Throughout the lockdown, I have been posting art lessons onto Twitter and Instagram for any budding artists to try. You can find the links below. If you try any of the lessons, please share them with me on either of those platforms.
COVID 19 LOCKDOWN LESSONS
Happy Birthday To Me
‘The Art Classroom’ is ten years old today. Although it might not post as much as it used to, it is still very productive on its Instagram and its Twitter. Ten years… who would’ve thought it?
Let It Beetle
This beetle drawing is a little masterpiece of pencil work by Sophie G in S3. This is the first initial drawing for her National 5 design unit and is an investigative drawing looking at form, texture and pattern to create a jewellery piece inspired by the insect. Sophie had worked on the drawing for a number of hours over a period of a month, but I’m sure that you agree that it is entirely worth it.
Portraitor
Another fabulous painting from Chantelle McIntyre. We are slowly making our way toward an exhibition to show these beautiful images off. Chantelle has only been working with oils for about a year, but you can see that she’s obviously got an knack for it. Her resource images are explored and manipulated in Photoshop to create the right composition, this is then painted on layered, textured paper to create a textured, mature, vibrant and thought provoking painting. Just look at the quality of paint of the mouth and the eyes; it’s stunning.
The Pit-A-Pattern Of Your Heart
This week’s ‘Artwork of the Week’ comes from Holly M (S2). She was given the task of creating a sketchbook cover using a think permenant marker and a thin fine line pen. The use of thick and thin pens force pupils to think about their line usage and how to mix different weights of line to create a more interesting drawing. Holly had to create a repeat pattern to a brief that stated she use co-ordinates or chaotic pattern, both pens and no colour. She planned out several ideas and decided to go for this lace heart pattern; which I think is fab.
The Queen of Cards
A few posts ago I posted an outtake from Lois McE‘s (S6) ‘Queen of Cards‘ dress. The dress was made using a variety of different techniques including paper folding, papier mache and acrylic painting. The piece was created for her SQA Higher Design unit, in which she had scored close to top marks.
The dress was created by wrapping cling film around a mannequin form, this was then layered with PVA Glue and paper towels. This was layered around 3-4 times and left to dry out. The papier mache body was then carefully removed and cut from the form and painted with acrylics, a small brush and a very steady hand. The neck piece was created by corrigating cartridge paper (3 x A1 sheets) and they were glued onto a cardboard hoop shape that is hidden underneath. Lace was then added to the ruff and to the sleeve holes. Lois taught herself to make the origami form using Pinterest and Youtube. These were then repeated, layered and glued to form the skirt pattern.
Do Judge A Book By It’s Cover
Evie & Maria’s (S2) book cover design was a runner up for the Scottish Book Cover Competition 2016-2017. I love how they’ve bisected the cover, showing different characters from the book.
Shannah’s (S6) photo cover of a frozen spider web and Niamh’s (S6) watercolour painting also received recognition for their entries. All four girls received book vouchers and a certificate for their skills.
Seurat Seahorse
This seahorse drawing by Laticia C (S5) is patiently drawn in a pointillism style. This means that she has drawn it all by using little dots. For this piece, Laticia used a Berol blue fine line pen. She creates different tones by increasing and decreasing the amount of and distance between the dots.
Mighty Morphing Painted Teenager
This oil painting by Chantelle McIntyre (S6) was created by photoshopping images of her and doll faces together, the image is then printed out over a series of A4 pages which are then ripped into pieces and glued onto larger card to create a textured image. Chantelle then painted over the top of the print outs which sounds like a cheat, but it’s incredibly difficult to colour match and avoid making mistakes. It really just cuts out the time wasted on scaling up and drawing out.
The Art Classroom 
