Fly By Night

Image making workshops at Newark Hill Primary

29.1.14

Following an email from Lorraine Brookes inviting me to work with a group of children from year 6 at Newark Hill Primary School, Peterborough, we met to discuss plans and arranged dates for a series of Wednesday morning workshops which will continue through till the Easter break. Today we worked together to present the first image making session using charcoal.

The school is soon to become an academy but a longstanding and identifiable symbol of the school, an owl, will stay. We decided this would be a strong and appropriate subject to use as the theme for our investigative workshops as the school takes flight toward a new era.

After an introduction to the group and some advice about how to control the medium, the first marks were made. A worksheet was produced with a series of exploratory mark making exercises which led to the production of an imaginary landscape, then a more technical drawing of a cube showing three sides.

Before making their first interpretation of an owl the group was asked to imagine how it lived and moved, as well as consider its world as a nocturnal animal. On the one hand a world of aerial acrobatics both graceful and sudden as it hunted its prey, and on the other, complete stillness.

The group were asked to produce two contrasting studies. The first drawing demanded an emphasis on movement and activity:

The second was to illustrate wide eyed and motionless concentration:

Newark Hill Primary Academy, Eastfield Rd, Peterborough PE1 4RE

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *