Festival Feasts

This is featured in the ‘Festival Feasts’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

Pathway for Years 3 & 4

Disciplines:
Printmaking (Stencil/Screen Print), Collage

Key Concepts:

• That we can be inspired by key artworks and make our own work in creative response. 

• That we can use shape and colour as a way to simplify elements of the world.

• That shapes have both a positive and negative element.

• That we can arrange shapes to create exciting compositions.

• That we can build up imagery through layering shapes.

• That we can use collage to inspire prints.

In this pathway children use close looking and the “Show Me What You See” technique to explore artwork from a particular artist, movement or era. Children then explore how they can use shape and colour to simplify elements, inspired by the Cut-outs of Henri Matisse. 

Using first collage, then simple printmaking methods, pupils play with positive and negative shapes and spaces to create meaningful compositions in response to the original artworks they looked at. 

Medium:
Paper, Printmaking Ink,  Stencils & Crayons

Artist: Henri Matisse, Claire Willberg

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Find the Zoom CPD session introducing this pathway here.

See the recording of the Zoom CPD session exploring Screen Printing in the classroom.

Curriculum Links

History: Choose a painting as inspiration which typifies a particular historical period, for example, a painting from  Ancient Egyptian. 

Maths: 2D/3D shapes, pattern. 

PSHE: Peer discussion.

I Can…

• I can explore an artwork through looking, talking and drawing.

• I can use the “Show Me What You See” technique to help me look closely, working in my sketchbook making drawings and notes using pencils and pens.

• I can cut shapes directly into paper, using scissors, inspired by the artwork.

• I can collage with my cut elements, choosing colour, shape and composition to make my own creative response to the artwork.

• I can add to my collage, using line, colour and shape made by stencils. 

• I can explore negative and positive shapes.

• I can take photographs of my work.

• I can share my work with my class. I can reflect and share what I like, and what I would like to try again. I can look at the work of my classmates and give useful feedback through class or small group discussion. 

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft B pencils, coloured pencils, oil/chalk pastels, A3 or A2 sugar or cartridge paper, collage papers, PVA glue, scissors.

Option 1: Monoprinting with Carbon Paper – Carbon paper, sharp pencil or pen, oil pastels.

Option 2: Explore Stencils – Card, oil pastels, scissors.

Option 3: Screenprinting mesh, water-based printing ink, tray, acrylic printing medium, scrap card for squeegee, embroidery hoop (optional), newsprint.

Pathway: Working with Shape & Colour

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to enable pupils to respond to a painting from another culture or era, using visual literacy skills to come to their own understanding of the artwork. 

  Children then go on to make their own creative response to the original painting, using layering of shape, colour and line using printmaking and drawing. 

• Week 1: What’s Your Focus?
  

  Choose an Artwork to Focus Your Exploration

  Choose a painting or artwork which you would like to explore. 

  This might be a painting in a local museum or gallery, a painting available online, or a painting from another era or culture which ties in with a curriculum area.

  Here are some free to access ideas:

  • Focus upon the Bayeux Tapestry

  • Focus upon Egyptian Painting

  • Focus upon an art work from Google Arts & Culture

  

• Use Close Looking & Drawing to Explore
  

  Show Me What You See

  Working in sketchbooks, use the “Show Me What You See” technique to help pupil’s visually explore your chosen artwork.

  You can find a detailed explanation of the “Show Me What You See” resource here. 

  During the exercise, draw the children’s attention to the visual elements of the artwork, including talking about shape, colour and composition. As well as using line in sketchbooks to describe shapes, also use colour (pastel, crayon, pens etc).

  By the end of the session sketchbooks should be full of pupil’s interpretations of different elements (shapes, lines etc) from the paintings.

• Week 2: Look and Talk
  

  Painting With Scissors

  Visit the free to access “Talking Points: Henry Matisse Cut Outs” resource to introduce pupils to the idea of “painting with scissors”.

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: Romare Bearden” resource to introduce pupils to the work of African American artist Romare Bearden who was influenced by patchwork quilts derived from African-American slave crafts and the work of Matisse. Bearden illustrated Homer’s Odyssey using collage.

  

  Refer to the “Drawing With Scissors” resource to see how to explore a historic (or contemporary) painting through printing. (Using just the part of the resource about collaging with cut elements).

• “Paint with Scissors”
  

  Begin to Cut Shapes

  

  With the original artwork on the white board and sketchbook work from Show Me What You See, provide pupils with coloured paper (sugar or coloured paper, or even old paintings which can be cut up) and invite them to start cutting out shapes made in response to the original artwork. You may want to refer back to “Drawing With Scissors“ resource. 

  You might like to split the class into groups – each taking a section of the original artwork, or you might like to give pupils more space to choose elements they particularly like. 

  Don’t waste any paper – at the end of the session encourage pupils to keep the paper which has been cut away (you can sort it into sizes) as well as the positive “shapes”. 

  “Envelopes” can be made/stuck in sketchbooks to keep paper elements safe until next week. 

  You might like to see the “Positive and Negative Shapes” resource (to be done). 

  Continue this work into week three.

• Week 3: Continue “Painting with Scissors”
  

  Collaging with Cut Elements

  

  Continue the process described in the “Drawing with Scissors” resource. Invite pupils to begin to lay down their cut elements to make collaged compositions, working on A3 or larger paper.

  Encourage children to explore playfully before they decide where to stick shapes down on the page. Think about composition and meaning. Remember they are not trying to recreate the original artwork, instead they are making a creative response (which is personal) to the artwork.

  Remind pupils they can use the pieces of paper which have had shapes cut out of them, and so introduce negative shapes into their work.

  Continue into week four.

• Continue with Collage
  

  Finalise Collages

  

  Continue the process described in the “Drawing with Scissors” resource.

  Finalise first stage of collages ready for second part of the project. By this point all cut elements should be stuck down onto each pupil’s piece of paper.

• Week 4 & 5: Add Further Detail
  

  Stencils, Masks or Line

  

  Continue the process described in the “Drawing with Scissors” resource.

  The final stage of the project is to add further detail to the artwork by working over the collaged elements. 

  You can choose which method you want children to use from the 3 options below. Choose the option you think will best help pupils respond to the original artwork.

  The aim of this final stage is to add further definition or clarity to the collaged composition, using a different medium to make the artwork feel more dimensional (collage can be quite a “flat” medium).

• Option 1
  

  Printed Line

  

  Revisit the original artwork and get pupils to look closely at the qualities of line the artists used.

  Use the “Mono Printing with Carbon Paper” resource and use carbon paper to add line drawings over the top of the collaged sheets.

  Remember the drawings do not have to line up with the exiting imagery. Layering imagery of different types will give exciting results.

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 2
  

  Explore Stencils

  

  Use the “Explore Stencils, Composition and Expressive Mark Making with Oil Pastels” resource and invite children to create masks and stencils out of card, thinking about negative and positive shapes. Use the masks and stencils over the original collaged artwork, using oil pastel as a medium.

  Encourage the children to use a range of mark making and experiment with colour blending so that they get an understanding of the qualities of oil pastels.

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 3
  

  Simple Screen Printing Hack

  

  If you are feeling more confident, you may want to give pupils the opportunity to explore simple screen printing as an alternative way to explore masks and stencils. See our “Talking Points: Screenprint“

  Give children the opportunity to try out screen printing with this “Simple Screen Print Hack“. Watch all 3 videos before starting.

  Ask children to prepare their stencils and masks prior to printing. Remember that they will need stencils and masks of every element including clothing, face detail or any big shapes within the background. 

  As with Option 1 and 2, be inventive about the shapes which are overlaid over the collaged elements – remember the shapes do not have to line up with the collaged composition – exciting and surprising outcomes can be achieved by creating new shapes and lines over the first collage. 

• Week 6: Reflect & Discuss
  

  Share, Reflect, Discuss

  Time to see the work which has been made, talk about intention and outcome.

  

  Invite pupils to display the work in a clear space, and walk around the work as if they are in a gallery. Give the work the respect it deserves. Remind the children of their handwork.

  If you have class cameras or tablets, invite the children to document their work, working in pairs or teams.

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

• Extension
  

  Extension: Animating With Used Masks, Stencils, Or Left Over Shapes

  

  Claire Willberg repurposes the paper that she uses in her printing process to create visually exciting animations. See her animations in “Talking Points: Claire Willberg“.

  Get your children to keep their stencils and masks once they’ve been used and make a stop motion.

  See the “Animation Software” resource for support. 

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources
You May Want To…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

Using Sketchbooks, Drawing and Reflective Tools in the 20th Century Gallery at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Explore 20th Century paintings and sculpture, using sketchbooks & drawing as tools for looking

Using Drawing to Get Closer to 18th Century Portraits at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Explore different drawing exercises for capturing 18th Century portraiture

A collection of sources and imagery to explore the history of chair design.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Explore how chair design has evolved over time with these video.

Questions to Ask Children

Out of the chairs you’ve seen, which is your favourite and why? How would it feel to sit in it?

What do you think designers throughout the ages were trying to say with their chairs?

Raw Edges designs Kenny chair and Sugar stool

Watch this video of a chair being built.

See how design firm Populous are coming up with new ideas for seating solutions in public spaces.

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Take a Seat

This is featured in the ‘Take a Seat’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Find out how pupils can respond to artists work in sketchbooks

Show me what you see

Enable close looking and drawing with this exercise

A collection of sources and imagery to explore the work of Yinka Ilori.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Yinka Ilori

Yinka Ilori is a multidisciplinary artist and designer with a bold bright visual language influenced by his British-Nigerian heritage. Three components that feature heavily in Yinka’s work are pattern, colour and storytelling.

Yinka uses his crafts as a way to communicate Nigerian parables and verbal traditions.

His work is described as a fusion between contemporary design and Nigerian tradition.

“If the chair you are sitting on could tell your story, would it be a dangerous or good thing?”

Explore some of Yinka’s chairs here.

Please note: Teacher Advisory. Pls watch the video below and decide if you would rather start the video after a few minutes in.

Explore Yinka’s collection ‘If Chairs Could Talk‘ alongside work by the poet Julian Knxx

Watch these videos made by the Craft Council about Yinka’s practise.

Questions to Ask Children

Make a list of everything that you can see in the classroom that has been designed by an artist/designer.

Spend 5 minutes designing a chair based on your mood right now, think about your decision making and annotate the design. 

Name colours that are happy/sad/angry/excited.

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Take a Seat

This is featured in the ‘Take a Seat’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Find out how pupils can respond to artists work in sketchbooks

Show me what you see

Enable close looking and drawing with this exercise

A collection of sources and imagery to explore the work of Tomoko Kawao.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Tomoko Kawao

Kawao’s work incorporates her whole body. Kawao focuses on the unbroken movement of brush and combining the English language with the Eastern calligraphic tradition. Tomoko’s practise extends into film, installation and performance.

Watch one of her performances below and prompt class discussion about the artist with the questions below.

Find a BBC Four Short about the work of Tomoko Kawao here.

Questions to Ask Children

What do you like/dislike about Kawao’s work?

How does her work make you feel?

Play some clips of different music genres and invite children to use their arms to create drawings in the air in response to the music.

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Music and art

This is featured in the ‘Music and Art’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of sources and imagery to explore the work of Eric Carle.

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

*If you are having issues viewing videos it may be due to your schools firewall or your cookie selection. Please check with your IT department.*

This resource is free to access and is not a part of AccessArt membership.

Eric Carle

Eric Carle is the author and illustrator of over seventy picture books for young children. The most well known book from this collection is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

As a child, Carle’s dad would take him for walks through meadows, memories which heavily influenced his illustrations.

Visit Eric Carle’s website to explore more of his work.

Find out how Eric Carle paints tissue paper.

If your school has access to YouTube you may want to show the first 7 or so minutes of this documentary. 

Questions to Ask Children

Have you read The Very Hungry Caterpillar? (If you have the book in school it may be a nice idea to pass it round the class.)

What do you like about Eric Carle’s work?

How does the caterpillar in Eric Carle’s work make you feel?

What’s your favourite insect? Why?

This Talking Points Is Used In…

Pathway: Flora and Fauna

This is featured in the ‘Flora and Fauna’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of imagery and sources which you can use to prompt drawing in schools and community groups. 

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

This resource is free to access and is not part of AccessArt membership.

Wild Flowers

Use this collection of films as source material for pupils exploring wild flowers. In the first instance you might want to pause the videos as suitable points to enable the children to carefully look at the main forms and details. Try to create a sense of momentum – for example you might pause the video 4 times and ask the pupils to make a 1 minute, 2 minute, 3 minute and 4 minute drawing at each pause. 

Encourage close and slow looking by talking as they draw – use your voice to attract their attention to features of the flowers. 

When pupils are more experienced, you can also try getting them to make their drawings as the videos play – making quick gestural sketches. 

Drawing Exercises

1. Have the children draw in a quiet room, with the video on the whiteboard.

2. Stop the video at a chosen frame and use your voice to direct their drawing. Choose words which relate to the imagery, for example you might decide to focus their attention on vertical lines, so you might choose words like: line, growth, upward, downward, fall… or you might choose to attract their attention to the energy of a wave or the curve of a plants stem. Think carefully about the words you use – they don’t have to be used in sentences – you can speak lists. 

3. Each sketchbook response might take just 3 to 5 minutes, then move on to another still. Create a sense of momentum. 

4. Direct pupils to use a chosen medium. You might like to start with soft pencil or handwriting pen. 

This Source Material Features in…

Pathway: Cloth, thread, paint

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

Pathway: Flora and Fauna

This is featured in the ‘Flora and Fauna’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see

A collection of imagery and sources which you can use to prompt drawing in schools and community groups. 

Please note that this page contains links to external websites and has videos from external websites embedded. At the time of creating, AccessArt checked all links to ensure content is appropriate for teachers to access. However external websites and videos are updated and that is beyond our control. 

Please let us know if you find a 404 link, or if you feel content is no longer appropriate. 

We strongly recommend as part of good teaching practice that teachers watch all videos and visit all websites before sharing with a class. On occasion there may be elements of a video you would prefer not to show to your class and it is the teacher’s responsibility to ensure content is appropriate. Many thanks. 

This resource is free to access and is not part of AccessArt membership.

Insects

Use this collection of films as source material for pupils exploring insects. In the first instance you might want to pause the videos as suitable points to enable the children to carefully look at the main forms and details. Try to create a sense of momentum – for example you might pause the video 4 times and ask the pupils to make a 1 minute, 2 minute, 3 minute and 4 minute drawing at each pause. 

Encourage close and slow looking by talking as they draw – use your voice to attract their attention to features of the insect. 

When pupils are more experienced, you can also try getting them to make their drawings as the videos play – making quick gestural sketches. 

Drawing Exercises

1. Have the children draw in a quiet room, with the video on the whiteboard.

2. Stop the video at a chosen frame and use your voice to direct their drawing. Choose words which relate to the imagery, for example you might decide to focus their attention on vertical lines, so you might choose words like: line, growth, upward, downward, fall… or you might choose to attract their attention to the energy of a wave or the curve of an animals back. Think carefully about the words you use – they don’t have to be used in sentences – you can speak lists. 

3. Each sketchbook response might take just 3 to 5 minutes, then move on to another still. Create a sense of momentum. 

4. Direct pupils to use a chosen medium. You might like to start with soft pencil or handwriting pen. 

This Souce Material Is Used In…

Pathway: Flora and Fauna

This is featured in the ‘Flora and Fauna’ pathway

using sketchbooks to make visual notes

Show me what you see