Term 3 session 8

Finally we have finished all the collaborative murals and the individual compositions (phew! everyone worked hard - no time for talking).

As the students worked on their composition their learning was very evident. The use of tonal change, using patterns of dark and light, seeing how light on dark or dark on light throw the focal point forward, were part of the learning. Towards the end of the process the students were going back and reworking parts of their composition they had done earlier.
As each composition was finished we all stopped and talked about it, giving positive feedback and identifying parts that needed to be changed to increase the impact. This had a two fold effect: the compositions had time to be improved and by giving or listening to the feedback students re-looked at their own work and made changed if needed.

Graphite pencil

Graphite pencil and charcoal

Indian ink and white paint

Graphite pencil

Graphite pencil



I was impressed by the quality of evaluation and how the students used the art language to articulate. Yeah, they have made the connections.

The collaborative murals have also been a learning curve in how to work as a team. The effort of all the team members was visually evident and they soon realised if they didn’t strive for quality the piece they were working on did not fit in with the rest. Everyone took ownership and helped each other ensure the style or technique of the model artist was maintained.

Model artist Syliva Siddell

Model artist Vincent van Gogh

Model artist Syliva Siddell

Model artist Leonardo deVinci

Term 3 session 7

Major teaching component this morning. Using geometric shapes borrowed from the maths resources we revisited drawing 3D shapes by finding angle of each line. This is done by holding the pencil or drawing instrument at arms length, closing one eye and lining the pencil up with the focus line on the object. By putting the pencil straight down on the paper without changing the angle it gives a pretty close line.

The children had to look closely at the shadows and light. By turning off the classroom lights the nature light coming through the windows made the shadows and light more obvious on the objects.

During this activity we used different media: charcoal, charcoal and water, graphite pencil and rubbing back, indian ink applied with a stick and indian ink and thin white paint applied with a brush.

The learning of shapes, shadow, light and the different media are building the tools required for the children to create their own composition.

Planning the composition:
The criteria:
The slit view finder must be used (no whole objects are to be drawn, only parts of things)
The media must be a combination of charcoal, charcoal and water, graphite pencil and rubbing back, indian ink applied with a stick or indian ink and thin white paint applied with a brush.
A completed artwork will be A2 size.
The composition will be made up of a series smaller images put together like a collage.

The subject is up to the children as is the format is their own design.

We started the process by writing things that interested them, it could be anything.
Next we chose two things from the list that exited them most.

Another brainstorm to write everything possible pertaining to that topic, item or thing.
We repeated the process with the second most exciting thing.

Next they had to chose the least favourite on the initial list, it could also be the one they thought would be the hardest to do. Same process used as above.

After choosing the list they were most excited about (and yes some changed to the least favourite because they had initially thought it too hard) the children had to start drawing a few images from memory. This task help them to realise their next step in the process.
To conclude this session they made a list of things they need to being next week,
objects and photos many.

The children left the room buzzing about what they were going to do.