AccessArt is a unique organisation!

We work in collaboration with artists, educators, schools, museums, galleries and arts organisations to create inspirational visual arts resources. 

Find out how you can be an AccessArt resource contributor below.

Please contact content@accessart.org.uk for more information.

A big part of what makes AccessArt special is the evolving collection of unique resources which form a huge pot of inspiration for our users.

As well as inspiring others, these resources also serve to highlight artist educator practice, providing a ‘shop window’ for your work so that you can reach new audiences and find new work. They also help provide a legacy home for projects which might otherwise not get shared quite so effectively.

Resource contributors can live in the UK or overseas. You might be working alone, in partnership or with another organisation. Wherever possible we try to ensure contributors are paid for their contribution.

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Information for Artist Educators

Find out how to propose a resource if you are an Artist Educator.

See all current contributors

See the creative practitioners and artist educators who have created posts for AccessArt.

Marbling for Surface Design by Ruth Purdy

Artist Ruth Purdy empowers people to get creative; in this post, Ruth shows how Marbling techniques can be an accessible way into creative processes with absolutely beautiful results.

Rowan: Clay Coiling Techniques to Make Penguins, Tweety Pie and a Dalek too!

Artist led facilitation in a setting for adults with learning disabilities; Abi, Sarah and students at Rowan, Cambridge, show how they made clay birds using clay coiling techniques and with a plaster mould for the birds’ bases.

Playing with tape, projectors, Wicky Sticks and so much more!

Accessible approaches for collaborative drawing with visually impaired students with Sara Dudman and Debbie Locke at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Devon

Aspire to Create: Inspired by Nature & Empowered by Creativity

During a two week residency, Sheila Ceccarelli, from AccessArt, worked with Aspirations, a group of adult learners with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and staff at Red2Green, on a series of practical workshop sessions, exploring creative processes from drawing and printmaking to sculpture & casting, inspired by nature and culminating in an exhibition.

The lion, The witch and The wardrobe by Kaz Trinder

Artist Kaz Trinder shares a glimpse of her work with adults with learning difficulties at Frimhurst Enterprises, Surry

A collection of sources to explore the art of Lucy Engelman.

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. 

Lucy Engelman

Lucy is an illustrator living in Pittsburgh, PA in the USA. She is an illustrator using traditional methods of line drawing. Her work often shows her fascination and love for the natural world. Her work has appeared in magazines and books and often beyond the printed page through collaborations with chefs and farmers, creating imagery for clothes, home goods wallpapers.

Explore images of Lucy’s hand drawn maps on her website here.

Watch the video below to learn more about Lucy, the way in which she works and her ideas surrounding maps.

Questions to Ask Children

Can you describe some of the landscapes Lucy was in during this video? How did those places make you feel?

Can you think of a place near where you live that is similar?

Do you think a map always has to tell you where to go? Why? Why not?

Drawing Projects for Children and Make Build Create aim to inspire and enable children, teachers, facilitators and workshop leaders to explore drawing and sculpture in an active and adventurous way.

Find further details about each book, including reviews, below. 

*The exercises and projects in these books are aimed at children aged 5 to 12, however the majority of the projects can easily be adapted for older pupils and adults too.

Drawing Projects for Children

Make, Build, Create: Sculpture Projects for Children

Published by Black Dog Press

Ros Corser

Make Build Create by Paula Briggs is an informative and helpful manual that describes a series of creative sculptural projects designed to engage all. Beautiful photographs run throughout the book, making it as visually appealing as it is inspiring. Thank you, Paula, for such an inspirational book, encouraging “hands-on art” for everyone.

Amanda Warren, NSEAD Network

Make, Build, Create is an inspiring book. Like its predecessor ‘Drawing Projects for Children’, it is beautifully produced, with beguiling photographs and a carefully laid out task which is easy to access whilst being packed with inspiration.

Based on the premise that children love to make things but probably are given insufficient opportunity, the book guides the reader through some basic premises (such as “Why make?”) and useful information about equipment and safe procedures. Some of the materials suggested may have been neglected in recent years (I confess it is a long time since I used plaster in powder form), and there are zany ideas, too. Making a plinth for a figure looks sure to appeal! And those wire insects! The photos can easily be shared with a group of children to inspire them or to illustrate processes.

My only query is who the book is aimed at. To begin with, I thought it was a book for children, but the foreword is definitely for teachers and facilitators. But does it really matter? The book is sumptuous, gorgeous, and appealing. Paula Briggs has done it again; let’s get making! 

Amanda Morris-Drake, Darwin Centre for Young People

Full of excellent ideas and beautifully presented.

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 a part of AccessArt membership.

Ancient Greek Architecture

Use the film below as source material to enable an exploration of drawing Ancient Greek architecture.

Pause the footage at points which catch your eye and invite the children to make timed drawings – 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 2 minutes or 1 minute. 

Vary the drawing materials you use and work in sketchbooks or sheets of paper of different sizes and textures. You may also like to make multiple line drawings over one page – each with a different colour or line weight, to describe different pause points in the same film. 

Explore Ancient Corinth in 3D.

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AccessArt Olympics Resources

Explore projects to celebrate the 2024 Olympics

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 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. 

Ice

Use the film below to enable children to explore drawing icy landscapes. 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 landscapes.

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Pathway: Life on ice

This is featured in the ‘Life on Ice’ 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

Handmade plasterboard

Making Painted and Sewn Landscapes

Ice Worlds

Pathway for Years 3 & 4

Disciplines:
Drawing, Sketchbooks, Sculpture

Key Concepts:

• That artists can learn from the world around them. That artists can draw parallels with other beings/events to help us understand things about ourselves.

• That artists take creative risks. That artists try to say new things by manipulating and representing the materials of the world.

• That we can feel safe enough to take creative risks in our own work. That we can explore materials and ideas feeling free from criticism.

• That we can express our personality through the art we make.

• That we can use materials, tools and the ideas in our head to explore line, shape, form, balance and structure.

• That making art can be hard, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing it right or aren’t good at it. It just means we are doing it.  

In this pathway children explore formal drawing and sculpture skills like line, mark making, shape, form, balance and structure, but they also just as importantly explore how it feels to make art. They explore how they can appreciate a sense of challenge, and a feeling of trying things out without fear of failure or “wrong or right”.

Pupils start by seeing how artists sometimes help us learn about ourselves by drawing parallels with other lives. Pupils apply this knowledge by looking at how birds build nests – what can we learn from them about the traits we might show when we make experimental drawings and build sculpture?

Medium:
Various Drawing Materials, Construction Materials 

Artists: Marcus Coates

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

Geography: Link with birds and migration via the North and South hemisphere.

Science: Language to support understanding of materials, habitats.

PSHE: Supports Responsibility to the planet, Collaboration, Peer Discussion.

I Can…

• I have seen how we can learn about ourselves through art.

• I can feel safe to take creative risks when I work. I can enjoy the feeling of experimenting with materials.

• I can feel ok when I am being challenged by materials and ideas. I can feel ok when I don’t know exactly what I’m doing.

• I can use a variety of drawing materials to make experimental drawings based upon observation. 

• I can construct with a variety of materials to make a sculpture. 

• I can see my personality in what I have made.

• I can talk about the work I have made with my classmates, sharing the things I thought were successful and thinking about things I would like to try again.

• I can appreciate the work of my classmates and I can share my response to their work, identifying similarities and differences in our approach and outcomes. 

• I can take photographs of my work thinking about presentation, focus and lighting. 

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

A3 cartridge paper, soft B and hard H pencils, ink, graphite sticks, water soluble graphite, wax crayons, water colour.

Construction Materials (see list here )

Pathway: Sculpture, Structure, Inventiveness & Determination

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to provide children with the opportunity to connect drawing and making, encouraging the freedom to be inventive and exploratory. 

  The processes involved ask children to take creative risks, and to feel ok if they feel challenged by creating art. 

• Week 1: Introduce
  

  Introduce artists who are inspired by things that birds can teach us

  

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: What Can We Learn From Birds!” resource to explore how artists draw parallels with other beings so that we can learn about ourselves. 

• Weeks 2 & 3: Exploratory Mark Making
  

  Drawing Nests

  

  Use the “Drawing Nests” resource to explore how pupils can use a variety of media to create observed and expressive drawings of nests. 

  The resource explores how their drawings might feel relatively “neat” or might feel “messy” – both are fine! We are able to express our personality through art!

  Use sketchbooks to test materials. If children need drawing source material use our free to access “Drawing Source Material: Nests” resource. Invite children to create their own “Experimental Mark Making Tools” to create expressive and personal drawings.

  Stop at the making activity (you will do that next week).

  Explore the resource below to see a similar activity in a school:

  Nests: Materials, Tools, Testing & Sketchbooks

  Nests: Observational Ink Drawing

  Nests: Wet and Dry Media

  

• Weeks 4 & 5: Making
  

  Making Nests

  

  Use the “Perseverance, Determination and Inventiveness: Building Nests” resource to encourage children to explore how we practice and nurture valuable life skills when we make sculpture. The resource takes its starting point from what it must be like to be a bird, and place those first tentative twigs in place when nest building begins. How can children use their own instinct and intuition to make sculpture?

• Week 6: Present & Share
  

  Share, Reflect & Discuss

  

  Use the “Crit” resource to help you run a class critique. 

  Clear a space and present drawings, sketchbooks and sculptures made.

  Walk around the space as if it were a gallery. Enable a conversation about the journey and skills learnt (personality traits as well as technical skills). 

  Take photographs of the work. Explore how children can take high quality photographs of 3d artwork with this resource.

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
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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

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Help Children draw larger

Encourage children to work larger so that they can fully explore a wider range of mark making/materials/techniques