Week 5 – 3rd Class, Holy Family N.S – Observational Drawing

Last week we had talked about who uses drawing so we began this week looking at two different drawing. Discussing what the drawings showed – how to read the drawings – what information was in the drawings – were they done by hand?

Lots of discussion and got us thinking about who not only makes drawings as part of their job or work but who needs to be able to read or understand these drawings. Architects – builders – plumbers – engineers – electricians – window fitter – carpenter – interior designers – and of course the client or person who is getting the house built.

We had explored some mark making in the previous week so over the next few weeks we will bring some of those marks into our observational drawing. Observational drawing is drawing or recording what you can see, what is in front of you. This is a really heard exercise and we need to train our eyes to look closely and our hands to draw what we are seeing and take our time!

We set up a group of apples in an “interesting” arrangement – different heights, different angles – looking at light and shadow. So beginning with getting the basic shapes, outlines, proportions and the shapes and forms where they touched each other or were behind or in front of each other. Then took an apple on its own (most resisting the urge to take a bite before drawing it!). Getting closer we used magnifying glass to examine the skin surface  – texture and pattern. Finally cutting in half to explore the insde – different texture and pattern. Great focused work by 3rd Class!

 

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Week 5 – Junior Infants, Holy Family N.S – Tall Towers! Inside and Outside!

This week we began as before with warming up and warming up our hands and did a bit of a work out! As we warmed up the clay, passing the clay between our hands I began telling the story of Mr and Mrs Stone living in a cave thousands and thousands of years ago. Mrs Stone wanted some water so sent Mr.Stone out to the river – the blue carpet became our river. How was he going to bring water back to the cave – there were no cups or buckets or basins….what would he do? He could try using his hands as a cup but the water kept spilling. Then he noticed some clay along beside the river and thought maybe he could use that. He made it into a ball – (just like us with our clay) – and then made a hole in the clay – not all the way through cos’ the clay would fall or spill out.

So together we made bowls – thinking about whether it would be able to hold some water. We would have to test them! So we poured in water and tried them out! Just one spill and one repair job! We could bring the water back to Mrs. Stone patiently waiting in the cave.

Following on from last week when we explored making walls standing up by using a supporting wall and built on roof, this week  wanted to explore a self supporting wall – a wall long enough to curve around and join up and stand on its own. So we did a few experiments checking the straightness of the wall, the thickness and making sure it was not to high and would fall over. Everyone had a very busy session making their towers – adding a roof, windows, designs, doors and even some flags!

After break we had a think about where our towers might be and made drawings of the place. Also thinking about what might be inside and who might live in the tower. Busy busy morning! Great work Junior Infants!

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Week 4 – 3rd Class, Holy Family N.S – Drawing and Mark Making

Following on from the printmaking before Christmas I thought it would be a good idea to slow things down….back to basics with some drawing and mark making. We began by talking about who uses drawing? Who uses drawing in their job?

And so the list began – artist – street artist, portrait artist, illustrator, model maker, cake designer, fashion designer, architect, animator/ cartoonist, games developer, interior designer, map maker, planner (urban/ city/ county)

We will return to this list over the coming weeks and look at the different sorts of drawings that are involved – who makes the drawings, who reads the drawings, how are the drawing created – hand drawn, computer generated, printed etc.

So today we were going to embark on some abstract mark making – not thinking about what it looked like. Following a series of words I gave – straight line, curly, slow line, angry line, loopy line, zigzag line etc etc. the class used graphite and soft pencils to create collaborative layered drawings as between the lines we passed the drawings around working on top of each others until we had dense drawings!

After lunch using view finders the class selected a particular part of the drawing that was interesting and had a range of lines and marks in it. They were then asked (in what is a fairly complex and abstract process) to enlarge that selected section onto A2 and use a range of papers to create the various marks and lines. Pretty complex! but once they got going they got stuck in a developed really interesting collages mixed with drawings. Great work by 3rd Class!

I have installed a selection of the drawings in the classroom to show the development process through the day. (Image to follow)

Week 4 – Junior Infants, Holy Family N.S – Build That Wall!

First week back after the Christmas break so to continue working with clay we did some warm up exercises, remembering some of the stretches and exercises from before Christmas. Once again the class initiated talking about the clay – smelling it – It smells like wood! It smells like butter! It smells like icy water! We then warmed up the clay passing it between our hands. Then pinching the clay all over and poking it to make indentations. We then examined our ball of clay all over to see if we could find an “eye”…..then added another eye – defining the eye by making a deeper mark in the clay. Then we swapped the clay around – the idea was to work with someone else’s clay and add a nose. Most just squashed what was there and made their own new eyes and nose! We continued this process adding more clay to form ears, horns, noses and hair and then adding bodies, legs, tails and trying to get them to stand up.

Up to now, other than lollipop sticks we had not used any tools so we began working with rolling pins, rolling flat – not too thin, and then used the lollipop sticks to cut out shapes. The class had been working on shapes so Ms.Henry put up images to remind the class of their shapes – square, rectangle, circle and triangle.

I wanted to push the clay as a 3 dimensional material that can stand solid. So this began looking at balance and structure. Looking at how we could get the shapes to balance like walls – suggestions of stacking them up and then through a bit of problem solving Callum worked out through using the shapes at right angles to each other they could stand supporting each other and allow more walls to be added and a roof to balance on top. And so began a very busy wall building session! Great work by Junior Infants!

After break we had a discussion about what is going on in this artwork:

 

Week 3 – 3rd Class, Holy Family N.S – Block Printing Christmas Cards

Week 3 – Junior Infants, Holy Family N.S – Party Party Time with Clay!

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Week 2 – 3rd Class, Holy Family N.S – Beginning Mono Printing

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