Primary, Year 3, Age 7-8
Carmel Hughes, January 1998
St. Mary's Primary School
North Kensington
London, UK
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A
collection of interesting musical instruments were chosen for
their shape, pattern, texture and ethnic origin.
The children made pencil and charcoal drawings of them (they had previous experience of using charcoal, drawing pencils and pastels for observational work). Artworks by Picasso and Braque were referred to and ways of selecting/ simplifying/altering shapes, patterns and colours were discussed. The children selected the media for their large scale work - oil or chalk pastels, paint or collage materials. |
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A 'still life' arrangement was set up in the corner of the classroom and the children worked on A2 sized cartridge paper using drawing boards. The only pitfall to the project was finding a safe place in the classroom where the 'still life' arrangement could be left undisturbed! The children learned how to effectively use pencils and charcoals, particularly techniques for producing light and shade within their work. They were very enthusiastic, some pupils bringing in their own instruments from home to work on. |
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Patterned fabric was displayed and pages from a music manuscript to act as inspiration for decoration of the pupils' work. Success was dependant upon the children feeling confident in their use of media and in their ability to interpret the 'still life' arrangement in their own way. Confidence
was developed by:
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Importance was placed on the individuality of the artist and how they use their imagination to alter what they see.
The end pieces were very individual and provided opportunities for discussion/ evaluation in a non-competitive way.
Finally books and postcards were on display in the classroom showing different uses of materials/media and different interpretations of the musical instrument theme.
The same approach and development of skills employed in this project could be explored with a variety of other 'still life' arrangements.